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