Local
Search for Small Businesses
By Carrie Hill, July 8, 2008
Local search is any search made with the
intention of finding something in a specific geographic location. In other
words, the searcher is seeking a particular thing in a specific location. I
wrote specifically about local search last year. It's a good time to revisit
the topic, now that some things have changed on the local search front.
The impetus for writing this article was the
release of the "Local
Search Ranking Factors" by David Mihm. David recently asked 20 local
search experts how businesses can maximize their chances of being found when
targeted queries are made in Google Maps and Yahoo Local.
For many small businesses, commercial
transactions don't take place on the Web. Anything that you'd traditionally
look for in the print yellow pages becomes a local search on the Internet.
For these queries, Internet marketing encourages potential customers to call
them or to visit their brick and mortar store. In these cases, all searches
that affect their site are considered local search.
Luckily for small business owners, there are
steps they can take to influence many of the factors that positively affect
local search rankings. Here are some things you can do to help your local
business thrive online.
Claim, Enhance, and Optimize Your
Local Business Listing
The local search
algorithm is based on relevance. Much of that relevance depends upon the
trust the search engines have in the information they have about your
business. In most cases, the merchant is considered to be the most trusted
source of data about their own business. Verifying ownership of your profile
online is the most important factor for ranking well on local search
engines.
While you're at it, make sure your local
business listing is complete, accurate, and up to date. Use good product,
service, and brand keyword terms, including geographic terms in your
description and attributes and, whenever possible, in the listing title, as
well.
Be sure you've categorized your business
properly. Choose the most relevant categories in which to list your
business. If you don't place yourself in categories, Google Maps and Yahoo
Local will often use someone else's determination of where you belong. Use
the maximum number of categories possible. If you don't see a category in
Google Maps that uses your best keyword term, create one yourself!
Optimize your Web site for Local Terms
While it's unclear exactly how your Web site
affects your local search engine rankings, having a well-optimized Web site
can help greatly. This includes on-page factors that you completely control,
such as placing your city and state in the title tags of your Web site and
putting your street address and local phone number with area code in text
format on your pages.
The number and
quality of links pointing to your site is also important as is the local
link reputation they convey using your location and product or service in
the link text.
Standardize the Information
Your business data gains trust when it's
validated by other trusted Web sites, specifically those that provide local
business information, such as Internet yellow pages and sites like
Citysearch,
Yelp, and
Insider Pages. Nearly all of them allow you to claim your enterprise and
verify the data at no cost.
Be certain to use the same information across
all of these Web sites to cut down on any confusion in the search engines.
This should also match what the search engines see on your Web pages.
Get Good Reviews
Reviews are moderately important to ranking in the local search space
and, at the present time, the number of reviews appears to be more
influential than whether they say good or bad things about your business.
Reviews, ratings, and comments from others are
exactly the type of information that people seek out before deciding who to
do business with, so reviews are extremely important to your potential
customers. Therefore, encourage happy customers to talk about your products
and services online. They may do so directly at Google Maps and Yahoo Local.
In addition, these local search engines pull reviews from other Web sites
focused on either local information or a niche, such as restaurants, hotels,
books, etc.
Local search is an online space where little
businesses can definitely gain an advantage over big national chains. Pay
attention to the details and take the time to accomplish all of the steps
needed to rank well in Yahoo Local and Google Maps.
This article was co-authored by Mary
Bowling, my SEO partner at Blizzard Internet Marketing. Mary contributed to
David Mihm's Local Search Factors article and optimizes Web sites for
Blizzard. She also blogs about local search on
Optimized!
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