What is Local SEO?

Even Internet pros sometimes forget about the benefits that can be gained from utilizing local SEO techniques. The Internet is a big place and encompasses the entire globe while your business is likely located in just one small corner of the world. This is especially true if you have a “real world” business, brick and mortar and all. Instead of spending your marketing time and dollars marketing to the whole shebang, consider using a more targeted approach – local SEO.

When the Internet hit its first big boom, users were thinking globally. They were excited about the prospect of finding customers for their products and services all over the world. The reality is that this concept simply doesn’t work for all businesses. Potential customers, local to your business, sit down at their computers with their wallets out. They are looking for the nearest business that will suit their needs. In most instances, they will conduct a localized search for one or more of dozens of reasons.

Local SEO techniques simply aim to get your name, website and business in front of the people that are most likely to use it – those that are physically located near it. Think of it as the local section of your yellow pages. At the end of the day, local SEO means that if your florist shop is located in Ferndale, Michigan, potential customers will find your shop by searching locally. There are specific tactics and techniques that can and should be used to ensure that your SEO is targeted to a local audience.

• It is important to include your physical address on your website and your zipcode, city and state on your site titles. This information will get indexed and referenced by search engine spiders. It is the first step toward localized SEO and one that is often forgotten.
• One of the best ways to achieve optimum localized SEO is by using map programs like Google Maps. It is often free to register your site with them and these registered sites get priority for searchers.
• Expand your current SEO program to use local keywords. Using our previous example, users searching for ‘florist shops’ will end up with a large list of florist from across the nation. So Florists Ferndale or Florists Ferndale Michigan are likely local keyword phrases to be used by the searcher.  Be sure to include content on your site that includes targeted local keywords.
• More and more local directories are appearing on the web. These directories specialize in business that is located in a particular geographic area. It is critical that your site is registered with each local directory that covers your area. The hyperlinks to your site will garner you increased traffic.

Never forget that people are trying to find you, you are not trying to find them. Utilizing localized SEO techniques will make it much easier for potential customers to find your local business. Having a traditional SEO campaign is fine, but if you are looking to increase traffic with local prospects, a local SEO campaign is a necessity.

Contact us at Optimum7 to discuss your Local SEO Strategy Starting from only $450 /month. We know we can help!