Local SEO in the US
Introduction
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) has always been a prominent strategy of major businesses. National and international companies saw the need to attract attention from all over the web, and they were willing to pay high prices for it. As the web has evolved, however, and become something that nearly everyone in America uses, small businesses in the US began to need SEO as well.
Small businesses have always wanted to have a protected presence on line, but they only really got their chance when Google began to save a section of each search for local business addresses. Now, when Americans perform a search from their geographic area (their city or state), they see local results as well as the international ones. For the first time, small businesses were able to compete with huge international businesses in search results. They also had to begin competing with each other.
Now that so many Americans are moving their activity online—whether through computers, mobile phones, or other devices, small businesses had no choice but to move at least part of their marketing to the internet. After, all when people are searching for new restaurants they aren’t using phonebooks, they are using the internet. If a small business doesn’t have an online presence, they’ll have a difficult time attracting any new customers.
For many small businesses in the United States, this is a frightening thought. Most small businesses don’t even have marketers, or a budget for online activity. Such fears may convince small business owners that they shouldn’t even try to develop an online presence, or that they should pay outrageous sums to predatory SEO companies.
The truth is local SEO is not too difficult for American small businesses. In fact, if those businesses would follow a few simple steps, they would realize that protecting their search results is actually affordable and easy. Here are the steps that a small business should take to ensure that customers searching in their area will always see their results:
Build a Website
Building a website may sound expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. Using the toolsets provided by most major blogging platforms, a website can cost less than $100. Hosting and domain names for those sites can also be found very affordably around the web. Remember to register a domain as quickly as possible; you don’t want someone taking the domain that you need for your business.
Remember that the presentation of your website will make a huge difference in whether or not your customers utilize it. Don’t think that you can simply make an ugly and ineffective website and expect customers to flock to your door. Pleasing presentation and intuitive layout are just as important as the technical details when it comes to SEO.
Know your Customer Needs & Apply Them
If you are a successful business owner, you are probably already good at knowing what your customers need. This is very important in Local SEO because your customers can only find you site if you provide the details that they are looking for. For example: If you run a lawn care business, then your website needs to include as many references as possible to the services that they are looking for. You’ll want to apply these references (which are called “keywords”, on the internet) to both the tags for your pages and the content that you make available.
Also be sure to include any information that your customers will need to find you. Contact information will need to be available on every page so customers never have to be confused when finding you offline. If this seems inconvenient, consider creating a banner at the bottom of your page that includes contact details.
Your content should include exactly what you want your customers to know. In addition to explaining what your business is and does on your homepage (this will help both Google and your customers), you’ll want to provide any other content your customers may be searching for no matter how obscure. It’s helpful to include your information on your products and any deals you may be offering to customers.
Register Your Business to as many Free Databases as Possible
One of the ways that major search engines find your business is through the saturation of that business in popular databases such as Yellow pages, Angies List, Merchant Circle and Yahoo local and other services designed to help people find what they are looking for online.
These services will allow you to make a profile of your business and include basic information that your customers can use. These profiles will include many forms for you to fill out. Make sure you fill out as many of them as possible. Whether or not customers can find you will depend on how accurately you describe what your business is and does. Almost all of these services are free, and you probably won’t ever need to pay for it as long as you apply for enough of the free ones.
Start as Quickly As Possible
Now that you know how to optimize search engines for your small business, the most important thing to remember is to start as quickly as possible. Time is of the essence when creating an SEO presence, because more people clicking your site means an advantage in page results.
If you want to dominate the local searches for your business, the most important piece of advice is to start now. Every day that a competitor spends at the top of the search results is another customer lost and another chance for your competitor to protect his position even better.
Conclusion
You now know everything that you need to know about optimizing your small business for search engines. If you still have questions, there are many sources on line that will help you out. If you have decided you don’t want to do your own SEO, then you can handle it for us. Either way, the opportunities are endless in the world of SEO.
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