19 June 2013

Advice On Local Search Marketing

By Therese Goodwint


Business have been taking advantage of online local search marketing recently in their pursuit of increasing business. In this article, we will show you 10 specific ways to get your business to outperform competition and stay successful.

Local Directories Provide Valuable Info

Similar to any type of SEO, local search optimization plans take some research and knowledge. Look up your business on a search engine yourself. It's essential to find out how your business is listed on local directories, so doing this search is the best way to start. Your search should not be only for your own business name; enter in your phone number and address in different ways to see how they come up. Have a separate spreadsheet ready, and detail the information and copy the links so you can keep track.

Third party data providers and local directories inform the search engines. Your business information is compared to the index kept by the bigger search engines using external data. Local directory data must be constantly updated to be sure that everything is always right and easily accessible. Search engines also use citations in their determinations of rankings, along with third party information. Name, address and phone number (NAP) references of a company on the internet are what citations cover.

Google Places

A Google Places listing is important, be sure to make one. Be thorough, this is imperative! Select the categories your business falls into, update contact information and verify it's correct, and describe your company and list the hours of service. A crucial element in this process are categories; as many categories as possible must be carefully chosen that match perfectly the business that you are promoting. Be sure to select both "restaurant" and "Mexican restaurant" if your business is a Mexican restaurant. Select a tastefully done cover photo, and some other pictures (at least 5) that will let the customer know the great kinds of products and services that you are offering.

Carefully Create some Geo-specific Pages of Content

Create location pages on site for multiple locations. If you have multiple locations, consider creating individual optimized pages on your website for each location. Be certain that you choose the right keywords in order to generate business in the area that you are focused on, use some words that are well known in the area. It makes sense to use landing pages that correlate to the areas your business is operating in.

Boost your rankings in your local area by targeting the consumers in your region on your website pages, instead of wasting time advertising to those on the other side of the world. Keywords and phrases should be carefully selected in order to gain the most benefit from the area your business is in rather than globally, and this will help you get higher in the rankings when customers seek out your products or services.

Request Reviews of your Business

A crucial part of business strategy is to get customer reviews, these make a huge difference. Customers who have had a pleasant experience with your products or services can help you immensely by leaving a review on your website, and that helps you rank higher in search engines. Make it clear that reviews are really important to you and that you are intently interested in that customer's opinion.




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