How Local Businesses Can Dominate in Local Search

by | Oct 30, 2014 | Business

The use of mobile devices like smartphones and tablets has given birth to a new search engine optimization concept – the local search. People that have mobile access to internet will very often look for specific products and services nearby. According to a Search Engine Watch report, local searches make nearly 50 percent of mobile users visit a particular store.

Local businesses can make great use of this new trend. Looking for ways to increase your competitiveness? Finding suitable local search engine marketing services is a great opportunity for you. Here are several additional suggestions for improving your placement among the local search results.

Correct Use of Location Keywords
Use your content to improve your search engine positioning. Location keywords placed strategically in the title and the H1 tag will help for your listing to dominate results for a particular product/service and a particular location.

Location-based keywords should also be used in the website content but make sure that the placement of such phrases is logical and natural. Pushing the technique too far could actually have adverse results.

Local Listings
To improve your local standing, you’ll need to create company profiles in several relevant directories. Google Places is the most important one because it is directly connected to your search engine positioning.

Websites like Yelp and Foursquare could contribute to your local optimization efforts further. Make sure that your exact address is included in all of these profiles and directory listings that you create for your business.

Customer Reviews
Local pages in social media and directories enable your customers to write reviews. These play a tremendously important role in your marketing efforts. Many mobile internet users rely on this client feedback to decide whether to visit your business or not.

Building your online reputation requires hard work. You’ll have to interact with clients, address their concerns and deal with criticism. Finding quality local search engine marketing services will simplify the task of building your reputation and doing damage control in the case of negative remarks.

Get Links from Local Websites
A quality backlink profile is still important and it impacts local search listings, as well. This time, however, you should be working on quality backlinks coming from local sites.

Locally-relevant websites, especially the ones that operate in the same niche, can have an incredibly positive impact on your local positioning. Once again, you should be looking for reputable websites that have solid search engine performance.

Local search has given small businesses and brick and mortar stores new opportunities to market themselves. Internet can help you become a community leader. Optimizing your website for local searches does require consistent effort but the results will surpass your expectations.

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