Local Business Search Guide
Being a tech-enabled entrepreneur you already know that you can reach to every potential customer across the globe through your website, and can even deliver your goods or services to virtually every country through shipping companies. But there is a reality that you cannot afford to ignore.
Every business conducts a vast majority of its transactions in a limited geographical area in and around its establishment. This is quite natural from logistical and operational standpoints. Hence one of the weapons in your SEO armory should be local search engine marketing.
What is local search engine marketing anyway?
Local search engine marketing targets a limited geographical area. The concept is dependent on local search engines and directories. These local search engines and directories offer you to enlist with them and set up a profile.
They also allow you to post your link. There are lots of region and country-specific search engines that are approached by people in search of local products and services. Your chances of a better search rank gets a boost in this local search engines as the competition is less.
Most often small business owners are unaware about the local search engines available in their regions. They are also grossly unaware about how much time it takes to fill up the profile pages of these search engines and directories. It makes sense to offload this job to a competent SEO company that is knowledgeable about the local SEO business.
Local Search Engines vs. Global Search Engines
When we conduct a search in a global search engine, little do we know that local search engines and directories feed a lot of information to their global counterparts. If you refer to the history of the World Wide Web, you will find that many smaller networks and databases have got linked together to form larger entities.
The information volume fed by local search engines and directories are the building blocks of search engine giants like Google, Yahoo, MSN etc. If your website enjoys a high visibility in local search engines, chances are high that it might enjoy a good ranking in leading global search engines as well.
Local Business Search Engine Marketing Benefits
• Listing in local search engines cost less than a basic yellow pages listing.
• Once you enlist, a free map to pinpoint your geographical location is provided.
• Information about your business can be updated anytime and anywhere.
• Improves your chance of increased visibility in global search engines and works in harmony with other SEO methods.
First things first go and claim your listings in Google, Yahoo and Bing. This will get you started out on the right foot. completely fill out our listing. Use a specific description, pictures, videos, coupons and your logo. This makes your local listing more trusted and will get you ranked higher right from the start.
Next you can get listed in all the internet yellow pages and local websites that cater to your service. Sites such as superpages, yelp, citysearch, localize, best of the web and universal business listings will kick off your effort to getting a good ranking in the local search results. Be aware those some of the services listed are not free.
A couple of more places to promote your listing would be local classified sites such as Craigslist, Backpage, Judy’s List, Angies List or USFree Ads. People look to these sites every single day. They are trusted by searchers and may bring in more leads and business.
To get your listing to be trusted by your customers and respected by the search engines make sure you ask your website vistors to leave you reviews. Heck even ask your employees and friends to leave a review for you.
Just be clued into the fact that searchers who see 50 great reviews with not a single negative review will know you are stacking the deck. So yes, even negative reviews can be acceptable and make you look human. No ones perfect and the consumers know that.
On your site make sure your business address and phone number are listed and match your local profile exactly. No 800 numbers, they make your listing look fake to the search engines. On your contact page have a google or yahoo map with directions. Put your address in the footer of every page. Just a few simple steps can get you ranking well in the local results.
Local search has turned out to be incredibly serious over the last year. Google, Yahoo, Bing, Facebook, Twitter just to name a few all have launched local avenues. With people performing more and more searches from their phones Local website search optimization is becoming a service the local business owner cannot ignore.