Google Places, Yelp, Merchant Circle and other local geared sites are necessary in the local search equation and will be covered in detail in another section. In this section I want to cover some of the website changes that are needed for local search optimization.

Local keyword research should be done prior to modifying your site for local search. Once you know what to target focus on the following areas to boost your Local Search results

Title Tags

One of the most important areas for Keyword, use something like name city service as in C-Net Systems Detroit IT Services or C-Net Systems Troy Computer Repair

Header Tags

Use local terms in headers, SEO importance lowers from H1 to H3…

Address

Place you address and phone number on each page. Use the header, sidebar or footer to accomplish this easily. If you are using WordPress you can also use our WordPress Local Search Footer Plugin to add your address to the footer of each page. Be sure to use the exact format of your address that is found in other places on the internet like Google Places or Yelp, for example, Rd. is not the same as Road.

Page names

Where possible use your local search terms in the actual page name for example rather than using www.example.com/services you could use www.example.com/City_Services.

Contact Us Page

Your Contact Us page or whatever you call it on your site should use the hCard format for you address information and include a Google map of your location as well as contain business hours and payment options when possible to further validate your local position. Having this information match what is found on Google Places and other local search sites is important. If you are using WordPress for your site you can also use our WordPress Local Search hCard and Google Maps Plugins to help keep this information together and in the correct format as well as help with keeping the Google Map intact which can be a problem with the WordPress editor.

Content

Add local search terms where possible to you content

Meta Tags

Although not as important, you can add the following meta tag information to your pages, be sure to use the your local business location.

meta name=”zipcode” content=”64105,64113,64112,64110,64106,66207,66208,66210

meta name=”city” content=”Shelby Township”

meta name=”state” content=”Shelby Township, MI”

Add the following by using http://geo-tag.de/generator/en.html

meta name=”geo.region” content=”US-MI”

meta name=”geo.placename” content=”Shelby Township”

meta name=”geo.position” content=”42.684045;-83.035554″

meta name=”ICBM” content=”42.684045, -83.035554″

Local Directories

Claim and make any change necessary to your companies profile on Google Places, Merchant Circle, Yelp and other sites that are used to find local business and services. These types of sites are very important in validating your local internet presence and making sure the information across all these types of site is important.

Incoming Links

Incoming links to you site are important and used buy search engines to verify and discern what you site is about and with local search, where it is located.

Local Search Must Do List

• Have Physical Address In The City Being Searched
• Verified, Corrected and Optimized Place Page
• Quality Citations / Reviews
• Consistent Name, Address and Phone Number (NAP) On All Primary and Secondary Sites
• NAP hCard Optimized Website Pages and Page Titles
• Proper Business Categories Across Reference Sites
• Increase Page Rank and Inbound Links

Factors That Hurt Local Search

• Inconsistent Name, Address and Phone (NAP) Information
• Tracking Phone Numbers Or Having Only 800 Numbers
• Incorrect OR Uncrawlable Address Format
• Incorrect or Inconsistent Business Categories
• Poor Citations / Reviews
• Spammy Type Information On Place Page Or In Categories

Showing up in the local search results can have a positive impact on a business’s exposure and when done according to the rules is fairly easy to do. Trying to trick or spam the system may give you short term success but may also get you banned and is definitely not recommended.

Typically a site will have an overall theme and depending on the size of that may have underlying themes. If you think of your site like a hierarchy you should also think of your site as having its top level or homepage having the broadest keywords on an as you break into sections those keywords are then refine and broken into subcategories or themes.

When targeting keywords, try to target no more than one or two primary and two or three secondary keywords or key phrases per page. Targeting to many keywords on one page will dilute their value and you’ll find you’ll have better results when you target one keyword theme and fewer keywords on one page.

If possible try to lay out your site design and have an overall plan for what keywords are to be used in what sections. If you lay out your keywords that you want to use in this fashion you will have a framework for content on those pages. When writing your content for the individual pages, be sure to use variations of those keywords and key phrases on the page.

A common practice on the Internet to boost traffic is to find keywords that need to be targeted and create blog posts centered around those new keywords to bring traffic into the site. Many good Internet marketers use this tactic alone to drive traffic to their site.

Remember to always have quality content, having keyword rich content that is low quality or is not of any value to the reader will not help you in the long run. Low quality content may get you viewers initially but will not get you repeat viewers and will not help your site. High-value content when used in conjunction with good keyword research is the best way to drive Internet traffic to your site and keep visitors on your site.

Keyword research is the single most important thing you can do to better your site. Google has shown time and time again that content is what it is looking for and then giving relevance search results is its most important goal. It makes sense; Google wants to give its visitors the best possible search results it can. Better search results mean more money for Google and its advertisers, poor search results lowers their bottom line.

