| This area of Texas seems to be inundated by | | | | local customers to go in and review your |
| various phone directories. At last count, I | | | | business. These recommendation sites include: |
| think we had 3 directories in addition to the | | | | AOL City Guide, JudysBook.com, |
| one published by our local phone provider. I | | | | InsiderPages.com, AngiesList.com, and |
| decided that I was tired of them taking up | | | | |
| valuable shelf space, so I threw out all but | | | | 4. Optimize your website for local search. |
| one. Why? Because when I need a local product | | | | There are a number of tweaks you can add to |
| or service, I'm more inclined to find the | | | | your website to optimize it for local |
| local business online rather than referring | | | | searches. These include: |
| to the local telephone directory. | | | | |
| | | | --Local terms in your page titles (i.e. don't |
| Apparently I'm not alone. In fact, an August | | | | use home page as your home page title but |
| 2006 Nielsen//NetRatings/WebVisible survey | | | | Seattle Professional Organizer as the title |
| reported that 70% of a group of Internet | | | | of your home page). |
| searchers used the Internet to search for | | | | |
| local businesses; 46% of them searched for | | | | --Local terms in your anchor text, which is |
| local businesses in the last 90 days. | | | | the visible, hyperlinked text on a web page |
| | | | that's often underlined and/or a different |
| So, what is local search, anyway? Local | | | | color than the rest of the copy (i.e. don't |
| search refers to using geographic location | | | | use your business name, Aamco Financial |
| terms to find a local business online, i.e. | | | | Services, but use New York City Financial |
| using Google and searching for "dog groomer" | | | | Planning Services instead). |
| + "Houston." If you're not yet taking | | | | |
| advantage of local search options to help you | | | | --Local terms in your H1 and H2 tags |
| get local traffic to your website, you are | | | | (headlines) (i.e. those headlines that are |
| missing out on a substantial amount of | | | | flanked by H1 and H2 header code in the HTML |
| business. | | | | code of your page) --Local terms in the body |
| | | | of your pages (i.e. mention "Houston |
| Here are some ways you can drive local | | | | professional dog groomer" rather than simply |
| traffic to your website: | | | | dog groomer or your business name in the |
| | | | content of your pages). |
| 1. Local search engines. Most of the major | | | | |
| search engines permit you to list your | | | | 5. Location map on your site. Make it easy |
| website and attach it to a specific | | | | for locals to find you. Google Maps makes it |
| geographic area. These locally-focused | | | | very easy to embed a map of your location on |
| websites include: Google Local Yahoo Local | | | | a page of your website. |
| MSN Local InfoUSA Merchant Circle and | | | | |
| | | | 6. Physical address. Including your physical |
| 2. Other local directories. Many times local | | | | address on all pages of your site gives the |
| media, organizations, or businesses offer | | | | search engines yet another reason to index |
| locally-based directories where you can list | | | | you to be found locally. |
| your business for free or for a fee. Places | | | | |
| you might check in your local area include | | | | 7. Inbound Links. Request inbound links to |
| regional or local newspapers, televisions | | | | your website from other local businesses. |
| stations, regional or city magazines, | | | | Search engines especially favor one-way |
| independently owned local directories, city | | | | inbound links from highly trafficked sites, |
| guides of major search engines (like Yahoo | | | | so if you don't have to list a reciprocal |
| City Guide), profession or industry | | | | link back to the linking site on your site, |
| directory, regional/state sites, and chamber | | | | the linking strategy becomes even stronger. |
| of commerce or visitor bureau sites. Ask your | | | | Instead of using your business name as the |
| local clients where they look online for | | | | anchor text, use a geographic description of |
| local goods and services to give you an idea | | | | your business as described in strategy #4 |
| of the sites your target market actually | | | | above. |
| uses. | | | | |
| | | | If you have business with local clientele, |
| 3. Recommendation/review sites. Many of the | | | | it's not too late to make sure that your |
| locally focused websites noted above offer | | | | business can be found through local search. |
| visitors the opportunity to post testimonials | | | | After all, you don't want to send your target |
| or reviews about the products or services of | | | | market to the competition, do you? |
| a business. Take a few minutes to ask your | | | | |