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Local SEO Guide

wecomparebooks by wecomparebooks

SEO for Local Business

The internet is a global market, but reaching the world when your customers are from your own local region is a waste of time, money and effort. For owners of local businesses reaching customers within their own vicinity is what counts. You are trying to reach customers in your region, and they are needed services from a business is their area as well. The idea is to use local SEO techniques that will put your business website in front of customers when they conduct a local search. There are several ways to accomplish this task.

Use a Specified Location in Keywords

When choosing the keywords for the site, make sure to choose some from your region or location. For instance, if you are a contractor in New Jersey, you will want to use important key phrases such as, "interior painting New Jersey." This key phrase contains both, the contractor's business and location which will drive traffic from people who are looking for a painting contractor in the New Jersey area in particular. When creating your text for the site, make sure to optimize it by using local keywords there as well.

Use Local Terms in Metatags

Search engines crawl metatags so do not overlook including your location in them. Include your location in the keywords of the metatags on the pages of the website. Make sure that you match the keywords used in both the metatags and the site text.

Register with Local Search Engines

The major search engines have local listings for businesses. Take advantage of these tools for local businesses. Register your business site with Google Places, Bing Local, and Yahoo! Local. This will help increase your rank in their results particularly when a search is made for a business or contractor in your specific area.

Top SEO

Poll #1

Best search engine for local search

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Table of Contents

  1. Poll #1
  3. Top SEO Blog
  4. Poll #2
  5. How to Promote Local Business
  6. How to Choose Keywords
  7. SEO Videos
  8. Google Local Listing Optimization
  9. Choosing Keywords for SEO
  10. Lens Love Widget
  11. Poll #3
  12. SEO Related Articles
  13. Use Social Media
  14. Social Media for Local Business
  15. Facebook for Local Business
  16. SEO Friendly Web Designs
  17. New Guestbook Comments

“Stay active with some of the social review sites such as Insider Pages or Yelp!”

Top SEO Blog

Internet Marketing, Web Design, Web 2.0 Optimization

Top SEO blog is full of valuable information for anyone who works in some capacity with web design or web marketing or for anyone looking to learn about SEO. Posts deal with best practices that can be applied to site development so that it will rank high in search engine result pages. It is essential for local New Jersey businesses to accomplish top rankings in search engines. This blog shares information to help each business personal achieve this.

SEO can be a tricky topic as each of the three major search engines use a different algorithm to search for a key word or phrase. All of these algorithms are discussed so that a site can be optimized to have high ranking results in each of these search engines.

This blog is an invaluable resource for all types of businesses to find useful internet marketing tips. The broad range of posts include information for contractors who need to make use of local SEO to those who are managing a business which only handles online transactions.

Top SEO blog literally has something for everyone no matter what stage of web development they are engaged in. The blog discusses how to use the new Web 2.0 as a tool for successful internet marketing for every business.

Marketing for Contractors
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Poll #2

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How to Promote Local Business

Local internet marketing for your small business, local search marketing tips, local SEO checklist

Promote Local BusinessYou most likely chose your business because it's something you like to do, or it is easy for you to do. Learning how to promote your business online will not take you away from what you love to do most. There are a few things that you can do to help get your business to the top of the search engine rankings so that customers in your region can find you easier. Most people do not even remember what the "Yellow Pages" were; their search for a local business or contractor will begin and end online.

Claim Your Business

Google Places, Yahoo! Local, Bing Local, and Yelp all have listings of local businesses. It is very likely that your business is already listed and all you need to do is claim it and go through the verification process on the site. You can also update all the contact information here as well as add pictures.

Establish a Blog

Since search engines love to go for fresh content, establishing a business related blog is essential. Put fresh content up at least a couple of times a week. Include topics that will be informative to customers. You can help them choose between products, like paint colors or types of flooring. Or explain how a particular product works or is used. Just keep it fresh.

How to Choose Keywords

How to select keywords for your website, finding good keywords, search engine optimization for my website

Choose KeywordsLocal business websites can actually have an advantage over much larger based sites because they only have to compete locally, not globally. When choosing the keywords for local SEO there are a few things to keep in mind.

