There are several local search engine-ranking factors to consider when optimizing your website for local search. These include:

Proper page titles – Each page of your site should have a unique name. The name should include targeted key phrases and your location at the minimum.

Address on every page – Put your business address on every single page of your site, the footer is a great place for this. Don’t just put your address and contact info on the contact page. Let Google have no doubt what your local business address is!

Get inbound links – Ask complementary businesses to yours in your local area to exchange links. Ask your customers who have websites to link to you. Offer a widget on your site so that people who like your site can share their love of your site with others on their blogs, social media, and websites easily.

Links within – Use local terms as the anchor text to link to other content within your site on every page of your website. For example, if you have written a blog post on your blue widgets and a blog post on servicing the widgets, you should link to the other article at the end of each blog post.

Other incoming links – Try to have incoming links use local terms or location as the anchor text whenever you have some control of the text used. It helps if your website has these terms within the domain name.

Pick a great domain – Choosing your domain name is very important. If you can, try to have your geographic location in your domain name. Also a term that states what you do, with no dashes. It should be a .com for the best results.

Local Business Directories – Ensure you are part of any relevant local business directories that have to do with your business. Such as the chamber of commerce site, any industry membership sites and even on sites with services complementary to yours.

Local information – Include, when relevant, local information such as your country, state, address, telephone number, zip code, nearby neighborhoods, area codes, airport codes, metro areas, area names including slang terms or terms the locals use anywhere on your site.  For instance, it’s not uncommon for locals to continue using an old name for a street or area when it’s been changed.

Keywords and phrases – Use the words locals may call your product or service in addition to the technical terms. Do not try to reinvent the wheel because it can take a long time to educate many people.

And now I’d like to invite you to take advantage of our Local Search Optimization package. We do all the work for you. We even do keyword research to ensure your business description is keyword-rich. Click to learn more about our Local Search Optimization package.

Glennette Goodbread, Owner
Premium Web Design and Hosting

If you want to be on page one for your chosen keyword phrase, then you have to pay close attention to how you build your website, what platform you choose, what keywords you use, and all the possible optimization that you can do. Skipping any of these can move you off page one. And as research shows, most people don’t even look at page two when doing an Internet search.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) encompasses much more than we are covering in this one article, but it behooves you to learn all you can about SEO or hire an SEO professional who is well versed in the field and someone that you trust.

1. Web Design – How you want your website to look is very important to consider when you are building your site. It is important however, that you listen to your web site designer as well. The architecture of your site can have a major impact on how search engine friendly yours website is.

2. Web Delivery – Another aspect of web design, that is often not mentioned, is delivery of your site or what site you’re going to use. The platform you are going to use to build your website is an important choice. One of the most SEO friendly platforms today is WordPress due to the clean code it produces and the fact that it's so easy to keep the site updated and fresh. It’s also easy for you to learn to use. This way you’re not always dependent on your web designer to do everything once you’ve had the site built.

3. Domain name selection – It is important to pick a domain name that is informative, that has keywords in it, and even local terms in it. For instance if you’re a Dentist in Enterprise Alabama, you could name your domain something like EnterpriseFamilyDenistry.com or something that makes it easy for locals to find you.

4. On Page Optimization – Ensure that every page of your site is optimized in terms of keywords, local keywords, and industry keywords, popular slang, has your address, and has appropriate content and page names.

5. Off Page Optimization – This includes directory listings, blog postings, article marketing, footer information, other website and webpage commenting, affiliate marketing, review posting and RSS feed submissions to name a few.

6. Original Content – Ensure that the content you put on your website is original and designed just for you. Sure, it is okay to use a bit of PLR (private label rights) content to get started, but it should be rewritten enough that is considered original to the search engines, has your voice and is relevant to your audience.

7. Internal back links – When possible, include internal backlinks in your post (like I did in #6 above). This gives your readers more to read, and it also encourages the search engines to index more pages of your site.

Glennette Goodbread, Owner
Premium Web Design and Hosting

With the advent of Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines, you may wonder if the yellow pages are obsolete. The truth is, with proper care to website creation you don’t need to spend money or sign huge contracts with the yellow pages or the newspaper. You might even be able to let go of your radio ads. Here are a few tips to get you started on creating a website that will get you noticed without spending a continuous fortune with the yellow pages.

