Ideal for businesses who focus on their local geographic area only for sales of products and services, local search engine optimization attracts local customers through search engine traffic. Customers are tuned into technology and search engines far more than telephone books, magazines, and flyers. When they need to research and service or a product, their first stop is usually the internet because of its speed and ease of use in returning highly relevant results. Local SEO focuses on highly targeted leads through highly targeted keywords that would benefit your website or other listings. Local SEO is also perfect for organizations and other causes that aren’t necessarily focused on sales only.
To quickly illustrate the importance – if a pizzeria was located in New York City, they could benefit substantially from their website or listings showing high in the search results for keywords such as: “New York City pizzeria” or “Pizza places in New York City,” for example. Additionally, buy now keywords and other carefully selected campaigns can bring the most ROI because customers are ready to buy and are likely past the information and research gathering phase.
Local SEO: Keyword Optimization
Keyword optimization for local search terms (keywords) can be done in many different forms. The most common are through a business’s website and their business listings like Google Plus. Keyword optimization is done both onsite through content and structure and offsite through content and the building of high authority backlinks. Through keyword optimization, a campaign will focus on pushing your website and/or business listings to the first page of search engines in order to obtain increased visibility and organic traffic.
Google Plus Business Pages (formerly Google Places)
Google +, or Google Plus is the new social platform for Google Inc. All Google Places business listings were converted to Google + pages. If you enter a local search term into Google you may notice that there are sometimes listings with successive letters (A, B, C…) next to them – showing addresses, phone numbers, and company names. This is the way that Google lists business listings in the search results and they are often located very high on the page. In order to be revealed and listed in this area, your listing must be keyword optimized, aged, and have high authority and relevance in order to be displayed in these results. Google’s main goal in their tweaks to their algorithm and search engine results revolves around providing the searcher (end user) with the most relevant search results possible.
Business Blog
A blog is an excellent way to increase the authority of your website, while still being able to target many different local keywords to gain organic traffic. This can lead to brand awareness and exposure, as well as increased potential customers. A blog can be populated with compelling content that offers value to the reader and it can also be targeted at local events and other functions through SEO. Blogs have become an integral part of small, medium and large sized businesses after seeing their value and ability to attract and retain new visitors to a website. Through a blog you may even create a call to action for a visitor to subscribe to your updates, follow you on a social network, or become enrolled in your newsletter. Keep your current customers engaged, while also attracting new ones.