Here’s just a short little guide that can hopefully set you on the right path to begin having your website turn up for local search results ABOVE your competition:
- Optimize your site for a certain keyword, product, prospective customers, and geography. It is important that these four factors are balanced, just like a chair would be very unstable if one leg is missing. Forget about what most folks say regarding keyword density, you are writing for your customer, not for the search engines. If you’re just a pizza shop in Detroit don’t repeat ‘cheap pizza’ over and over again, instead actually provide a description of your shop, where it’s located and what you offer.
- Plan your website so that it’s comfortable to navigate. Seriously, this is a important one. You’d be amazed at how many websites I see that are complete tragedies when it comes to navigation and site links. Also – I’m not the only one who finds this as annoying, believe it or not so does Google. Simplicity is your friend when it comes to designing your website.
- Get your website indexed in local search engines as well as in the big three: Google local, Yahoo local, and Bing. Getting indexed is completely different than being ranked. I know this should probably not be on the checklist because it’s so basic, but some people don’t understand the difference. When your site is indexed on a search engine that just means it has a record of every page on the site (and will use that record to determine what each page is actually about). Ranking is, well…just what you think it is. You can’t just start at the top as far as ranking is concerned, but you can definitely skip some painful SEO steps once you’ve made sure that the site is actually showing up on search engines. TIP: To make sure your website is indexed, type in the entire domain name in quotes and see if it shows up. If not, then they have no record of your website.
- Rank your site locally for specify keywords targeted to your local community. How to do this? You can do keyword substitutions or combinations with the places that you are targeting. Here’s an example: If you’re trying to rank for a plumbing service based in Dallas, TX, use keyword phrases like ‘Dallas Plumbing’ or even a more localized phrase that involves what neighborhood, street, etc.. that is more specific than all of Dallas (i.e “Highland Park Dallas Plumbing”).
- Get your site listed in local directories. Drop your links to as many local directories you could find but make it sure that the website directory is relevant to your product and services.
- Build links to get your site ranked well for a certain keyword. Don’t do too much at first because search engines would treat you as a spammer. Do it naturally while you participate in WEB 2.0 sites.
- Take advantage of the social networking sites. There are local SEO for social media optimization. Build contacts and friends and be an authority in your niche product or services.
- List your site on all the major map services – Google maps, mapquest, etc… Put your target main keywords and a good description of your business. What’s very important in this step is that you use the SAME format for displaying your address and business name on every site that you list it on. For example: “BOB’s Electronics” is different than “Bobs Electronics.” So is “100 Ford Street” vs. “100 Ford St.”
- Install analytics software on your website. This is something that you need to do before you even think about launching the site. There are hundreds of free services, including Google Analytics, that can help you achieve this but it’s essential that you’re tracking the users who view your site. It’ll provide you with research on how they’re searching for it, allowing you to adapt your local seo tactics so your customers will find you faster.
- Be innovative in your online marketing strategies, always be researching your competitors to see what they’re doing, where they’re listed and how they’re listing themselves. Once they notice you’re above them when people search for a local pizza shop because of local SEO they’re bound to try and compete with you.
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