Address on every page – Ensure that your address of your business is on every page. The footer is a fine place to do this but also have a special contact page. This is what people look for when they are on your site. The footer is more for the search engines than for people, but make sure that address is there.

Internal links – Link to other information within your website at the end of blog posts, or articles or other pages that use local terms as the anchor text. Linking within your own site should not be overlooked as an important way to increase search engine results as well as readership.

SEO – Search engine optimization consists of everything on this page and a lot more. Therefore, make sure you know what it is and that you or your web designer knows and understands what SEO is. Blog about complementary services to yours – better yet ask people with local complementary businesses to provide the content for you that you will put in your blog for them. Offer it as a service to them rather than a favor to you.

Proper Meta tags – Some people say that meta tags do not matter anymore but many of them are crucial. There is a lot to coding a site properly when it comes to meta tags. These are tags that you do not see but the search engines see that identify a lot about your website.

Hire a good web designer – If you’re not doing it yourself, resist the temptation to hire your friend’s son or someone who is not a real web designer with a real business. Building a website is an art form that involves both design and delivery aspects. If you are looking for a web designer in Albany Ga who has 12 years experience, click that link and likely your search will be over. Contact me today and I promise you will be pleased!

Glennette Goodbread, Owner
Premium Web Design and Hosting

Optimizing your site for local search is very important when it comes to marketing your business locally. This is true whether your business is a brick and mortar or not. You cannot just stick up a website and expect people to come. You have to do what needs to be done to attract the specific traffic that you need. I know you don't have much time in your day so please know that you can outsource every tip on this page and we will take care of it all.

1. Add local content --  Create content that is locally targeted using local keywords, local slang, and local names for your product or service that are used locally.

2. Link locally – Ask complementary local services sites to link to you and you can link to them as well. While one way is better, it is also beneficial if you link to quality websites and services that are local to you. Just ensure that they are complementary to you and not competition.

3. Do local reviews -- You can list your own products and services and have others review them right on your blog; you can also review complementary sites and services as well. The important thing is use keywords that are local keywords and phrases.

4. Use rich snippets – If you use rich snippets on your site, Google will pick it up and then those snippets will be listed with your links. There are various kinds of snippets such as micro-data, icro-formats, and RDFa which are machine-readable data that will display in a specific way. To learn more about this you can ask your web designer.

5. Cover local happenings – You can also write blog posts and articles about local happenings and occurrences that have to do with your niche. Sometimes it’s okay if it doesn’t have to do with your niche as long as it’s interesting to your target market and includes keywords and keyword phrases that bring in your targeted traffic.

6. Have a community calendar – It is a nice touch to create a community calendar that your audience can add events to and that you can add events to. Make sure each addition includes local keywords and phrases.

7. Blog about local events – Each time an addition is added it can automatically be parsed to the blog, thus adding even more local content to your website.

8. Interview locals for vlogs – Add testimonials from your clients and locals that come into your store or use your services to your blog. These can be in the form of text or even video.

9. Enroll in placeblogger.com – You can find local bloggers who might want to blog about your business or whom you may want to link to there.

10. Ask for local contributors – Ask locals to contribute to your blog. Just ensure they are not your immediate competition. Ideally, you’ll find complementary services who will want to contribute. In addition, contribute to their blogs.

Action Plan: Start at #1 and do one each week. And now I’d like to invite you to take advantage of our Local Search Optimization package. We do all the work for you. We even do keyword research to ensure your business description is keyword-rich. Click to learn more about our Local Search Optimization package. I'm here to help you if you need some professional assistance!

Glennette Goodbread, Owner
Premium Web Design and Hosting

More than ever, local search as well as mobile marketing are important for local businesses. Geo Tagging involves ensuring that you have geographical information within your meta data or code on your website. This information should be in your title tags, your images tags, your blog titles, and more. If your website is mostly relevant to local individuals who are searching for your product or service it is imperative that you consider Geo Tagging in your overall search engine optimization strategy (SEO).

