Go Local with These Local Search Marketing Tips and Tricks
Written by: Eric Brantner on March 5, 2010 – 11:00 am
Does your business cater to local customers? If so, it’s important that you localize your website so that customers in your area can easily find you when they’re looking for your products and services.
Thankfully, increasing your local presence is actually pretty easy. You just have to incorporate these search marketing tips and tricks, and you’ll soon be dominating the competition.
- Use location-based keywords—This is SEO 101 really, but I still see a lot of people mess it up. Let’s say you’re a roofing contractor that offers service to the Houston area. Rather than just using “roofing contractor” or “metal roofing contractor” as your keywords, you should be using keywords like “Houston roofing contractor” or “metal roofing contractor in Houston.” This increases your chances of ranking well for localized searches, and it eliminates irrelevant traffic from visitors from other cities you don’t service.
- Get listed in local directories—No matter where you’re located, you’ll find several online directories specific to your city and state. Some will be general business directories, and others will be devoted to your niche (e.g. Houston contractors directory). Getting listed in these directories improves your presence in the local market, and it helps you gain more quality backlinks to your website. If you can’t find local listings, check your competition’s backlinks. Chances are they’ll be listed in the directories you need.
- Get a Google Maps listing—Creating a Google Maps listing can help your website turn up above the fold in the search results, getting your more traffic and more conversions. Here’s a really good post you should read about ranking for your local keywords in Google Maps.
- Put your address on each page of your website—I’ve always been an advocate of putting your contact information on each page of your website because it: 1)Makes you appear more legitimate and trustworthy with your visitors and 2) Helps Google pinpoint your location for improved local search rankings.
- Guest post and comment on local blogs—Find blogs that target the local community, and become an active member on them. You can start by commenting regularly on each new blog post. Make sure your comments further the conversation, and never use comments as a means to promote your company. You can also ask to become a guest blogger on these local blogs, helping you reach out to the local community.
- Find local online networks to join—Between LinkedIn, Facebook, Yahoo, and message boards, you can find plenty of relevant local groups online to join. Posting regularly in these groups will increase your local visibility, and it’ll help you earn the trust of potential customers as you build relationships with them online.
Do you localize your search marketing efforts? Which tips would you add to this list?
April 27th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
I think your blog needs a new wordpress template. Just sayin….
August 14th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
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August 16th, 2010 at 8:19 pm
good articles here hopefully i learned from it.
January 6th, 2011 at 6:25 pm
SEO is the heart of the website. Without seo in our url we don't get more traffic. All the looking information are pleasant and useful to get more traffic on our website.
April 25th, 2011 at 1:22 am
There are many local search marketing tips and tricks. but i like your article and this all information are good for me and my friend.
May 9th, 2011 at 5:15 am
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