Skip to main content

Why Local Search Engine Optimization is the Top Choice for Businesses

Image
By
Local Search Engine Optimization is the Savy Choice for Local Businesses
Local SEO differs from general SEO in that it targets increased visibility for your business in local searches. If your business offers products or services that cater to a local audience you should concentrate on Local SEO. People who are searching on certain directories for a certain local business will see your business faster there, as opposed to generally searching it and having businesses come up that are nowhere near the location you are searching for.Web-Market-Central-Local-SEO (1).PNG
Businesses that Benefit from Local SEO:
Brick and mortar businesses or franchises that have a local presence and cater to customers in the immediate vicinity can benefit from local SEO.


Examples of such businesses are:
  • Real Estate Agents and Property Managers
  • Medical/Dental/Eye/Veterinarian Clinics
  • Accounting Services
  • Restaurants/Bars
  • Beauty Salons/Spas
  • Construction and Maintenance including support services like Electricians, Plumbers, Roofing Services, Landscapers etc.
  • Legal Practices
  • General Services such as laundromats, car washes, carpet cleaners
  • Local retailers
Local Search Engine Optimization
So, in order to get local visibility what should these businesses do?
  • Add Localized content to your web page
  • Ask Local Customers to leave reviews on Google and other third party review sites like Yelp.
  • Get listed on online business directories and citation sites
  • ­    Fill out your Google My Business (GMB) page and include as much data as possible. The things you shouldn’t miss are your NAP(business name, address and phone number) logo, pictures of products/premises, office hours and include a keyword rich description
  • ­    Local citations from well-known directories for various business categories help your rankings in Google local searches. For example, a restaurant may show a top result from Tripadvisor or Yelp.
  • ­    You can use local data aggregator services which can share your business information (NAP or Name, Address, Phone number is the most basic) across business directories they are partnered with.
Top Directories to get Listed on
Getting listed on directories is a great way to get visibility as well as backlinks. The more the number of citations from trustworthy sites with high local authority; the better is the chance of your business to show up on local search.
Here are the top general directories to help your local SEO:
1.        Google My Business
2.        Bing Places for Business
3.        Apple Maps
4.        ExpressUpdate
5.        Acxiom
6.        Factual
7.        LocalEze
8.        D&B
9.        Facebook
10.     Yelp
11.     YellowPages
12.     Yahoo Local
13.     Superpages
14.     FourSquare
15.     MapQuest
16.     Manta
17.     Local.com
18.     Kudzu
19.     Yellowbook
20.     Citysearch
21.     Chamberofcommerce
22.     Merchantcircle
23.     ShowMeLocal
24.     BOTW
25.     Localstack
26.     HotFrog
27.     Brownbook
28.     Cylex-USA
29.     InsiderPages
30.     EZLocal
31.     eLocal
32.     Tupalo
33.     ForLocations
34.     CitySquares
35.     GetFave
36.     2FindLocal
37.     Nokia Here
38.     Yasabe
39.     AngiesList
40.     Salespider
41.     Opendi
42.     MyLocally
43.     MyHuckleberry
44.     iBegin
45.     n49
46.     Thumbtack
47.     MakeitLocal
48.     B@BYellowPages
49.     Bizvotes
50.     Tuugo
This list was obtained from Whitespark.
A Step Above
The directories mentioned above are great but they are also general directories that even your competitors might be using. If you want to do more, you can use tools which analyze the competition and identify the following:
·          The best citation sources for your industry
·          The best citation sources for your location
·          The best citation sources for the search engine you want to rank on
For example, as per Moz, the top 10 Citation Sources for Veterinarians are:
1.        Yelp
2.        YellowPages
3.        VCAHospitals.com
4.        Yahoo Local
5.        Localvets.com
6.        Superpages
7.        Facebook.com
8.        Dex Knows
9.        Myvetonline.com
Which is certainly different from the top 10 in the general list above.
This again varies by city. For example, if you are located in Denver, CO, the top 10 citation sources for your local business per Moz are:
1.        Yelp
2.        YellowPages
3.        CitySearch
4.        SuperPages
5.        Denver.com
6.        Dex Knows
7.        BBB
8.        Yahoo Local
9.        Facebook
10.     Service Magic
As you can see there is some variation from the general listings and the business category listings. This will also vary for the search engines you are ranking for as different search engines have varying parameters. Depending on the industry or business you are in you should list your services in directories catering your specific audience.


