Local SEO is how business owners can get more search engine traffic from people searching in their area. If you apply some of the local SEO techniques we’ll be discussing, you’ll be able to get your site ranked more highly.
As a marketer using local SEO, you really have to get into the mindset of someone in your target market who is doing a search engine query. It’s helpful to put yourself in their place if you want to apply SEO to your site. Pretend you were using a search engine to find something you were selling, and consider what terms you would most likely search under. Let us suppose you have a store whose specialty is golf accessories. Search engine users who type in “golf” are doing an extremely broad search and are mostly not going to be looking for what you have. Other searchers may be looking for “golf instruction,” which isn’t related to what your store sells. You are looking for customers who search for “golf accessories,” which is a match to what you have to offer. There are many good keyword that can create sales but are not quite as well known, and these are usually ignored by business owners looking for local traffic. They only look at the most popular keyword phrases, which get a high number of searches but also have lots of competition. You have to learn how to think like a customer because this is exactly what helps you in the long term. Your ability to find targeted keywords will improve with practice, and you’ll find more customers and you will eventually be able to rank for a variety of relevant keywords.
Getting Google Maps to list you is actually quite simple. You simply fill out a tiny form and then they’ll either use your phone or email to have you verify your identity. After that process is completed, you’ll only have to wait a few weeks before your site begins to reveal itself within the local searches. Google and Yahoo! are very similar in their application process, only Yahoo! doesn’t require a verification. Yahoo! will even allow you to design your business listing to your liking.
Not only that, but you can get approved quickly, unlike Google which takes forever. Whatever you do, just make sure you don’t ignore this simple tip because it will take you a long way in your goal to reach out to the local audience. Most of the local websites that you target are completely okay with you asking your customers to leave a review for you, except for the site Yelp. Since this is an allowable practice and your local SEO can benefit from it why not start doing it? Be sure to mention these things in your e-mail signatures, on your invoices, your contact forms and any place else you can. You can say something as simple as “Hi it would be great if you can take out time to review our business on XYZ Local.” Obviously you cannot control these reviews’ content but, whether they are good or bad, the reviews can add credibility and reliability to your company’s profile (which is nice for the new customers). Even if you are trying other things as well, make sure to integrate this tip because doing so can help your business exponentially.
You should also try to list your business with all of the Yellow Pages and like directories online. You can start off with some of these sites such as YellowBook.com, YelloPages.com and SuperPages.com. A notable thing here is that YellowPages.com gets lots of local searches every month, over 100 million and the best part is that they offer free online listing. Of course, the major sites like MSN and About.com get some of their business listings from SuperPages.com. You can have a very basic listing with them for free.
In summary, what we’ve seen above are simple local SEO tips that you can apply to your current business and get more traffic..
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