Get Found - Local Search Ranking

By Beacon News | Published December 3, 2010 | Categories: Web Development

I seem to be on a location kick lately since two out of three of my last posts have been about location. Although it’s a hot topic in the social media world, we can’t forget the importance of local search results. A simple search for a business or product on any major search engine will usually cause a few top results in your area to show up within the regular listing. See example below:

Google

Bing

Yahoo

More local listings are available but the coveted spot and most valuable real estate are those top few listings on the first page. How do you get there? Here are a few tips.

• Submit your business listing on Google, Yahoo, and Bing if it doesn’t already show up in search. For multiple listings, make sure your information is complete and consistent. Double check business name, keywords and description before submitting. Be sure to include all possible contact information and feel free to submit photos of your locations.
• Your site should be search engine friendly. Search engines need to easily crawl your site and find relevant keywords. Your business name and address should be clear text and not hidden within an image or table. Listing the business address more than once and including your location in the title tag can also help crawlers deem your site more relevant than others.
• Don’t underestimate the power of reviews. Ask your customers to submit reviews. Reviews add more information and keywords to your listings building your site’s credibility.
• Find local web listings and request that they link to your site. You can also request local Chambers of Commerce to link to your site.
• Create different pages for different cities/regions if your business has multiple locations. Be sure to use unique and relevant content and do not duplicate information.

There are other ways to get found by search engines and customers. How many more can you think of?