Why Does This All Matter For Your Local Business?
Due to the spike in consumers purchasing and relying on their mobile devices, this correlates to more local SEO use because of the convenience factor. Think about it from a personal point of view: You are out in the city for the night with your significant other and want to grab a drink after your lovely dinner has come to an end. You whip out your phone and Google “Bars near me” and 9 times out of 10, you will be given a directory service that lists the many locations close to you that will let you wetten you whistle. By having your local bar posted on a directory you will have more chances of being seen as opposed to the massiveness of the entire, general, world wide web.
Some Cautionary Tips That keep Your Local SEO Strong
  • NAP Consistency: Double, triple, quadruple check all our your information that gets recognized by search engines is consistent so it is easy to recognize. Not having all information the same on multiple platforms will lead the search engine to think you may be a robot or a fake business that should not be getting any sort of recognition.


  • Target Market: Keep the number of listings for your business small and concise. It is better to keep your marketing precise so you do not attracted the wrong type of clientele because most of the time, those people really do not care about your business.

  • Photos: Obviously, post pictures of your business that will make possible customers want to visit it. Society these days is focused on what is most appealing to the eye, so have your business be that.

Comments

Post a Comment

All Time Greats

Getting More Out of Each Click with "Post-Click Marketing"

By
With the economy now officially in a recession (as if we didn't know that), marketers are under increasing pressure to do more with less. On the interactive marketing side, few marketers will get budget increases enabling them to drive more clicks. The challenge, then, is to maximize marketing productivity—to get more leads out of the same number of clicks. This is the first of two posts that will look at how to improve conversion rates to get more value from each click. One answer to this challenge is provided by "post-click marketing," a.k.a. lead automation management vendors. While the specifics of each service vary, all of them essentially: automate the process of extracting visitor IP information from your log files; match the IP address to an organization; filter out ISPs; and map the company name to one or more external databases to provide additional information (company size, industry, key contacts etc.). The better services also use geo-location filte...
6 comments
Read more

Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on SEM

By
Search engine marketing (SEM) is one of the fastest-growing categories in all of advertising, because it is both measurable and logical: present your ads when people are searching for what you're selling. A well-crafted search marketing program can provide not only broad brand exposure at a very reasonable cost (with CPMs of $10 or less), but also high-ROI lead generation. As with any other type of advertising, however, a poorly-designed campaign will be a disappointing waste of money. In addition to best practices in search engine marketing , the following articles and blog posts were among the best of 2007 at providing helpful guidance for creating and managing effective search marketing programs. Five Common Paid Search Mistakes That Can Sink Your Campaign by Search Engine Guide Blogger Jennifer Laycock explains how common mistakes such as "ego bidding," writing a single ad for all keywords, and directing all of your traffic to a single landing page can limit the res...
2 comments
Read more

Best of 2008: Social Media Optimization, Part 2

By
This content has been moved to Best of 2008: Social Media Marketing on the Webbiquity blog. ***** technorati tags: best free tools for monitoring social buzz social media marketing Six Pixels of Separation Mitch Joel Techrigy SM2 Key Web Data Chris Lang Google social bookmarking HubSpot Catie Foertsch Kate Morris TopRank Online Marketing Blog Jessica Cameron-Ruud Duct Tape Marketing John Jantsch CircleUp Traffic Travis del.icio.us tags: best free tools for monitoring social buzz social media marketing Six Pixels of Separation Mitch Joel Techrigy SM2 Key Web Data Chris Lang Google social bookmarking HubSpot Catie Foertsch Kate Morris TopRank Online Marketing Blog Jessica Cameron-Ruud Duct Tape Marketing John Jantsch CircleUp Traffic Travis icerocket tags: best free tools for monitoring social buzz social media marketing Six Pixels of Separation Mitch Joel Techrigy SM2 Key Web Data Chris Lang Google social bookmarking HubSpot Catie Foe...
Post a Comment
Read more

