How to optimize your website for local search results visibility.
This is a straight forward concept but it does require some effort. Below are five fundamental steps that should be taken for you to start dominating your local competition. Remember, this is a competition for the top position on a keyword (keywords your customers would use to find your product or service) search results page.
- Get Back-links from relevant and ranked pages. (Ask yourself, what products or services are related to mine? Find popular websites (high page ranks) and try to get them to link to your website.
- Post Relevant, dynamic, and current content on your page. The luxury days of just launching an online brochure website and walking away are gone. Websites that get ranked these days are in a constant state of improvement.
- Add a map to your site. Maps tell the search engines, in no uncertain terms, where you are located. This means your website will be deemed relevant and get visibility when a potential customer searches using a geographical qualifying keyword (like your city or state), or in may cases the search engine will match the IP address of the searcher with your map location.
- Join the most popular directories. Some are free and some cost. Many times your listing in a directory will get more visibility in a search result than your actual website. In addition to that, your listing in the directory creates an all important back-link to your site.
- Get testimonials and referrals. It’s all about creating a bee hive of activity within the confines of your online presence.
Of course there are a multitude of other steps that can be taken to improve your local SEO, but these five will give the biggest bang for the buck!
Here are links to relevant sources that substantiate the steps above:
- http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217982
- https://www.yola.com/tutorials/article/Tutorial-Optimizing-your-site-for-local-search-1285944438976/Promotion_SEO_Traffic_and_Advertising
- http://www.shopify.com/blog/15156073-four-on-site-optimization-tips-for-local-seo-to-help-you-rank-higher
