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Local SEO, Search Engine Optmisation - Is There Such A Thing And Can It Benefit Your Business?

By Paul Cunningham

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Published: 03Mar2012
Word count: 645
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I've managed the digital marketing lot of small and medium sized companies over a number of years now and it's obvious that there is a lot of confusion about what SEO (search engine optimisation) is and how to implement it. In particular, what is Local SEO and is there such a thing?

The main aim of this series of articles will be to try to give you an insight into SEO and how to plan and put in place a regional SEO campaign.

Local SEO

Regional or local Search Engine Optimisation is about optmising your website content so that it's seen by your most likely potential customers ie customers that live or work in the area your business operates in.

To illustrate how important it is for your business to appear in local search results on Google, recent statistics have shown that over 90% of the internet seraches carried out in the UK are made with Google. In fact people don't 'search' anymore they 'Google it'. Businesses need to recognise that its essential they give themselves as many chances as possible to appear on Googles local searches to maximise their exposure on the dominant search engine.

As an example if you're searching for a 'florist in Manchester' Googles search results will return a combination of 'Google Places' entires in the centre, a selection of organic listings containing links to local directory and businesses websites with a variey of Sponsored Listings at the top and right hand side of the page. The directory sites returned will contain a link to a full page of results, listing (in our example) florists in Manchester. Videos are now being returned with greater promience on Google and are certainly worth considering if its appropriate to your business but we'll look at that in a later article. The question is how do we go about appearing in the local search results?

The Local SEO Approach How To Appear In Googles Local Listings

If i'm honest there is no complex technical approach to this - a search for the service you offer in your area will return a list of results which will include the local directories we mentioned above. There are numerous local online busines listing directories out there; not all are free but several are and I would suggest joining a mixture of the directories which are returned in the first 2 pages of your search results.

How well does Google rate these local directories? - well the reality is that these local directories are on the first page of results is a clear message that Google rates these directory sites highly. Google recently updated its search algorithm (there are now over 200 factors taken into account when deciding where your site appears) which was know as the 'Panda' update.

This update actually deleted some business directories Googles site index but then again left others unchanged. My recommendation for any business looking to launch an affordable and effective website campaign is to contact and register with as many of the local directory sites as possible, remembering to give them as much relevant content as possible including images, video and service related content.

The main advantage of this is that it helps towards your inbound link count. If the sites you are appearing on are high authority sites this can be very beneficial and count as strong votes for search engines to look at your website. After all, the whole objective is to push more traffic to your 'shop window', your site.

So why not get listed?

Opting for a more diverse strategy should bring greater and longer lasting rewards. If there is an opportunity to provide Google with more information about your business, don't miss it!

Paul Cunningham has 11 years experience in website design & for the past five years has specialised in search engine optimisation,in Stockport, UK. The team at Web Site Design Lab have helped hundreds of small & medium sized local business maximise their revenues via cost effective SEO in Manchester and all over the UK.

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