One good place to start is by asking yourself about the areas that are served by your business. You want to target a certain area or region so a good place to start for local SEO is to make a list of the regions served by your business. For plumbers who work in the New Jersey area you may start with "plumber New Jersey." To get more specific you may also choose to use "plumbing Warren County." You can also add other specific services such as "drain cleaning New Jersey" to the list of possibilities.

Another question you may want to ask yourself when choosing keywords for your site is, "What do customers associate with my company?" How do your customers describe what you do? It may be as simple as interior painting. But if there are a wide range of services involved, such as in home remodeling, you will want to use keywords that can broadly define your services. Keywords for remodeling may be "remodeling North Carolina," or "home renovations Simsbury County."

SEO Videos

Here are a few videos to help you learn more about local SEO
Guide to Local SEO
by koozai | video info

13 ratings | 1,745 views
automatically generated by YouTube

Google Local Listing Optimization

Google local business listings SEO, local business results optimization, how to optimize Google local listing

Local Listing OptimizationIn general, Google Local Business listings will show up only when a user searches for a business along with a city. When a user is looking for a specific service such as a plumbing specialist, they are not likely to just type in "plumber" to find a business to meet the need. They will most likely type in the need and the location such as "plumber Morristown." It is imperative that your business be listed in the local directory.

The first way to take advantage of Google Local is to search for your business and then claim it and verify it. Then you can add more information such as contact info, or pictures to enhance the listing. Take advantage of being able to categorize the business on Google services. You can put up to 10 images and 5 videos on the listing. Use your logo or pictures of the business. For contractors you may want to include a couple of pictures of projects you have completed.

Then check your website. It should have the business name in the title, descriptions, content and tags. Plus make sure that the business address and phone number is listed on every page on the site. Also make sure that the content on the site has the city and state included. These local identifiers should be listed on every page in titles, headers, descriptions and content as well.

Choosing Keywords for SEO

Keyword based SEO, search engine optimization FAQ, organic search engine optimization for small business

Keywords for SEOIt is imperative for optimizing a site that you choose the right keywords. You will want to use words or phrases that internet users will most likely be using if they are searching for your local business. The first thing that will need to be done is to make a list of possible key phrases that might be used for the specific industry or services being provided. Try putting several words or phrases into the search and see which ones are more commonly used in relation to the industry. You may need to try a wide variety of phrases such as: interior painting New Jersey, painting specialist, interior painting contractor, interior painting specialist and so on.

After you have made an extensive list of possible keywords or phrases and tried them in a search querie, eliminate the ones that are not directly connected. The goal is to optimize for the words that are most commonly used in searches without including words that are overused. Avoid using words that are too broad.

The keywords that will optimize your site will sum up your brands or services. Spend a little bit of time thinking about the services you provide and how others may search for them online. Then target SEO efforts toward reaching the desired audience so that they can find your business.

Home Remodeling Resources

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Poll #3

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SEO Related Articles

Social bookmarks, SEO bookmarks, marketing articles

These posts will deal with SEO strategies. There are many useful SEO tools that can be used to create a successful internet marketing plan. Various strategies and tips are discussed by SEO professionals in these very informative posts. Discover how each web marketing campaign is unique and which strategies will work best; and the circumstances which make some strategies ineffective. Posts will also disclose what strategies are rarely used but how these commonly overlooked tools can be some of the most useful for some SEO campaigns
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Use Social Media

Social media is perhaps one of the least expensive and time efficient ways to promote your business. Creating fan pages or tweeting updates are just a couple of ways to get and keep customers involved.

Social Media for Local Business

Internet marketing for small business owners, social media tips for small businesses, internet advertising for local business

Social Media for Local BusinessLocal businesses really do not need to reach all Facebook users with their products or services. However, social sites can be very powerful tools to reach the hundreds or thousands of social media users in your region. Actually social media can be used to enhance or grow your local business.

