Local SEO for Local Search Results That Rock

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Local SEO for small business makes sense in today's tight economy. Advertising and marketing are usually the first to go during hard times, but a business can hardly afford to stop letting customers know how their service can help customers meet their needs or solve their problems.

All local search engine optimization begins with understanding how your customer thinks to solve their problems. If your customer is in need of a plumber, it is very likely they will begin using a search engine like Google. The customer in need of this service, will most likely type in â€œclogged pipes Phoenix, Arizonaâ€ or plumber, Phoenix, AZ.

Google will instantly return thousands of local results it believes are relevant to this search term. However, it is important to know that Google will return an answer from many sources. A plumbing business with a website focusing on these keywords (and every local business should have a geo-locator keyword focuses website or blog), if indexed and found by Google, may be delivered for this result.

However, this is not guaranteed.

A local business has a greater chance if it uses many methods of website promotion, since Google is now delivering results from many sources.

The best place to begin with local seo is keyword research. Google has a free keyword research tool in its Adwords service that is very good. Think of ways a potential customer is searching for your service. Once you have a list of these keywords, then begin searching using local towns in your area, beginning with the largest city your business serves. Begin to work outward from the major city and determine how many searches are queried for each individual town.

This will give you a good list to begin developing content for your website. Unfortunately, many local business owners believe building a website with basic information and contact information is enough to develop leads. The truth is local business owners must provide content on a regular basis to establish themselves as the local expert, keep content fresh so Google can find the content, and provide keyword focused content that allows their business to be listed in Google.

The best local seo utilizes social utilities because Google prizes these properties, indexes and lists them in search results regularly. However, this should be secondary to a free service Google and Bing both offer to local businesses.

Google delivers local results with its cool mapping feature, and allows businesses the opportunity to claim their listing. Google has already created a spot for most businesses. However, local business owners have no idea how to claim their listing.

The listing may be enhanced with contact information, pictures, videos, website information, hours of operation, and accepted payment options. These features enhance your listing and the more citations (mentions on other websites, local news sites, chambers of commerce, etc) your business receives, the more credibility is receives, and the higher it ranks in Google maps returned results.

In addition to this feature, local business owners can use other local seo tactics to gain higher search engine rankings. One very strong content builder that is easy to learn and gets excellent search engine results is using social media like video marketing.

Video Marketing for Local SEO

Video marketing not only help you establish yourself as the expert, but it allows you to show your products and services in a way that many searchers are becoming used to. Video sites like You Tube are fast becoming primary search engines for many people, and is now ranked as the #2 search engine.

What this means for local business is using geo-locators like city and zip code for your business will help your business get listed by Google faster and often.

This creates hundreds of valuable authority links back to your website, and increases your ranking in Google. Since the market is much smaller in your geographic area, it is much easier to dominate local search engines using video marketing tactics.

Web 2.0 Marketing
Using Web 2.0 sites (and there are hundreds of them) to create backlinks is another powerful way to dominate local search engine results.

Think of every site you have online as a piece of real estate. Much like a brick and mortar business, the more places your business is found, the greater volume of visitors you may have and the easier it is to find you in one geograhic area.

It is the same with Web 2.0 marketing. If you have a web presence on Facebook, Linked In, Twitter and numerous other social sites, greater numbers of people are seeing you and your content.

If you have visions of sitting in front of your computer all day, just know this process can be automated so that your content appears on hundreds of sites at the click of a button. If you spend just 15 minutes a day using these tools, it can generate lots of positive traffic for your website.

Focus on your geo specific keywords, begin video marketing and utilize the power of Web 2.0 sites, and you will see your website increase in rankings, dominate the local competition, and an increase in traffic to your business. This is the essence of local seo for small business on the web today.