Marketo Releases Marketo Lead Management 3.0

By
Marketing automation software vendor Marketo today announced the launch of its Marketo Lead Management 3.0 software suite. With more than 200 new features, the release is the most significant since the product's initial launch in early 2008. Promising deeper support for a "conversational model of marketing," the new release provides 75 user interface enhancements as well as new features including: More fine-grained control over segmentation, targeting, and triggering; "Progressive profiling" on forms (i.e. additional profile is requested as a prospect moves through an interactive process); Native integration with Salesforce.com ; Web visitor profiling; and Automated duplicate lead removal. Pricing starts at $1,500 per month and the company now has more than 150 midmarket and enterprise customers. Marketo competes with products such as Eloqua , Silverpop Engage B2B (formerly Vtrenz), and Manticore in the marketing automation / demand generation sp...
3 comments
Read more

Marketing Automation: Bringing a Gun to a Knife Fight

By
This content has been moved to Marketing Automation: Like Bringing a Gun to a Knife Fight on the Webbiquity blog. ***** technorati tags: b2b marketing lead nurturing marketing-automation software demand-generation software Steve Woods Eloqua hosted-email-services email-service-providers ESP Constant Contact VerticalResponse ExactTarget shorten sales cycles del.icio.us tags: b2b marketing lead nurturing marketing-automation software demand-generation software Steve Woods Eloqua hosted-email-services email-service-providers ESP Constant Contact VerticalResponse ExactTarget shorten sales cycles icerocket tags: b2b marketing lead nurturing marketing-automation software demand-generation software Steve Woods Eloqua hosted-email-services email-service-providers ESP Constant Contact VerticalResponse ExactTarget shorten sales cycles Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom
2 comments
Read more

The 8 Layers of a B2B Web Marketing Plan

By
One way to think about designing a B2B technology web marketing plan is as a series of layers, like an onion. At the core is SEO—simply making your website "findable" through organic search to buyers who are looking for what you offer. Working out from the center are concentric layers of additional investment and sophistication. Small companies and start-ups with modest budgets will focus most of their efforts on the inner layers or rings, which are primarily designed for lead generation. As the company and its marketing budget grow, efforts can be expanded to the outer layers, which are aimed more at branding but support lead generation efforts. Ideally, a company eventually reaches the outer layer where pure branding activities (such as print advertising) help to maximize the effectiveness of lead generation programs (such as SEM) near the center of the circle. This diagram shows how different types of web marketing programs can be prioritized in order to maximize the retur...
4 comments
Read more

SEO Link Building of 2008

By
Unless you are optimizing only for some extremely niche keywords, off-page optimization—building links from other websites to yours—is a critical and significant factor for SEO success. The blog posts cited here, some of the best of 2008 on the topic of link building, provide guidance on how and where to obtain valuable external links. They also offer advice on ineffective tactics and "bad neighborhoods" to avoid. Local Search Ranking Presentation - SMX LoMo 2008 by Website Promotion Is Not Voodoo Will Scott , president of Search Influence, shares his presentation from the San Francisco for SMX Local Mobile event. His deck actually covers the organic search marketinging basics—keywords, content and links. But his section on "where to get links" is particularly helpful for anyone seeking to optimize local search results. 8 Directory Submission Red Flags by Small Business Search Marketing Matt McGee offers advice on what to avoid when obtaining links throu...
5 comments
Read more

The Best Web Marketing of 2008

By
Which types of online advertising provide the highest ROI? Who's really clicking on your PPC ads? Why do PPC costs keep rising? How can you convert more clickers into buyers? Are Web 2.0 technologies now mainstream? Learn these answers and more from this collection of blog posts and articles, some of the best reporting on online research topics so far this year. Online Marketers See High ROI from SEO by Marketing Pilgrim Blogger, SEO expert and PR pro Janet Meiners reports on an MarketingSherpa study detailing the growth in paid search and organic search engine optimization. Read her post to discover which types of online advertising get a thumbs up—and which are losing favor with interactive marketers. Who's really clicking? by iMedia Connection Sandeep Krishnamurthy , Professor of Marketing and E-Commerce at the University of Washington, paints a bleak picture of the future of PPC advertising—then gets blasted for it in the Comments by some fairly high-profile...
Post a Comment
Read more