local search marketing tips – SEO for local search results
May 26, 2009 by David Wolf
Filed under SEO
Getting your website listed in Google local search is not hard. It can be a very powerful tool to generate new sales for your company. Whether your business is detailing or a furniture store you can gain from getting to the top of the search engines. Listed are several steps you can take to ensure that you end up near the top. Having your listing there is free traffic to months to come.
The first step to local listing glory deals with local search engine optimization. This means that you have to tweak several factors on your actual website to really get the results that you are looking for. The first change that you will have to makes is to make sure that you address and phone number are listed on your site. While having it on your contact page is a must. It isnt a bad idea to place you contact info in the footer of every page on your site. On the contact page you will want to list your information in what is call hcard format. Google “Hcard format generator” to make it easier on you. While this is not a necessity, we have found that it does help.
Once you have done this you are going to want to claim your listing using Googles local business center. the address is (www.google.com/local/add). You claim it by logging on a registering you business. Make sure that you use the keywords you are trying to target in the business name either before or after. Add as many video’s and pictures as you can, then submit it. The system will call the phone you list to give you a pin so make sure you are with the phone number that you give. Now head over to yahoo and do that same at (listings.local.yahoo.com)
One of the things you can do to get a little bit of a boost is to pick an address as close to the epicenter of the city as possible in the eyes of google (This is in the gray area of the ethics debate. We are not telling you to do it, but be aware that many of your competitors may be. Just get a P.O. Box near the middle of the city in the eyes of Google maps if this is for you.
You are going to want to use a local number and not an 800 number. This will have a good impact on your ranking as well. Using a local number will have an effect on your rankings.
The next step is to go at get backlinks from websites that Google considers local sites. These can include the following:
1. Chambers of commerce
2. Local friends websites
3.Local business
4.Local networking groups
5. Trade organization
Make sure that you request that you name and location be included in the link text. Link text/anchor text, which is usually blue, are the words that you click on to go to a another site.
Keep up the good work with your post – very informative!