SEO for a local business may really look complicated. What if you want to get clients from an area but you don't have a physical location in that area? And what if you needed to reach particular areas, cities or geographical areas but not others? Perhaps you are looking for more clients from your local town but don't have a budget for it? These are just some of the challenges facing small, local business owners today. Here are some things you can do that are easy to help your rankings and increase your search engine rankings.
1. Make sure you have a Google Places listing. Search for your business online, in the city where you are located. If you don't find your business in the listings, your listing may not be active. Search for "Google Places" and you will find the right page to sign up, sign in and make your listing. Make sure to include as much detail as you can, as many photos as you can (up to 5) and as many categories as you can (the more the better).
2. Set the radius of the listing. The wider the radius the more people will be exposed to your listing. There are 2 buttons in Google Places to check, one is "your customers come to you" and the other one is "you go to your customers". That first button is checked by default, so make sure to check "you go to your customers". Then you will see the radius map. You adjust the radius from there. Remember to make it big!
3. Look for, find and claim all of your existing online listings. There are tons of local business listing directories all over the place and it is almost impossible to make sure that you is listed correctly in all of those places. An easy way to check is to go to Yext.com. Fill in your business details and it will let you know where you are listed and also show directories that you are not listed in. For about $379.00 you can choose the "Fix All This" button and Yext will add your correct business data to all of the local directories.
4. Add your street address into the footer area of your website and also include it on your contact page. You can also put in microdata to tell search engines your precise location, this will improve your listings in the search results to display your specific address and city name. If you use WordPress you may want to download free microdata Local SEO plugin.
One last bonus idea for you, make sure that the names of the cities you want to rank for are on your website. The best case is that, you would want to make one web page for each area, with content on that page that talks about your services for that city. Make sure your primary keywords and the city names are in the title of the page and the heading (headline) of each page. Targeting 5 cities? Make 5 pages. Remember you can add an "Communities Served" spot towards the bottom of the homepage with the names of the cities underneath, and make sure they are linked to the new pages.
Your website is still the most cost effective way you can get more customers.
1. Make sure you have a Google Places listing. Search for your business online, in the city where you are located. If you don't find your business in the listings, your listing may not be active. Search for "Google Places" and you will find the right page to sign up, sign in and make your listing. Make sure to include as much detail as you can, as many photos as you can (up to 5) and as many categories as you can (the more the better).
2. Set the radius of the listing. The wider the radius the more people will be exposed to your listing. There are 2 buttons in Google Places to check, one is "your customers come to you" and the other one is "you go to your customers". That first button is checked by default, so make sure to check "you go to your customers". Then you will see the radius map. You adjust the radius from there. Remember to make it big!
3. Look for, find and claim all of your existing online listings. There are tons of local business listing directories all over the place and it is almost impossible to make sure that you is listed correctly in all of those places. An easy way to check is to go to Yext.com. Fill in your business details and it will let you know where you are listed and also show directories that you are not listed in. For about $379.00 you can choose the "Fix All This" button and Yext will add your correct business data to all of the local directories.
4. Add your street address into the footer area of your website and also include it on your contact page. You can also put in microdata to tell search engines your precise location, this will improve your listings in the search results to display your specific address and city name. If you use WordPress you may want to download free microdata Local SEO plugin.
One last bonus idea for you, make sure that the names of the cities you want to rank for are on your website. The best case is that, you would want to make one web page for each area, with content on that page that talks about your services for that city. Make sure your primary keywords and the city names are in the title of the page and the heading (headline) of each page. Targeting 5 cities? Make 5 pages. Remember you can add an "Communities Served" spot towards the bottom of the homepage with the names of the cities underneath, and make sure they are linked to the new pages.
Your website is still the most cost effective way you can get more customers.
About the Author:
Pablo Guiterrez is a guest blogger for WordPress Plugin PageInvasion and is a small business SEO expert. Visit PageInvasion.com for more tips on local SEO.
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