How to Optimize Your Website for Local Search

Many companies provide a website and/or even a variety of social media platforms that will cater to their customers or anyone who has online access. This is because the majority of users can be found surfing the World Wide Web these days and its population is rapidly growing. It provides accessible information to those who are interested – all of this without any additional charges. The easiest part when it comes to sites is actually making one. Yes, without a doubt, you might have the necessary tools and resources to pull it off. However, the real challenge comes in when it is time to gather and entice an audience or a pool of visitors to drop by your site and stay for a period of time. This is the moment when you need to gather a lot of patience and online marketing skills that need to be continually groomed and enhanced in order to get far.

When you create a website for a company, it does not automatically mean that everyone will get the chance to view it. Why is that? It is because it still has to go through a rigorous process in improving its ranking in an attempt of being seen and clicked on among SERP (also known as Search Engine Results Page) of various search engines. In other words, it has to work its way from the bottom to the top, which can be a challenging task to accomplish because not everyone can do it. For those who are able to do so, it means that they have become successful in what they have been doing and will do everything to manage that healthy rank.

After all, think about the number of sites that have been produced by companies that are out there and have done so before you. They as well are doing their best to outperform one another to bring traffic towards their site. Also, try to put yourself in the shoes of a visitor. Why will a random user click on your site? How will they benefit by doing so? Will they want to engage in the products and services that you are offering? There are still many questions to ask but these will have to do for now just to motivate and get you started.

So, the most important question of all that everyone is asking is how will I be able to make my site stand out from the rest? You will have to implement SEO strategies that are cut out for your company. Take into mind that a certain strategy will work for one company but may not work for another. They may belong to the same industry, but have different goals to attain. This is why different companies use different strategies to achieve different results.

In order to relate to this, one must understand the structure of how their own company operates. They need to understand the processes that are involved. By understanding your own company or business, you will have an idea on which needs need to be identified and how you can build a bridge between the needs of the company and the needs of the customers. Most importantly, take note by studying your target market and what kind of background that these people have. By doing so, it will give you an idea what these people need and want. It’s beneficial so that you can satisfy or fix those needs or wants on your end.

As you know, SEO or search engine optimization has the aim of boosting the overall visibility of a particular site by getting consistent traffic so that it will be able to establish a healthy rank among search engines. More and more companies are adopting modern methods that pertain to this in order to boost the number of sales. If you are looking for ways to improve your site so that it caters to local search, then you’ve definitely come to the right place. Small businesses are the ones that greatly benefit from local search and should explore its rich benefits.

According to SEOmoz’s Beginners Guide to SEO, a study found out that 79% of search engine users look for information and businesses that can found nearby or locally. This shows that people decide to explore places or activities that are within their proximity before reaching out to other places. On their behalf, it will greatly save them the travelling time and not to mention, cut down the travel expenses. It will really help you out if you can establish yourself at a local scale than grow from there to a wide and global audience. There’s no harm in doing so. After all, this is the initial stage where all businesses had to go through before their expansion to other cities or even different parts of the world.

Let’s say our friend, Travis, runs a small bakery shop in Los Angeles, California. His specialization is designing cakes for all occasions. He caters to the locals and has gained a few loyal customers. However, he is looking forward to serving more customers. In order to do that, he needs to reach out to potential customers who are looking for his services within the area. He has a website for his business but in order to reach his goal, he needs to improve several things in order to become visible and boost his search ranking among local search.

With SEO still very much prevalent, Travis should enhance his on-site optimization by inserting keywords of his local area and city in these aspects that are mentioned below. By doing so, it will strengthen his own site and improve its local search ranking. After all, he is trying to establish a healthy rank among search engines so that his business name will appear when a search about the particular term is being conducted.

• Site content
• URL
• Both H1 and H2 tags
• Page Titles
• Meta Description

Content

• Content is the most valuable detail of your site.
• This should be considered as the first priority on the list because it will build credibility among people as well as search engines.
• You should spend more time here than anywhere else.
• As much as possible, try to localize the gist of your online content by including local terms.
• The content should be written in a way to engage people within the place or from nearby communities.
• Talk in the way how you casually talk and approach people.
• In return, the audience will feel how authentic you are by the language you are using.
• They’ll be intimidated if you use big words or become interested if you ramble on talking everything and anything except your business.
• Some people make the mistake of not putting the name of their location such as their city among images.
• It’s important that you do so because search engines will pick up on words and will not be able to “read” pictures.

