Small businesses cannot hope to
compete with large corporations when it comes to search engine page rank. It's
just not feasible unless the small business is in a niche market where few
large companies are competing. However, small businesses can make some
significant advances in their ranking with local SEO.
Search engines and mobile
technology often tailor their results based on the user's IP address or
location. Local businesses will likely rank highly based on these
considerations. That is what defines it as a local search. Local search results
are promoted by search engines like Google as a way to present those people
doing the searching with more relevant, local results. All of the major search
engines account for the fact that people searching for a service or product
would prefer local results.
Here's how a small business
can implement local SEO and improve their business' chances of turning up in
search results.
Site Design and Layout
The fundamentals of SEO still
apply and any website should be configured with search engine optimization in
mind. This means that the sitemap should be accurate and logical. There should
be a blog or some form of Internet Marketing
that incorporates keyword usage. And there should be plenty of social media
links and opportunities for visitors to share content. The use of images and
media is another way to boost SEO and traffic.
Local Search Business Sites
Local businesses should take the
time to register across a host of business directory sites like Yellow Pages,
Google, Yahoo, Merchant Circle, Yelp, Bing, and many others. Registering with
these sites not only gets sites in front of their users, but they are taken
into account by the search engines in local ranking too. The real challenge
here is maintaining the contact information and making sure any changes get
made across all sites.
Keyword Usage
Identifying both the target
audience and the keywords they'll be using is of paramount importance in any Local SEO campaign. Businesses should
use Google Keyword and other tools to help find the applicable keywords and
then make sure they are adding the local component.
Contact Information
Consistency
As mentioned earlier, any changes
to your contact information should be updated across all the local directories
for which the business has been registered. Search engines rely on a variety of
sites to present the contact information and just because it's been updated on
the main website, does not mean that's what will display in the search results.
Use/Promote Social Media
Sharing
Social media continues to play a
larger and larger role in search engine optimization. Engaging local customers
through social media using tweets, posts, blogs, news articles and the like
will create a local buzz around your business. Not only will people be
promoting the business in their social media circles, but the organic traffic
this produces will boost local search rankings.
The search engines want nothing
more than to present users with the most relevant search results. Nothing could
be more relevant than local area businesses. The steps highlighted above will
help any business rank highly. Small business owners want to rank highly for
local search, the search engines want local businesses to rank highly, and
users want local options to rank highly. The small business owner just needs to
make sure they are taking steps to get to the top of the local results.