Local SEO is an important part of small business marketing that is often overlooked. Local SEO is distinguished from other types of organic SEO by its emphasis on geographical location-based SEO. Like all types search engine optimization, local SEO involves both on-page SEO and off-page SEO work in order to get in front of search engine users who are in a particular geographic location (or searching using a geographic location).
There are many strategies for achieving top local placement on Google, Bing and Yahoo, such as finding local directories and getting listed, placing local contact information on certain pages within the website, market up the HTML with geographic meta data, and other techniques.
Like all SEO, a successful execution of a local SEO campaign involves knowing what needs to be done and having the time and discipline to do it on a regular basis. Some local SEO tasks are one-off services, meaning you don’t have to do them again next month. Other tasks require monthly work. For this reason, our local SEO campaigns are organized over a four month period.
The ongoing work beyond month four continues to increase your local rankings by reaching out to an ever larger circle of business directories (both major national directories and the very important niche directories).
Local SEO not only delivers better rankings for local map-based searches (on Google Maps, for instance), it also helps your generic keyword organic rankings, because the national and niche business directories can deliver tremendous “authority” to your website. The more of these directories you are listed in under the right keyword categories, the better your site can rank for those keywords.
If you are in a local-specific business where you want to reach local customers and clients, please talk to us about our Local SEO service. We’ll help you compete fiercely online to dominate the search results in your local area.