Local SEO may seem intimidating. What if you want to get clients from a city but you don't have a location there? What if you only wanted to reach particular areas, cities or geographical areas but not others? Perhaps you are looking for more clients from the city you are in but don't have a budget for it? These are just some of the many challenges facing small, local businesses these days. Below are a few things you can do right away to improve your rankings and improve your search engine rankings.
1. Optimize your Google Places listing. Search for your business online, where you are located. If you don't see your business on the map on the right in Google results page, chances are your listing is not active. Search for "Google Places" and you will find a sign up page, sign in and make your listing. Add as much detail as you can, add a lot of photos (up to 5) and multiple categories (the more the better).
2. Define the area served of your Google Places listing. The wider the radius you set the more people will be exposed to your listing. There are two options in Google Places to check, the first one is "your customers come to you" and the second one is "you go to your customers". That first button is checked by default, so make sure to check "you go to your customers". Then you will see an option for choosing what mile radius you serve. This is where you can make it as large as you like. Remember to make it big!
3. Look for, find and claim all of your existing online listings. There are tons of local business listing directories all over the place and it is practically impossible to make sure that your company is listed in all of those places. A quick and easy way to check is to go to Yext.com. Put in your information and it will let you know what listings are active and also show directories that you are not listed in. For about $379.00 you can click on the "Fix All This" button and Yext will add your correct business data to all of the local directories.
4. Add your street address into the footer of your website and also include it on your contact page. You can also add microdata to let search engines know exactly where you are located, this will impact your listings in the search results and show your exact address and city name. If you use WordPress you may want to download free microdata Local SEO plugin.
One last bonus idea for you, make sure that the names of the cities you want to rank for are on your website. Ideally, you would want to create one web page for each area, with content that includes your services and the name of that area or city. Make sure your primary keywords and the names of the cities are in the title of the page and the heading (headline) of each page. Targeting 5 cities? Make 5 pages. Remember you can add an "Areas Served" spot towards the bottom of your homepage with the names of the cities underneath, and also make sure they are linked to the new pages.
The Internet may be still the cheapest way a small business can get more customers.
1. Optimize your Google Places listing. Search for your business online, where you are located. If you don't see your business on the map on the right in Google results page, chances are your listing is not active. Search for "Google Places" and you will find a sign up page, sign in and make your listing. Add as much detail as you can, add a lot of photos (up to 5) and multiple categories (the more the better).
2. Define the area served of your Google Places listing. The wider the radius you set the more people will be exposed to your listing. There are two options in Google Places to check, the first one is "your customers come to you" and the second one is "you go to your customers". That first button is checked by default, so make sure to check "you go to your customers". Then you will see an option for choosing what mile radius you serve. This is where you can make it as large as you like. Remember to make it big!
3. Look for, find and claim all of your existing online listings. There are tons of local business listing directories all over the place and it is practically impossible to make sure that your company is listed in all of those places. A quick and easy way to check is to go to Yext.com. Put in your information and it will let you know what listings are active and also show directories that you are not listed in. For about $379.00 you can click on the "Fix All This" button and Yext will add your correct business data to all of the local directories.
4. Add your street address into the footer of your website and also include it on your contact page. You can also add microdata to let search engines know exactly where you are located, this will impact your listings in the search results and show your exact address and city name. If you use WordPress you may want to download free microdata Local SEO plugin.
One last bonus idea for you, make sure that the names of the cities you want to rank for are on your website. Ideally, you would want to create one web page for each area, with content that includes your services and the name of that area or city. Make sure your primary keywords and the names of the cities are in the title of the page and the heading (headline) of each page. Targeting 5 cities? Make 5 pages. Remember you can add an "Areas Served" spot towards the bottom of your homepage with the names of the cities underneath, and also make sure they are linked to the new pages.
The Internet may be still the cheapest way a small business can get more customers.
About the Author:
Pablo Guiterrez is a guest blogger for WordPress Plugin PageInvasion and is a small business SEO expert. Visit PageInvasion.com for more tips on local SEO.
