Promoting local businesses is much different than other websites on the Internet. One of the big differences is to set the correct expectations of the owner so they understand the true goal of your work. Yes, local SEO is about driving traffic but traffic that is going to generate business for the local company. Let’s look at some of the top strategies you can do to help a local businesses’ website can succeed:
- Submit business to local search engine’s search – All the major search engines offer you the ability to add your business information to them and create a profile. This profile contains all kinds of business related information such as hours, address, reviews, and more. Google recently has become more home business friendly and is allowing more entries into their local section for these businesses. Do not try to game the address such as saying your business is in a different location then where it is truly located as each engine is going to send you a post card with pin number to the address you used to verify the address.
- Submit to other local search directories – CitySearch and Yelp are two great places. Make sure you properly categorize your listing and add as much information as possible.
- Get reviews/testimonials from past customers – This has become extremely important from a ranking perspective in the local directories while having testimonials on the site is always a good thing. Ask your current customers if they can give you a testimonal as this builds trust for potential new customers when they come to visit your site. Also, try to find creative ways to get customers to give you a positive review on Yelp and Google such as putting the request on your invoices or on your business cards.
- Search community websites and get listed – sites like local chambers of commerce and The Better Business Berau give you an opportunity to network with other local business but will give you links to your site that will help organic rankings. Local trade organizations and other business directories are also good places. For example, if you are helping a plumbing supply store located in Tampa, Florida try adding a listing in Super Pages and the Tampa Bay Builders Association.
- Run a very local pay per click campaign in Google Ad Words – I love this technique for many reasons. It allows you a true view on top search terms people use for SEO purposes and will also give you a good opportunity to drive localized traffic to your site at a much lower cost per click. Yes, some other national services will be bidding on the same terms as the ones you are but you can still specifically target to your market at a much cheaper cost.
- Use Craiglist – Craiglist gets nice traffic volumes and even though you can not add a direct link to your site you can have your phone number, address, and email listed. Most of the listings are free and will be pushed down on the directory listings quickly but it does not hurt to place a listing and increase your exposure.
- Advertise on local media sites on line versions – Depending on on budget this can be a nice to have or want to have. If the rates are good then give it a shot.
- SEO your site around local terms – No brainer here but look at all the different versions people can use to describe your local area such as “LA”, “Los Angeles”, “L.A.”, LA, Cali”, and such. Create pages around terms that are also included in your local area such as nearby cities, the county and major roadways the site is located in. This give you a wider net to cast over the local organic results.
- Spy on your competitors – who is the local competition for your terms and how competitive is the landscape? List your competitors and check where they are getting their links from and go get listed there as well.
- Link where your competitors link – We kind of talked a little about this before but you need to really concentrate on this as it can really be the difference maker to the success of your campaign. The Internet is great as it allows you to research what the top achieving web sites are doing and do it better. Using tools such as Yahoo’s SiteExplorer and SEOMOZ’s LinkScape and Open Explorer giveyou great insight on how your competitors are getting links from. If they are getting links from certain sites so should you.
- Use Twitter – Social media really is not a huge difference maker for local businesses but Twitter can provide good results as tweets can be used to keep customers updated and attract some new ones. I know of one A/C company that uses Twitter to keep its daily scheduled customers up to date on what appointment they are currently on and how this related to staying on schedule.
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