The only way Google knows what your site is about is through what I can see on your site and what it sees is the text you use and what you tell it about through your title and tags. Because Google is putting so much importance on relevant content I feel that what is on your site is the most important item to focus on before any other methods are used such as incoming links and other forms of traffic boosting.

Take the time to find your relevant keywords before you start to develop content. It’s much easier to design your content around keywords that are most relevant rather than rewriting existing content for new keywords.  Unfortunately I think that people have glazed over the buzzword “keywords” because they have heard it mentioned so often or think that they know better than the Internet what keywords are being used for their industry. In some cases you may know the best keywords to use for your industry but often you’ll find that those keywords need you to much better keywords and will give you much better results.

There are many keyword tools available including the Google Keyword Tool and in upcoming videos we will be showing some simple ways to use free utilities to create a relevant list of keywords. Without using some sort of keyword tool you’ll never be able to choose the best keywords and will greatly limit your site’s ability to be found through Internet searches.

We use Google analytics for the vast majority of our sites that are client sites. It’s free and offers many tracking reports to help you gauge how visitors find and use your site. Adding Google analytics to your site is easy especially if you’re using a content management system like WordPress which we also recommend especially for new sites or inexperience web developers.

Without setting up some sort of analytics program you will not be able to gauge your success on the Internet and will not be able to properly or correctly modify your site to its fullest potential through SEO.

If the site is for a new company or new products try to pick a domain name that correctly represents the company or products in a positive manner and if possible (and if you’ve done your keyword research properly) try to use one that contains your primary keyword. For branding purposes if it’s for a company or product and you can choose a domain that is the same as the company or products that would be my first choice.

Variations on the company name or product name are also acceptable although trying to steer away from dashes or hyphens because they are often misused or misinterpreted when giving a domain name verbally.

Always try to register the .com version of your domain name. Use .net or other designations as a last resort as invariably you will find that people even if you tell them .net will either try the .com extension instead or append the .com to the end of the web address you give them.

Although it’s not necessary to have the .com if you’d like to also get the .net, .biz and other variations of your domain name you can do so. Personally I feel that if you have the .com version and unless this is going to be a huge corporate site or business it’s not necessary to register the other versions unless you feel they will be taken just to directly compete against the .com site.

We typically purchase domains through GoDaddy.com but I often use the domain name availability checking on the networksolutions.com site. Both of these sites are great for domain names but I do not actually recommend hosting on these sites as we have had problems with their hosting in the past. For hosting we typically use hostgator.com.

Be sure to choose a reputable hosting company. Cheaper is not always better as we have had many problems with cheaper hosting companies that we’ve had to move our clients away from because of slow performance and susceptibility to hacking. Although you should not have to contact your hosting provider all that often if you do have a problem it’s good to know that the hosting company will be there to answer your phone calls or support problems quickly and with most value based hosting companies that simply not the case.

Most smart phones have GPS built into them, this is great for getting driving directions, searching for local hot spots, or even letting you know where someone is. Now companies are using the same technology that helps you find where your going to advertise.

AT&T has begun rolling out this service in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco with some major partners like HP and Jetblue to name a few. AT&T is using cell towers that your phone connects to, to determine your location and send you relevant ads. For now this is an opt in service so users have control whether or not they receive these.

AT&T Launches Location-Aware SMS Ads Via Dslreports.com

Many companies are creating marketing strategies that are centered around the companies website or some type of interactive media. Text campaigns, QR codes, and online coupons are just a few ways companies are using technology to promote and sell products. Not only that but there has been a major push for the promotion of local businesses.

Facebook, Foursqaure, and Yelp are just a few examples of sites that allow mobile users to “check in” at restuartants or businesses that they are currently at. Keen businesses owners that know about these sites can post coupons or specials for users who “check in” which gives two advantages right away. Not only does the customer benefit from checking in by getting something but its also free advertising for the business because when users check in its posted on a number of social sites. These are just a few new ways businesses are using online strategies to get offline business.

How To Increase Leads & Sales With Mobile Landing Pages Via b2cmarketinginsider

One example being American Airlines, they are placing QR codes on boards outside major airports so when passengers scan the code they can see real time flight information such as any delays or changes in the flight. Fox is using QR codes to promote TV shows with special content, The weather channel uses these codes on their broadcasts so when viewers snap the QR code they are lead to the smartphone app download page.

2-D codes are being used in different ways everyday to promote business. QR codes are easy to setup and have almost limitless potential in innovation.

HOW TO: Grow your sales and revenue via mashable.com

Mobius mobile web browser technology from appMobi will allow the app market to be shared between providers and smart phone versions. Apps created with the MobiUs Webapp browser will use HTML5 that will allow mobile and tablet devices to run fully featured web apps. The market for apps is ever growing and in 2011 is projected to make over $15 billion in revenue alone.

Web apps are a great tool that often takes advantage of local search and is essential to the grow of local marketing.

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