LET 'EM KNOW Localized SEO:
How to Contact Your Neighbors
Sure it makes sense for worldwide conglomerates to establish and grow a presence on the world wide web. Their clients are global so of course they want to be seen globally. But what about the small business owner? Does the world wide web make sense for Dick’s Hardware on Main Street? Especially since Dick isn’t set up to handle mail orders on a worldwide scale?
It is. SEO localization is happening. More and more small business owners are signing up with web hosts and creating small sites to provide information for local buyers. These business owners aren’t interested in making a sale in
You Can’t Control a Search Engine (Very Much)
Let’s stick with Dick’s Hardware for a moment. Dick may sell electric generators in his small town hardware store but he doesn’t want to sell them to people living in time zones where it’s tomorrow today. He wants to reach the people in his home town. Dick wants to reach the local market and tell that market segment about what’s on sale that week.
However, if a search engine user in
Localizing Your Site
Localization is the practice of narrowing a market demographic to a specific geographic area. That area could be a small town, a metropolis, a state, country or region of the world.
So how do you reach the residents of your community without pulling in traffic from another hemisphere? Well, localization takes several forms, none of which is difficult even for the start-up web site owner.
Localization techniques include:
- online marketing protocols
- geo-centric SEO
- directory submissions
- PPC advertisements
- web-based ‘telephone’ books
- language and dialects
- images
- mapping
Online Marketing Protocols
Search engines don’t just spider your selected keywords. These crawlers examine everything – site text, HTML description and title tags, in- and out-bound links, embedded text links, site maps – your whole site.
So, it’s not enough to simply add your local zip code to your HTML keyword tag. It should be added to all meta data to ensure that spiders ‘know’ you’re local not global. This meta data is part of your HTML code – the underlying support for your site and it provides a great deal of useful information to spiders – including your location.
Your location should also appear throughout the text of your site – as part of the home page header, and in bodies of text on different site pages.
Geo-Centric SEO
Of course, this doesn’t mean you should exclude your location from your keyword set. In fact, it should be at the top of the list and should include the name of your community and your state (or province or region). Why? Because search engines will give greater weight to those first few keywords, and if one of them is the name of your community, your site will pop up at the top of the SERPs of any search engine user looking for local outlets and using ‘local’ keywords.
Directory Submissions
Sites like craigslist.com and angieslist.com are ideal outlets for local businesses seeking to establish a web presence. These directories, along with larger directories like the Open Directory Project, will better clarify where you’re located and what you do. What’s even better about these directories is that your customers can add their opinions of your goods or services. So, if you’re good at what you do you’ll pick up extra testimonials from happy customers.
On the other hand, if you’re terrible at what you do you’ll get slammed in these directories, and should probably consider a different line of work. No amount of online exposure is going to help if you’re really bad at what you do.
Pay-Per-Click
Using PPC programs, like Google AdWords, enables you to cherry pick where you want your AdWords to appear. You can limit their appearance to those search engine users who actually enter the name of your community as part of their search so you aren’t wasting money with useless click-throughs from someone half a world away.
Another advantage? AdWords employs a bidding system with more frequently used keywords going for a higher PPC than lesser used keywords. So, by bidding on keywords that include the name of your community – hardware stores anytown usa – you’ll get those critical keywords for less than if you were trying to reach a global market with your online advertising campaign.
Web-Based Telephone Books
Type in ‘telephone books’ into Google’s search box and you’ll see just how many of these resources are available to the local merchant. Some of the most popular of these guides include: yellowpages.com, yellowbook.com, whitepages.com, superpages.com and, on this day, approximately 64,700,000 more online phonebooks categorized by location, activity or products.
It will cost money to take a listing in some of these telephone directories. You can add images and business information, just like the yellow pages in your regular telephone book if you have the cash, but it’s not essential. However, it is essential for the local business to get listed in the local, online telephone directory. More and more people are turning to the web to access local businesses and you want your business to be accessed – a lot.
Where You Want to be Listed
We mentioned a few on-line telephone books previously. In addition to those mentioned above, make sure your business and address are listed in all of the following: MSN Yellow Pages, Switchboard, Yahoo! Get Local, AOL Yellow Pages, Insider Pages, Yelp.com, CitySearch, DogPile, Windows Live, MetaCrawler, AltaVista and Google Local.
Language and Regionalisms
If your business is located in the
The same rules apply within different regions of the
If you order a milk shake in
As a small business owner, you know the local dialect. Use it on your site, within your meta data, PPC ads and other advertising outlets.
Images
A picture is worth a thousand words. Include pictures of your store’s or business’ exterior. Many people will recognize it because they drive by it everyday. That’s a good endorsement right there.
But also include images of local landmarks – the statue on the town green, the local swimming hole or a long shot of Main Street. These pictures tell people your local and that you know the area – a big plus.
Mapping
With global positioning systems (GPS) becoming more and more popular, whether the GPS is in an Audi or on a computer screen, a map showing how to get to your business is always helpful – especially for buyers from a few towns away.
Google Earth, the world view provided by satellites, lists street locations, telephone numbers and even a push pin icon to identify the location of your business. The easier it is to find you, the more sales you’ll make.
Submit your business information to Google – including street address – and have a push pin added to show where your shop is.
Think It’s Too Much Trouble?
Your local competition doesn’t and you don’t want to be the last one listed. Yes, it takes some time to hook up with all of these directories and PPC programs but your competitors have already taken the plunge (check it and see) and, the fact is, you’re missing out on one of the best marketing opportunities available to the small business person operating at the local level.
Find a reliable, low-cost web host (less than $100 a year), design your site yourself (it’s really easy), launch your site and start getting hooked into to the local online grid. And keep at it. There are more and more local directories coming on line all of the time so list and list often.
You’ll be amazed at what the W3 can do for your small business in your small community.
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