Local SEO and regular SEO practice is more or less the same thing but with one crucial difference. Local SEO manipulates search engine algorithms so that local results appear in search pages well before generalized pages. In theory, local Internet viewers are looking for fast service, nearby locations and quick help. If there’s a business down the street providing the same information as a general SEO page, it would be to everyone’s advantage to give the local company a boost within its own territory.
That’s the idea behind the Google Venice update, as well as further algorithm changes coming in 2012 and 2013. Local SEO is also getting a big boost because of social media sites, geo-blogging (blogging from specific locations on a map) as well as mobile-centric search technology.
Not taking advantage of local SEO marketing may be a big mistake, since you would be competing with significantly fewer companies for locally popular keywords. In essence, all you’re doing is writing longtail keyword content with specific direction as to location. Besides writing locally themed content you might also find it advantageous to list your company on popular directories such as Google Places or Yelp.
If you find that your company is not coming up for popular keyword phrases, or even semi-popular phrases, the best thing to do is concentrate more on local keyword searches. In addition to writing longtail keyword friendly pages, it helps tremendously to connect your local company with a local social media page, as well as a reviews page. The reason you want to reach out into all these other areas is so you can build links because search engines consider link count when determining popularity. Along with proper keyword usage and quality content, this determines your overall rankings.
Remember, search sites (particularly the top world site Google) are constantly improving algorithms and making web crawling and indexing more human-like in filtering out poorly written content. Now is the time to up the quality of your pages and give people what they want—specific local content they are looking for, whether it’s reviews, instructions, directions, histories and so on.
Take Google Places for instance, one of the top local tools you have at your helm. This site is not just another directory submission page—it actually works with a number of data providers, including Localeze, Infogroup and others. These providers feed data into the Google Places index. All of this data is counted and helps to determine how often your company is mentioned.
So when writing local content be sure to be consistent, accurate, and aggressive when it comes to scheduling high quality content on a regular basis and link your projects throughout the net, building a network of pages. For more information talk to an SEO provider!