Fortunately you can incorporate your mobile marketing approach with your SEO within your normal website and or blog. Ideally, you want your SEO to create an environment where you are showing up first on your client’s search engine results page (SERP). Most people choose websites that comes up on the first page of their SERP. Therefore being on the first page is vital to the success of your business.

There are several ways you can show up on the first page. Two ways are Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising and organic means via SEO. The best way to do it is via organic means, but there is nothing wrong with using a combination of PPC and SEO to get on that first page. But even if you don’t use PPC, you must use SEO that is especially focused on local SEO and not too broad based.

If you aren’t aware, mobile phones have the ability to use global positioning systems (GPS). This not only tracks where the phone is, but also finds businesses that are close to where the phone is located. This means that even if someone is traveling, they can find your business, products, and services if they need them as long as your website is taking into consideration technology such as Geo Tagging.

Additionally, search engines know where a person searching for your products and services is when they search via their home computers as well. Google for instance, uses Geo Tagging whenever a search takes place. This gives the searcher a SERP that shows relevant results for that particular user-depending on their distance from whatever product or service they are searching for.  As you can see, this can all be very complicated and it is ever-changing. What works today, will not work tomorrow, or at the very least, will need to be adjusted as search engines create new and more creative technologies that give searchers the relevant and useful results they desire.

Hiring a professional can help you get to the top of  the search engines. This will bring more feet in the door of your local business or more buyers for your product who are local to you. Hiring a local search expert can increase your chances exponentially. Your local SEO expert will know about the technology available today as well as the changes that are occurring within the current search community. It is fine to do your own research and do it yourself.  However, if your money maker is your bricks and mortar business you’ll do well to hire a professional to get things off the ground faster so you can do what you do best.

Local Search Optimization
And now I’d like to invite you to take advantage of our Local Search Optimization package. We do all the work for you. We even do keyword research to ensure your business description is keyword-rich. Click to learn more about our Local Search Optimization package.

Glennette Goodbread, Owner
Premium Web Design and Hosting

Online Marketing for a local brick and mortar business can be very lucrative. However there are a few differences between offline marketing and online marketing. Being found on the Internet is part of Search Engine Optimization(SEO). Local Search SEO is an important part for any local business that wants to improve their local search results. People who are searching for a local business are using search engines more than ever. In fact, according to Pew Research, 87 of 100 people who search for a product or service online purchase locally offline. That means they search online to find what they want and need but then purchase offline. Therefore, you know you must be online to get new customers.

One way to improve your local SEO is improving your use of title tags within your website and or blog. The title tag is within your website code and gives search engines information about your website. You can comfortably put 10 to 12 words in your title tags. If you’re currently only using your business name in your title tag, you absolutely need to add keyword phrases. These keywords are what people are searching for in your local area!

Your title tag might simply say something like: Active Life Chiropractic. What it "should" say is Chiropractic Health and Wellness - Ask Dr Wendy Butler - Albany Ga. Keep in mind that the search engine results pages (SERP) show the title so you want enough information there to get the click.

Every page should have a different title tag relevant to that page. If that page is about products or services, the title tag should say so and it should include keyword phrases that have been researched and determined to be effective. Just remember to use information that is relevant, local, and researched in every title tag. Don’t trust the automatic title generators on your website development tools. Ensure that titles tags are very specific and thought out.

The keyword phrases that you use within your title tags are vital to your local search engine campaign. Keyword phrases are several words grouped together that people are using to find your business. Selecting the right keywords is the hardest part about using keyword phrases within your title tags. You can hire a search marketing professional or you can use software such as Wordtracker to help you choose appropriate keyword phrases for your title tags.

Remember there are title tags on every single page in your website. In addition, each blog post is a new page, each article on your site is a new page and each product or service should have its own page in order to maximize your local search engine results. The more relevant pages you have on your website, the easier the search engines will find you. Therefore take what you have and reorganize it a little, keeping in mind the above. This will improve your local search results exponentially.

And now I’d like to invite you to take advantage of our Local Search Optimization package. We do all the work for you. We even do keyword research to ensure your business description is keyword-rich. Click to learn more about our Local Search Optimization package.

