Local businesses can further build their clientele and exposure to the target market with the help of high-ranking websites. The more people know about the services or products an establishment has to offer, as well as the benefit of availing such services or goods, the better things become in terms of making more cash consistently.
However, it takes more than just creating a website, buying a domain name, and uploading it to a web host to become successful in online advertising. Focusing efforts and resources into local SEO is the key to meeting success for any business with a web site which targets a local market.
That being said, the first and most important step to take is to create content that contains “localized” keywords. For example, if an entrepreneur owns a hamburger joint in California, then some of the possible long-tail keywords he might want to include in his site pages would go something like “California hamburger joint” or “hamburger restaurants in California”.
Of course, these long-tail keywords should be scoped out using a keyword tool to determine their local monthly searches, estimated PPC, and advertiser competition. This information will be helpful in determining how difficult it’d be to rank for such key phrases, and if including them would be worth doing so at all.
Second step to take is to get the site listed on the local directories. Google and the other search engines will take note of such actions, and further bump up the site’s rankings. Also, customers going through these directories in search of particular services or merchandise might stumble across the business listing, and perhaps turn into a paying customer.
Third, create a Google+ business page – doing so is perceived to have a bigger impact on how the giant search engine ranks websites in the future. Moreover, getting a Google+ widget that displays the number of “pluses” viewers have given the site helps search engines determine the relevancy/popularity of the content, as well as how likely it is for audience to respond positively to the content. This in turn, may further boost rankings in the SERPs.
Fourth and last tip is to exchange links with other local businesses in the area. The search algorithms tend to weigh these types of links heavier than “international” links, especially when the site is comprised of keywords which target a related local market.
It’s sort of like a popularity contest – the more quality and relevant links a site has pointing back to it, the more Google will want to introduce the popular website to internet users, therefore making the algorithm more inclined to place the site higher in the search results page.
