Local Search Engine Marketing Tips

Want your local business website to rank well online? There is loads of information about how to dominate local search terms and rank well, but it’s easy to get confused with all the advice that’s available out there. Here are the top 5 critical tips of local search that will help you rank and dominate in your local market.

1. Add Geographical Information to Your Page Titles

Make sure to use your target keyword terms and location name in your page titles. This helps search engines to decide easily what your site is about and search engine users are more likely to click on your site if it contains related geographical keywords for the area they live in.

2. Get Your Business Listed on Prominent Websites Directories

Google Maps, Yahoo Local, and MSN Live Local are all places where you can have your business listed in order to make it easier for prospective clients to discover you. By claiming ownership of your business listings on these well-known sites, you permit both search engines and potential customers to get accurate information about your business. Sometimes devious competitors may claim your listing on these sites to steal your traffic and business. Make sure you’re the initial one to claim your listings in order to build faith between you, the search engines, and prospective customers. There are also numerous geographical search directories that get noteworthy traffic where you can claim your listings. Citysquares.com is an example of a local search directory with good traffic.

3. Provide a plethora of Information about Your Business in Your Local Listings

When search engine users land on your website by clicking on your business listing, you want to be certain that you give them a lot information about your service. In addition to including the basics such as your address, contact information, and operation hours give prospective clients an abundance of reasons why they should choose you over your competitors. For example, mention precisely which towns and neighborhoods you service, what credit cards you accept, what your guarantees are, any special offers you have (Coupons), and anything else that is applicable.

4. Use Your Target Keyword Phrases as Anchor Text in Your Hyperlinks

Link reputation is a vital element of search engine algorithms. When possible, make sure that the links pointing back to your site use your best target keyword phrase and variations of your location as anchor text. Your internal links also have a say to link reputation so be sure to link to pages within your site using good link text. This link text can be used in your site navigation, HTML sitemap, and links within your content.

5. Monitor Reviews about Your Business Online and Your Online Reputation

Thanks to the internet, consumers can submit online reviews of businesses to customer-controlled review sites like Yelp and share their experiences, whether good or bad. This could be highly beneficial to your business if it gets great reviews but it could also hurt you if you get some bad reviews. Monitor the reviews your business receives on a regular basis so you can find negative reviews when they occur and rebut them if necessary. Sometimes customers don’t always present reasonable or honest reviews so make certain that if you do get bad reviews that are unjustified, the potential customers who see them can get both sides of the story at the very least. Using Google Alerts is a handy way to keep track of what is being said about your business online and is used frequently by reputation management firms. Also make it a habit to “Google” your company name, your name, your phone number, your website name and your product names on a daily basis.

Use these strategies in local search to boost your online presence. There are numerous tactics you can use to boost targeted traffic to your business’ website and develop its ranking but these are some of the most valuable ways to give your business a strong local presence.