What Is Local SEO (and how can you get some)?
Does your business market to local clients and customers? Are you running a brick-and-mortar company that needs and wants local sales?
If so, your business can greatly benefit from optimizing its online presence for local search.
If you are a dentist in Raleigh, you want local folk to be able to hear about and find you online. If someone local types into a search bar “dentist in Raleigh, NC” you want your business to show up at the top of the search page.
Many factors go into getting good page rank for local search, and you can have an impact on them.
Claim Your Listings
The first thing to know is that you can claim your local listing through Google Places, Yahoo Local, Yelp, Superpages and other geographically-connected directories and resources.
Including your business on Google Places provides high visibility for your site, since Google’s search page results typically show paid links at the top of the page, immediately followed by Google Maps/Places listings. These are both shown ahead of organic results, which means your business could be listed at a higher position than another business competing to be #1 in organic search.
Use the Same Name for Your Business
If your business has a long name (“Gerald’s Widgets, Geegaws, and Dozens of Other Wonders, Inc.”) and you typically shorten it (“Gerald’s,” “Gerald’s Dozen Wonders,” “Gerald’s Widgets and Geegaws”) choose one name — preferably the one your clients use the most — and use it everywhere in your online marketing.
If your business name has a geographical keyword in it (“Gerald’s Geegaws of Raleigh”) and your business depends heavily on local patronage, include the geo-place name in your business name.
Resist using “LLC,” “Inc.” and other additions that don’t mean much outside of a legal document; your online users are unlikely to type that part of your business name into a search engine.
Put Your Physical Address on Every Page of Your Website
This information gets indexed by search engines and will be included in the algorithm that will help your site be returned in the search results when someone types in a part of your address.
Put Localized Keywords in Your Titles, Tags, Headers, and Content
If your business operates in Newark, put that keyword in as many places as you can on your website. Keep it natural, and don’t have more than a 3% density on any specific page. After all, humans are more important than search engines, and humans will be reading your site.
If you can get a URL that includes your location (yourbusinessinnewark.com) you’ll be at a distinct advantage over your competition. Otherwise, use the place name in your business name, if possible, and in the titles, tags, headers, and content throughout your site.
Want help getting better search results for your local business? Contact Calvert Creative today!