Page Titles

• These are one of the very first things that you see among SERP.
• The way it is constructed is extremely important because it will determine the search ranking of a site.
• A page title should start with a relevant keyword that will also repeat itself in the content. A title should have the length of no more than 70 characters.
• Don’t forget to insert your local area.

Meta Description

• A meta description of a site is like a synopsis of a book.
• It gives the sneak peek to your site among online users.
• Like the title, a snippet of the meta description can be viewed on a SERP.
• The meta description is confined to 160 characters.
• Insert prime keywords, your local area and phone number.

Insert Your Contact Information

• The contact information of a certain business should be readily found on all pages of a website even as a footnote or at the bottom part.
• Important details that people tend to lok for are name of business, physical address of the business including its zip or postal code, phone number and email address.
• Others would provide their location on Google Maps so it’d be easier to find them.

Emphasize on Link Building

• This is one of the key ingredients when it comes to building or enhancing a website.
• It is said to be one of the most challenging areas in SEO.
• You can leave it to the experts to do it for you or accept the challenge by studying the basics to excel in it independently.
• It is a great way to navigate through sites and pages, helping users to look for the necessary information that they are searching for.
• It greatly helps if you turn to the most popular as well as a variety of social media in order to reach to a bigger crowd.
• Become friendly and interactive with the people around you.
• You never know that by building up connections and networks, you can use them later on when the need arises.
• It won’t hurt if you join associations, organizations, query local blogs and websites (the more local it is, the better for your business and your site).

Eliminate Keyword Stuffing

• This activity is a big no no and you will get penalized for it especially by Google.

http://www.bizwaremagic.com/advanced_seo_tactics.htm

• Search engines can identify this action and will lower your ranking.
• It looks unattractive and unnatural for its viewers.
• It doesn’t work for a long run, which you should be aiming for so that you can build a solid foundation for your business.
• Again, avoid this altogether and you’ll be on your way on the road to greatness.

Don’t Forget the Mobile Users

• Make sure that the site that you created and optimized is mobile friendly too.
• Keep in mind that this another factor that your site will be based when it comes to search engines.
• There is an increasing rate of people using their mobile phones for all their needs.
• Though 91% of users are on their personal computers and laptops and it is their first choice when it comes to Internet research, using smartphones is not far behind with 80% as seen in this infographic.

Check Out the Local Directories

• After doing the necessary changes and additions to the site, it would be a good idea to send it to the local directories.
• Think of it as Yellow Pages that can be found online.
• There’s also a good chance of people stumbling upon it while conducting their own research.
• Try to submit it to the following: Yahoo Local Listings, Yellowpages.com, Google Local Business Center, SuperPages.com, Local.com, InfoSpace.com or InsiderPages.com.

Source: http://www.small-business-seo-atlanta.com/post/76422308901/top-10-local-directories-for-your-small-business

Get Your Customers Involved

• Everything around us is getting interactive.
• The best way to go about it is to involve our present customers to help us do a bit of the marketing for us to reach out to potential customers.
• You never know the backgrounds of your customers so ask the right questions and it will potentially get you far.
• They could have connections or possess popular blogs that are proven to be valuable at one point or the other.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for reviews, suggestions, recommendations and even feedback.
• More people nowadays rely on personal reviews because it talks about real life experiences that these real people possess.
• Try to get local reviews.
• Be open-minded even if customer reviews shed negative light on your business.
• You never know that these things could be areas for improvement and can be used for your own advantage as long as you seize the opportunity at the right time.
• The most important thing here is that the more your business is being talked about, the more it is being read and reached out by more people.

Let’s not forget about Travis and his bakery shop. Now that this information is laid before him, it is now up to him if he wants to make the chances that are necessary to improve his overall website when it comes to local search. It wouldn’t hurt for him to try. He’ll never know that these small improvements can lead him to a path of bigger opportunities. Let’s not forget about you. So, what are you going to do today?

Eve Haugen has been a freelance writer for a long while. Her passion in writing is her main drive in crafting articles that are engaging, informative, and meaningful. Her partnership with QuickSEOResult has given her a whole new opportunity to take writing to a whole new level.