Glennette Goodbread, Owner
Premium Web Design and Hosting

The sad truth is that most small business owners whether they build their own website or hire a professional web designer, quickly lose their enthusiasm about having the website because they don’t notice any increase in traffic to their business. Doesn't take long to see that no one visits their website. This can be extremely discouraging if a lot of time and money has been spent creating the website. Many business owners simply give up at this point. This is very sad because a small business website that is properly focused on local search with the proper search engine optimization (SEO) techniques being used can increase business for the brick and mortar store just like it does for exclusively online stores.

The average person usually doesn’t learn about SEO techniques at first. Some business owners will research how to get traffic for their local business website and find out about SEO and either attempt to do it themselves or hire an SEO professional to assist them with SEO implementation and finally experience some success. Studies have been done that show that hiring a professional is 80% more effective than trying to do it yourself. This is mainly because it can take years of experience before a person understands all that they can about SEO.

A SEO professional spends their entire career making it their business (literally) to keep up to date on every new technology and procedure involved with SEO such as:

• Article Marketing
• Back linking
• Content Development
• CSS Basics
• Duplicate content issues
• How Search Engines Work
• HTML Basics
• Internet Marketing
• Keyword phrases
• Keyword Research
• Keywords
• Link building methods
• Long tail and short tail keywords
• Marketing Basics
• Metrics
• MySQL Basics
• Page Ranking
• Pay Per Click (PPC)
• PHP Basics
• Redirects and how this affects ranking
• Research
• Search algorithm changes
• Search engine marketing (SEM)
• Sitemaps
• Social Media
• Statistics
• Web Development and Design issues in SEO

Without knowledge in these areas or at least the vast majority of them, a person cannot call themselves an SEO professional. To be an expert, they should know what they need to know in order to be able to implement what needs to be done to enhance your search engine page ranking.

Being found on local search is imperative to the success of your website and your local business because according to Pew Research 86% of online searches result in a local offline purchase. This means that if a local buyer can find you, they prefer to buy local than buy from the Internet! However, if they cannot locate you then you may miss out on the purchase. The other factor is that you must show up on the first page of search results and most business owners cannot accomplish this without a professional.

Local Search Optimization
And now I’d like to invite you to take advantage of our Local Search Optimization package. We do all the work for you. We even do keyword research to ensure your business description is keyword-rich. Click to learn more about our Local Search Optimization package.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is imperative for small business owners to learn, especially when it comes to local search. Local search involves optimizing small business websites and/or blogs with the location involved so that people who are searching for products or services locally they will find them. Local search involves a great deal of study about the way people search for local products and services. An SEO professional who specializes in local search will study factors like:

• Targeting the Local Market
• Using Local Keywords and Keyword Phrases
• Local Optimization of the website code
• Local Social Media Interaction
• Local Marketing

To be found locally, it is important to niche down your reach to focus only on local issues. For instance if you have a local architectural firm and you want to do business only locally building homes for people who want a home worth $250,000 to $400,000 dollars then your marketing focus would be on people earning at least 100,000 a year to 150,000 a year who want to build a house. Therefore your search engine optimization (SEO) would focus on your city’s name, and the dollar amounts mentioned, and the type of product, or the type of keywords you’d research that your target market uses. You might also try to become active on social media networks where your target market visits.

You can do keyword research by hiring a local search professional or you can use a keyword research tool i.e. Google's Keyword Suggestion Tool, WordTracker and others. These tools will give you suggestions for keywords that are related to your website and WordTracker will tell you their popularity as well. Once you have a list of keywords to use, focus on a few of them and then watch your website metrics (the numbers) to determine what words and phrases are actually bringing traffic to your site.

You may implement these keywords and keyword phrases in a variety of ways such as via content, via Meta tags, via title tags, via article marketing and via your social media networks. There are many different ways to implement the discovery of which keywords are the best to use to attract your targeted local market to your website and ultimately to your bricks and mortar business. Probably the most important aspect of your overall search engine optimization plan is implementing targeted content for your website via a blog or article directory. But, don’t overlook all the other ways to optimize your website for local search either.

Local Search Optimization
And now I’d like to invite you to take advantage of our Local Search Optimization package. We do all the work for you. We even do keyword research to ensure your business description is keyword-rich. Click to learn more about our Local Search Optimization package.

Glennette Goodbread, Owner
Premium Web Design and Hosting