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Getting on Google and Yahoo! Local Search is the Way to Get your Small Business Website Known in Your City or Region


Local Search SEO Strategies:


It's the top of those local listings that you're aiming for …

If you haven't noticed, Google Local lists three companies BEFORE the number one organic listing when surfers are querying for a keyword and a city. For example, "Denver restaurants" or "St. Louis hardware stores". That kind of search engine real estate is becoming more and more valuable as small businesses want to be seen on the search engine results.

Appearing in at least the first page of the local listings could have significant benefits for any small, local business. The small business needs to do some tweaking of their website and in their SEO strategies to get in the local listings and gain a top position. Based upon a patent that filed, Here's what Google looks for beyond just registering your website on Google Local:

You Need Your Business Address on Specific Pages of Your Website

Google indexes your site in Google local by spidering your website and picking up the address. Therefore, it is very important that you make your business address clear and on every page if possible. This is especially true when it comes to your "Contact" and "About Us" pages. We find using the "vCard" format to be helpful, as that standard grows, the chances are good that Google will pick up on it. It is even better if you can include your address in the title tag of a page. Not necessarily the Homepage, but in your about, locations, and contact pages as well.

What About Links From External Web Pages?

Google will spider and store content based on information found on external, or other's web sites. If a site cites your company, along with the your address, there is a good chance Google will pick up on this and it will add to the relevance of your location in your Google Local listing. Obviously, as with other backlinks, websites that are not relevant to your keyword are unlikely to provide much help.

You can see this by clicking on any local link. Here you will see a “web pages” tab which list sites that have that website address in their content. While optimizing your local address listings, it is highly recommended that you get some inbound links that have your address/phone number as part of the anchor text. All seo campaigns should already incorporate this for keywords, but go the extra mile to gain popularity on "Local Search".

Other Local Search Strategies to Get High on Google and Yahoo! Local Search

Articles and Press Releases

Writing articles and a few press releases about your company with your company's address and phone number is a quick way to get a large number of sites linking to you as well as your location information.

You can write articles about various aspects of your company, helpful tips about your industry, tips about using some piece of equipment that your business sells, and just about anything you can think of that your customers might find useful.

Press releases can be about events you sponsor or are participating in, charity work you are performing, workshops or seminars that are being held at your establishment, and just about anything newsworthy that is associated with your business.

Local Directories

If you look at a Google local listing, it will display several local directories in the web pages tab as well. Some of the more common ones are association directories, super yellow, yellowpages.com, yahoo’s local listing, and more. Scanning your competition's results should give you a few good ideas on which directories you can get your address/phone listed.

By gaining listings in these directories, even if getting listed on more directory pages doesn’t bump you up, at least your company now has greater visibility on relevant pages and should gain a boost in your website traffic.

Reviews

Google also lists feedback and reviews from review sites and pages. You might want to start asking your customers if they are satisfied with your business and the service they have encountered. Ask your favorite customers to post a review at Yahoo! Local (which Google spiders). Again, even if it doesn’t boost your rankings you still have more public notice and PR. And these reviews will be listed under your business website.

The Domain Name

It is mentioned in the Google Local patent about domain name. The patent alludes to the domain registry information matching the business location and this it can add some weight to your local listing. If you have control of your domain name "whois", make sure your information matches with your website. It is a quick and easy way to boost your local listing, so you might as well.

Distance From Your City's Center

According to the Google Local patent one of the things they consider is your businesses distance from the center of the city. Of course, this is nothing you can change, but it does help figure out what you may be up against or at least why your business website is ranking where it is.

Localize Your Website's Listing

If it is especially important for you to be seen on the search engines with local searches, you might consider a Pay-Per-Click advertising campaign that bids only on local keywords and phrases that web surfers would be querying for to find you or related businesses in your area.

Optimizing for "local search" is in addition to proper search engine optimization and other SEO practices. Proper optimizing of your pages and your off-page optimization strategy should always be the first step to getting your website known locally. Supplement these practices with the specialized local search strategies listed above and you should find your website listed high in the local search vertical engines.

The state of local search is pretty much in its juvenile state and unexplored. So no doubt it's still shaky ground. All the techniques stated here should boost your local ranking, but in worse case senario, they will drive more traffic to your site and aid in your organic listings on the search engines.