Moderator February 17th, 2010
Local search has quickly become one of the most cost-effective and important opportunities for small businesses to establish a presence within their local community and connect with prospects. Within the search engine results, local listings are often given top priority, right at the top of the page. This placement means more traffic and statistics show nearly 82 percent of local searches online result in further action: a phone call, site view, in store visit or immediate purchase.*
Local optimization involves multiple factors that all contribute to improving your position and aid in getting more traffic to your site. Here are 5 essential components to cover as you begin:
- Local listings- First step, submit and optimize your business listing with the major search engines. Then, make sure your business is present in as many local directories as possible to greatly increase your chances of being found. Many of the major search engines aggregate your information from multiple sources, so be sure to submit standard details, such as address and phone number, across the listings to improve your performance.
- Optimize your on-page factors with geographic modifiers- Include the most common nomenclature for area (i.e. city, county, etc.) throughout your on-page content. This includes the text on your site, as well as the title tags and meta data. It is also recommended to place your local phone number on each page of your website.
- Create local relationships online- Just like you would offline! There are a multitude of communities available on sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as opportunities like MeetUp.com, which brings together an online component and off-line meetings. These types of groups have several benefits for your business, such as links for your SEO efforts, personal relationships, and word of mouth promotion of your products and services.
- Utilize Local PPC with AdWords- Paid search offers a quick, often cost-effective way for your website to get more traffic and drive sales. Creating and managing local campaigns in this sphere can increase your visibility, and with Google now offering local extensions for ads, it’s more locally targeted than ever.
- Engage in quality off-page SEO- Any SEO effort should have building links at the forefront of that strategy. With the local sphere, this is no different. Simply taking action and engaging with other companies is beneficial, but taking the time to find good quality, non-competitive sites is very valuable.
There you have it – 5 recommended steps to take to help you achieve success with local search. Have any tips from your experiences? We’d love to hear them!
*Source: TMP/comScore, October 2008
Emily Thompson is the Online Marketing Coordinator for Kutenda Internet Marketing Software (http://kutenda.com). Kutenda offers an all-in-one online marketing toolset for small businesses.
