8 Tips For Adding Local Search Findability to Your Business Website

Once upon a time not so very long ago, using the Internet to find local customers would have seemed like a strange idea. After all, that's what print directories like the Yellow Pages were for, and everyone "knew" that the World Wide Web was for selling products and services to faraway customers.

That was once the accepted wisdom, anyway, before the age of smartphones, local review sites, social media, and the localization on search results, not to mention the steep decline of printed directories and newspapers. These developments have flipped the script, so to speak, and made local search findability and optimization incredibly important to any company that is trying to find buyers in its own neighborhood.

With that in mind, here are eight of our best tips for optimizing your business website for local search:

1. Consider your location when you’re creating your content strategy. What kind of topics and trends are important in your location? What content is most valuable to your audience?
2. Start with the obvious geographic keywords. As in, the way a local customer might go looking for you based on geography. For example, we might emphasize terms like "Minneapolis web design," or "Minneapolis web development." By simply adding city, state, or region-specific keywords, you can go a long way towards letting Google and the other search engines know where you are. Tip: Don’t overdo this one. Google penalizes sites for keyword stuffing.
3. Include maps, driving directions, and local contact information on your website. These further optimize your site for search engines, but also make your pages more useful to local buyers, as well. Assuming that you want buyers to come visit your office or retail location, why not make it as easy as possible for them to find you?
4. Consider posting a schedule of events online. These usually won't have huge SEO value (although you could insert location-based keywords into event details), but can help drive more of the local searchers who find you into your store, increase attendance for demonstrations and seminars and improve user experience.
5. Create separate web pages for each of your company's locations. If your business has multiple locations, consider setting up separate pages for each different store or office. That way, you can maximize the local search value of each.
6. Emphasize local keywords and events on your company blog. Because Google and the other search engines love fresh content, emphasizing your most important keywords and ideas on a company blog is a good idea. The more your site becomes associated with a certain location, the more local traffic you receive. Tip: Don’t overuse keywords in your content.
7. Implement a citation building strategy. Simply put, citations are “mentions” of your website. Examples of citations include YellowPages.com listing, profiles on Yelp and listings on Angie’s List. They may or may not include a link to your website. Google looks at citations to determine where your business operates so citations are extremely important when it comes to raising your visibility locally. Tip: NAP consistency is crucial. NAP stands for Name, Address, Phone Number. We recommend creating a business profile document that includes your full business name, address, phone numbers, logo, business description, etc. That way, your NAP will be consistent. Even the most minor discrepancy such as Ave vs. Avenue can affect your local visibility. If building citations sounds like too much of a pain, we can help!
8. Kick off a locally-targeted paid search campaign. Paid search campaigns like Google AdWords allow you to target the areas your ad will show. Tip: If your website is new, paid search is a quick way to increase traffic overnight.

The bad news about local search trends is that businesses can no longer rely on the Yellow Pages and/or printed coupons to help them attract customers like they did in the past. The good news, though, is that a properly managed local search campaign can help you find even more buyers, and at a fraction of the cost.

To learn more about local search engine optimization and other online marketing techniques, get in touch with ArcStone today!