There are several local search engine-ranking factors to consider when optimizing your website for local search. These include:
Proper page titles – Each page of your site should have a unique name. The name should include targeted key phrases and your location at the minimum.
Address on every page – Put your business address on every single page of your site, the footer is a great place for this. Don’t just put your address and contact info on the contact page. Let Google have no doubt what your local business address is!
Get inbound links – Ask complementary businesses to yours in your local area to exchange links. Ask your customers who have websites to link to you. Offer a widget on your site so that people who like your site can share their love of your site with others on their blogs, social media, and websites easily.
Links within – Use local terms as the anchor text to link to other content within your site on every page of your website. For example, if you have written a blog post on your blue widgets and a blog post on servicing the widgets, you should link to the other article at the end of each blog post.
Other incoming links – Try to have incoming links use local terms or location as the anchor text whenever you have some control of the text used. It helps if your website has these terms within the domain name.
Pick a great domain – Choosing your domain name is very important. If you can, try to have your geographic location in your domain name. Also a term that states what you do, with no dashes. It should be a .com for the best results.
Local Business Directories – Ensure you are part of any relevant local business directories that have to do with your business. Such as the chamber of commerce site, any industry membership sites and even on sites with services complementary to yours.
Local information – Include, when relevant, local information such as your country, state, address, telephone number, zip code, nearby neighborhoods, area codes, airport codes, metro areas, area names including slang terms or terms the locals use anywhere on your site. For instance, it’s not uncommon for locals to continue using an old name for a street or area when it’s been changed.
Keywords and phrases – Use the words locals may call your product or service in addition to the technical terms. Do not try to reinvent the wheel because it can take a long time to educate many people.
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Glennette Goodbread, Owner
Premium Web Design and Hosting