One tactic is to start a local online group. Most of the social network platforms allow some variation of group formation. Sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Flickr allow for the creation and management of groups. This can allow input from local customers as well as a platform that can be used to keep them informed.

Other sites such as Squidoo allow the creation of a page (called a "lens") which can contain photos and content about the services a business offers. Visitors can post remarks on the site as well as follow the hyperlinks to the local business website. This is a great tool for contractors as a picture can be put up to show the latest work by the company. An exterior painting contractor can include information plus a picture of their latest project.

Stay active with some of the social review sites such as Insider Pages or Yelp! You can also add these customer reviews to your profile on Google Maps or Bing Local.

Facebook for Local Business

How to promote your business locally, marketing your facebook page, Facebook places advertising

Facebook for Local BusinessWhen facebook initially appeared on the internet, most people thought it was just a fad. How wrong they were. This is one of the most effective social networking platforms that can be used to boost marketing and sales for the local business. And of course, the best thing about it - is it's free.

While you cannot create a user profile for your business, you can make a fan page for the business. When users "like" your fan page they will be able to see status updates on their wall that you post on the business page. This is where you target your audience and host contests or share information about products and services.

Facebook can be used to spread information to a local audience in a very short time span. You can promote events or answer questions. You can also receive customer feedback on your fan page. Customers can be made aware of a new blog post, additions to the business website or the introduction of a new product all in a simple status box.

If you want to take a different approach, Facebook also has pay per click advertising. These costs are minimal and can target local customers. And you only pay if a user clicks on the advertisement.

SEO Friendly Web Designs

Web design for local business, local business marketing solutions, great business website designs

SEO Friendly Web DesignA good web design is an essential part of best SEO practices. Sure, you can use SEO to drive traffic to the site, but if the design is not appealing to visitors all you will get is a click and they are gone. Web site design must capture the internet user. They typed in a search and found your site; now give them something. Help them be able to find the information that they are looking for.

Make the information easy to find. The business name, phone number and address needs to be included on every page. And a site visitor should not have to hunt for it either. They may be looking for a roofing contractor. The easily navigated site should give them easy access to all pertinent information about the roofer. They should be able to contact them for an estimate, see pictures of projects he already completed and maybe even find information on what type of roofing materials are best for their particular needs.

A web site design for local business should immediately tell the customer, "you found what you need right here." Engaging the site visitor, providing information they need and supplying all contact information should be part of the basic web site design for the local business.

New Guestbook Comments

  • Tipi Jun 2, 2012 @ 11:42 am | delete
    Peeking in for another look, I just can't remember everything!
  • Hypersapien May 30, 2012 @ 5:06 pm | delete
    Nice tips and good lens.
  • johnpaul12 May 28, 2012 @ 4:36 am | delete
    Thank you for sharing your ideas. This is helpful to all marketers...
  • Wbisbill May 19, 2012 @ 11:52 am | delete
    Great info!
  • mismatch May 15, 2012 @ 12:16 pm | delete
    Good lens on the topic of local and general SEO. Blessed!
  • RohanParekh May 13, 2012 @ 11:37 am | delete
    This is a great lens for all the businessmen!
  • minaliyengar May 11, 2012 @ 5:40 am | delete
    this is great. you have explained all the details about SEO. Nice lens
  • ajgodinho May 11, 2012 @ 1:18 am | delete
    Yeah, for local businesses, focusing on local SEO makes sense.
  • RohanParekh May 9, 2012 @ 2:28 pm | delete
    SEO is something i have never heard about! Knowledgeable lens!! :)
  • minaliyengar May 9, 2012 @ 7:56 am | delete
    Having the basic knowledge of SEO is must...this lens has targeted on a very important point and that is local SEO.
  • minaliyengar May 9, 2012 @ 7:56 am | delete
    Having the basic knowledge of SEO is must...this lens has targeted on a very important point and that is local SEO.
  • SudokuNut Apr 24, 2012 @ 10:29 pm | delete
    If you have a business which provides goods or services on a local basis then it's so much easier to get targeted traffic by targeting local search and directories. Besides, if you're painting houses in Alaska there's not much point getting traffic from England anyway so why compete for it.
  • trinderfletcher Apr 19, 2012 @ 10:37 am | delete
    Local SEO has a range of benefits over a typical SEO campaign such as driving more foot traffic to your retail business, and has significantly less competition compared to national campaigns.

