Who should optimize for local search?

Businesses that want to serve their local community should optimize their website for local search.

That’s any business with a store, an office, a studio, any place customers can visit – or even a place of business customers can’t visit – but that serves the local community.

If the people in your local area could benefit from the products and services you offer –

You should be optimized for local search so they can find you!

How is local search optimization different from “normal” SEO?

Optimizing for local search is similar to “normal” SEO, but not the same.

The local search engines look for different things, in different places and serve a different set of users – people looking to find local businesses, not something in the vast universe of the world wide web.  The normal search engines serve people everywhere – in your town, the county over, the state over, or even the country or continent over.

Local is local – local people looking for your local business.

Now your business may be able to serve all over the world, but if you want to serve people in your home town, too – then you need to optimize for local search.

How do you optimize for local search?

There are two basic areas you need to focus on:

  • On-site optimization (updating your website)
  • Off-site optimization (updating other websites)
  • On-site optimization : You need to make sure your site is optimized for local keywords, like “Philadelphia SEO,” “Philadelphia Web Design” – instead of simply “SEO.”  “SEO” is generic.  “Philadelphia SEO” is local.  AND you to need make sure you place your keywords in all the right spots – the usuals (in the title, URL, naturally throughout your content, etc.).  But you also need to do some additional things, too, like strategically place your physical address and local phone #.
  • Off-site optimization : At a minimum, you need to get listed in the top local search engines: Google Maps, Yahoo Local, MSN Local and a few others.  And make sure you update all the appropriate information the same way in all of them.  You need to get backlinks (just like with normal SEO), but you need to make sure these backlinks are from local relevant sites, … and you need to get citations, get reviews and get ratings for your business, too.

How can we help?

We reviewed the basics on this page, skipping over the details, of course…

BUT if you complete the form at the bottom of this page, and watch our free webinar on “How to get 100 customers in 100 days” … we will get back to you ASAP so we can discuss your local search optimization needs, in detail.

And as a thank you for contacting us,

  • We will give you a FREE consultation,
  • Tell you everything you need to know about local search optimization, all the details,
  • And even get your business setup and listed in the two big local search engines: Google Maps and Yahoo Local – no charge, no strings attached.

Just complete the simple form below to learn how to get started.