One of the challenges local small business websites face is finding themselves among the myriad of competitors both locally and nationally when visitors search for them using search engines. Local search may be the answer to the small business problem.
If you haven’t noticed, “Google Local” lists three businesses BEFORE the number one organic listing when surfers search for a keyword and city. For example, “Denver real estate agent” or “Omaha hardware stores.” That type of search engine is becoming increasingly valuable and profitable as small businesses want to appear in search engine results and justify their investment in their website.
If your small business website appears at least on the first page of local listings, this could have significant benefits for you and your profits. Small businesses need to make some adjustments to their website and search engine optimization strategies to get into local listings and rank higher there. This is what Google looks for beyond registering your website with Google Local:
Your physical address and local keywords listed on your site and pages
Your address and keywords listed on other sites in your relevant market community
Your address and keywords listed in local directories (Better Business Bureau, Yellow Pages, Local Restaurant Association, etc.)
Your address in your domain name (not always possible) and/or title tag
Customer reviews of your business (important for getting top local search rankings)
From the above, you can see that you will need to do a few things to get noticed in local search engine results. First, be sure to sign up for Google and Yahoo! Local. This is an easy first step to take and well worth the time. The same goes for local business organizations. Most have websites with directory pages where you can place links to your website and a description of your business. Make your description attractive to potential visitors.
You should always have the name of your town or city in the title of your home page and somewhere else on your home page. You should have an “About Us” page with all the details of your business location. Use the “vCard” format if possible to list these location details.
Local search is as much about using traditional search engine optimization to optimize your pages and make them search engine friendly as it is with any website that targets the global market. It’s just that you have to think more locally. This means that your city and address should now be part of your keyword strategy. It is unfortunate that Google gives preference to businesses located near the center of a given city. But this is where traditional SEO helps.
If you’ve looked at Google Local, you may have noticed that they place a lot of relevance on reviews. And so do your visitors and potential customers. It is imperative that you seek reviews for your business. Ask your favorite customers to review your business on Yahoo! Local. This will not only give you some PR, but it will also attract the attention of Google.
If your business is doing something special, be sure to write a press release or article about what you’re doing to promote your business and post it online. You can get them published in your local newspaper to do this, since they most likely have an online site as well as the traditional newspaper. Be sure to include your website URL in the press release or article.
Local search is simply an intensification of your traditional search engine optimization efforts. For small businesses that only trade locally, it is a must if you have a website. Going local on the internet is worth the time and expense. It is free advertising that will give you a great return on your advertising investment.