    Trinder Fletcher
    Buy Articles
  • Bigdaddyguru Mar 16, 2012 @ 12:11 pm | delete
    Great site with some good info. I still don't understand why I get first page ranking for some of my keywords on Yahoo, but I can't even find myself on Google. I liked you lens.
  • cogentcoach Jan 13, 2012 @ 3:49 pm | delete
    I think that the local perspective is often forgotten in SEO, great points.
  • JennySui Dec 29, 2011 @ 2:06 pm | delete
    Thanks for sharing your knowledge about SEO.
  • oakstreet Dec 26, 2011 @ 2:36 am | delete
    Thank you for giving a like on my len and your information on SEO is very useful.I agree with you that people visit the website really wants to get what they are looking for. A click with no sales is useless.Thank God that My website on Christmas gift ideas is doing pretty good in this year but to build up a website with high ranking and good target traffic really needs lots of time and I think I still have to build up more backlinks for my website and started to learn more about web. 2.0 over the internet as well. Looking forward to learn more from you in the future.Merry Christmas and a happy new year.
  • darciefrench Dec 11, 2011 @ 4:49 pm | delete
    Nice job explaining the ins and outs of local SEO
  • Steve-SEO-UK Dec 7, 2011 @ 6:10 am | delete
    Most companies who I do SEO for I always include their catchment area within the meta tags and throughout the web pages. Although the visitors they receive are less per month but are generally far more focused and of better quality that converts better. Many thanks for a good Lens and thumbs up.
    Advertising Techniques
  • aesta1 Dec 5, 2011 @ 2:47 am | delete
    I suppose if you are a local business,this is important. Some useful ideas here.
  • RinconDynamic Nov 29, 2011 @ 4:35 pm | delete
    great lens, its extremely useful for small business that need to get a boost on google
  • webwisewords Nov 7, 2011 @ 4:47 pm | delete
    Local SEO is extremely useful - even if your leads don't find you doing a search for the products or services you offer, there's a very good chance that they will look you up online and search for reviews, more info, etc... it's best to control the results yourself than leave it to others to fill the search results for you.
  • Mubashirshafi Nov 4, 2011 @ 11:01 am | delete
    Before looking at what small business SEO is, it's important to look at what search engine optimization is in the first place. When people want to research something over the Internet, they make use of search engines to try to look for these concepts or items that they're searching for. By typing certain words or phrases, they will be given a set of search engine results that are pertinent to the terms that they entered. Search engines order these websites according to their level of relevance to the terms that the person has typed on the search field, which is why the thousands of websites are ranked according to order.

    Marketers have realized just how good a business opportunity it is to appear at the top of the search engine results. More often than not, people only look at the first few websites (usually those that appear on the front page of search engine results) when they use search engines. In order to achieve this goal, they make use of search engine optimization techniques and tools in order to appear at the top of the results page. Today, there are different kinds of SEO services you can choose from, including those that have been designed specifically for small business SEO.
    Regards,
    SEO Pakistan
  • Oct 24, 2011 @ 6:54 pm | delete
    all of this is essential in seo right? but may i ask you a question? how about the comment platforms that does not approve comments immediately? will our comments still count in seo? did you get my point buddy?
  • wecomparebooks Oct 25, 2011 @ 8:04 am | delete
    The comments will still count once they are approved. If the comment is not approved or gets flagged as spam it will not count.
    Also, comments are often no follow and even when they are do follow they add very little value for SEO.
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wecomparebooks

I'm a Squid Angel as of May 22, 2012! And I'm loving it!

My name is Eugene; I am an SEO specialist with NetLZ

My primary focus area is on web 2.0... more »

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