Search Engine Optimization has come along way from its uncertain beginnings, and has emerged as one of the best investments you can make regarding ROI. One consistent issue that people have with SEO, is the fact that is a metaphorical “moving target.” Search engines, and Google in particular are always updating their algorithms, changing search as we know it. However, with that being said most technology related businesses have the same speed when it comes to change and advancements. The one thing that will always be constant in the SERP’s in that quality content will always be held in high esteem. This is true for the organic search results, and more recently for Google Places.
Local business owners have a great opportunity to capitalize on Google places. Search users are typically gravitating to the local results much more than the organic results. This is most likely due to the usefulness that the local attribute provides. For example, if you Google “pizza” you obviously want to see some shops in your area, or else that could be one heck of a delivery fee. As a local business owner, the competition for ranking here is in your favor. Though competition may still be high, you are not competing with the internet as a whole. You are competing within a certain area. Therefore if you can combine great local results, with superb organic results, you should be looking pretty good.
There are a few steps that you must take in order to start seeing yourself in the local search results. The first thing that you need to realize is that things like local results for any search engine, are by far more valuable than something like yellow pages. On top of that, the yellow pages could even cost you quite a bit of money. However, although local results are more valuable than other listing, it is important to have your business listed in things like Yelp, Yellow Pages, and other online directories. Google and other search engines will not directly show these listing, but they look to this to reveal some sore of legitimacy behind your business. You should put identical listings in as many reputable online directories as possible.
Like every local business you have an address and a phone number. The reason why putting identical listings in each directory is simply because of the search bots reading them. You always want to be consistent. Something as simple as Boulevard, and Blvd could look different to search engines. Same idea behind Terrace and Ter. Be sure that where ever your business is listed, it is listed correctly.
The next SEO aspect you will want among others is customer reviews. Again Google will not put reviews from other sites and list them, but they DO look at them. Getting reviews is important. It is very important not to fabricate reviews, it will most likely be noticed, and will not go unpenalized. You can, however, encourage customers to give you reviews around the web, perhaps even give incentives. If customers are using or buying your products/services then it puts more weight behind your business as a reputable search option.
Although the internet is such a huge part of many different companies, it isn’t all that surprising that many local businesses do not have an online presence. Even if you have a website, there is a good chance it is not up to date, or is simply not cutting it. You MUST have a complete website with proper link structures, trusted content, and SEO friendly coding. Without this most likely you will not see any traffic, besides the users who may have gotten your business card. Web design, and SEO come hand in hand – they must be utilized together.
Finally the best part about SEO for local business is the traditional services offered. When it comes to white hat link building services, there is nothing more legitimate and concrete as a quality small business. You can treat each article with targeted contextual links as their own advertisements. You will derive both traffic, and link juice at the same time. This makes a link building service easy to do!
SEO for local business is becoming very important. Searchers want local results. A localized search result usually means higher satisfaction rate for search users. Ranking for local search can give you a very high ROI. Then if you are able to combine local results with organic search results you will definitely see more traffic, more customers, and most importantly more money. If you own a local business do not fail to overlook SEO.
This article was written by Ben Anderson. Ben is a small business owner and works to provide many different White Hat SEO services for many different kinds of business owners.
