Local SEO Techniques to Grow Your Business - Search Engines - SE Optimization

With the rate the internet is growing, there seems to be no stopping the growth of the amount of local searches. You are about to learn about a few SEO techniques that will take you far in this business.

One of the simplest things you can do to make the most out of local searches is to focus on getting listed with the big boys of the industry. This talks about Maps by Google and Local by Yahoo!. Listing with these huge names should be your first priority before you go on to something else. The idea is that, by listing with these names, you'll get more traffic from the search engines than you'll know what to do with. It's not difficult to list yourself with Google Maps. It's just a small form, and then you have to verify that you are who you are either through telephone or email verification procedures. As soon as you get verified, it will take up to 4 to 6 weeks to find yourself in the local listings part of the search results. You should expect to find the same with Yahoo!, except you don't have to verify anything with them. Yahoo! will even allow you to design your business listing to your liking.

Yahoo! seems to approve you much quicker than Google, which is a good thing. This tip is so important if you hope to contact those who are looking for what you're offering.

If your business has multiple locations, use a different landing page for each one. For local sites, the rule is to avoid having more than a single listing for one business, but if the business has more than one location, there is no reason not to have a listing for each one. The crucial point is that each separate location must have its own unique landing page that is obviously about the business in that specific place. What you should avoid is having a home page or single landing page that gets all the traffic from more than one local listing. You don't want to do anything that will confuse search engine users, so your landing pages should match up perfectly with each location. Taking care of simple elements like this can really give you better results.

Try to diversify your anchor text. Every SEO marketer understands that having long tail keywords is valuable and having them in place can help you better rank your business in the search engines; when you use local SEO that's exactly what you are trying to do. Long tail keywords allow you to play around with the anchor texts of your links, the diversification of your anchor texts and you are better able to expand your efforts. For example, you want to use more than just "New York Chocolate Store" if you sell chocolate in New York. Go ahead and create incoming links for other variations of the same keyword phrase, such as "Chocolate Store in New York", or "Chocolate Stores in Manhattan, New York." Whatever you do, don't forget that search engines place a lot of value on anchor texts which means that you need to use as many variations as you can if you want to raise your rankings.

Overall, the local SEO tips that we discussed above can make a big difference if you apply them.