As a small business owner or entrepreneur, you often have to do this all yourself as well. Unlike larger businesses, you probably don’t have employees to dedicate to search engine or online marketing. So by learning these 3 Google local search customization tips, you’ll put your business on the map in Google and put yourself ahead of your local competition.

Getting Started in Google Local Search

The first thing to understand about local search is that it’s a completely different game than normal search engine optimization (SEO). The success of your local search efforts depends on three things.

1. Proper keyword selection

2. Proper setup in Google’s Local Business Center (now called Google Places)

3. Gaining citations from major data providers

Proper Keyword Selection

Choosing proper keywords to optimize and compete for is absolutely essential in any SEO effort. But in local search, you have to remember who your customers are and why they buy from you. Always keep these factors in mind as you select keywords. Your goal is to anticipate what your customers will type into the Google search bar when they’re looking for your service or products.

The best way to figure this out is often to ask your current customers how they found you and what they would search for in Google if they were searching for your products or services. You can also use the Google external keyword tool to develop ideas, but most local search volumes are so low it’s hard to choose the best ones.

Finally, when you’re selecting keywords for Google local search campaigns, it’s best to focus your efforts on smaller groups of people (called niches in the online marketing industry). For example, rather than focusing on trying to draw people to your tire shop, focus your local search campaign around your most profitable repair…like a tie rod replacement or front end alignment. After all, most people will search for what they need done, not the type of business they need.

Proper Setup in Google Places

When it comes to setting your company up in Google Places, the most important thing is to simply get it done. Don’t procrastinate.

If your business name doesn’t include a city name or tell people what you actually do, you should include that when you enter it. For example, rather than ABC Enterprises, you should put something like ABC Enterprises – Oklahoma City’s Premier Office Supply Store.

When choosing the categories, you should put your keyword thinking cap on again. By the examples Google gives in their local search setup screen, it seems they want you to choose broad categories. But this is a poor strategy! You should be specific. Rather than saying you’re a dentist, say you’re a pediatric orthodontist for example.

Finally, make sure you list a local phone number rather than a toll free (800, 866, 888) number. This is one of the primary tools Google uses to cross reference local search results. So by having a true local phone number, it helps prove you’re actually located in the same city as the searcher.

Citations from Major Data Providers

You should think of citations in local search like backlinks in traditional search engine optimization. Except you can’t really go out and get citations…Google finds them on their own. A citation is just a reference on the internet to your business. The reference often includes your name, address, phone number, and possibly your products or services.

What you should do is go to the major data providers like Yellow Pages online and Yelp and make sure all your information is correct and listed the same way you have it at Google. Then, when the local search spiders find the information, it will corroborate what you put in the local business center, which will help raise your standings in the search results.

First lets explain what local SEO is. Local search engine optimization is when special strategies and techniques are used to make a website appear on the first page of search results by making it in the top search engine rankings for a particular city, such as Atlanta. Using Atlanta as an example, a website owner can hire a search specialist to perform local search engine marketing for the Atlanta area. A local optimization service will use various techniques to find the best keyword phrases that will land your website on the first page of search results when searched by Atlanta locals. They will also ensure that the website content is original and relates to the keyword phrases. Because content is so important when it comes to search engine rankings, the hired service may also create a sitemap. The sitemap will greatly enhance the local SEO for Atlanta because it provides regular updates to the search engines on any new content that was added. In order to maintain high rankings in the Atlanta area, fresh new content that is search engine optimized is crucial.

The fact is, the habits of customers have changed. People are no longer jumping into the car and driving from store to store to find what they need. The same holds true to businesses that offer services. The internet offers people a lot of information, right at their finger tips. More people are researching online before they choose a service or a product. If you offer any type of service or product, you should ask yourself if you are losing local customers because your website is not search engine optimized for the local Atlanta area. Because of the habits of customers, local SEO is critical for any local business.

As mentioned above, having a website that no one can find is useless. Many people only view the first page of search results, while a few may view the second or third page. A local search service can quickly get your website onto the first page of search results, and they will be able to keep it there. When someone local in Atlanta searches for the type of service that you offer, they will now be able to see your services giving you an edge over the competition.

For instance, a person looking for medicines in Portland Oregon would certainly want the online medical store to be in the same local area so that the medicines can be acquired quickly and will also save the shipping costs. The local search engine optimization is basically geo-targeting the local audience and thereby getting more of regional business easily. Therefore, it more advisable to go for Portland Oregon SEO if you own a business there or wherever you are located for current websites as that can fetch you more and instant relevant business.

The another major advantage of the local search engine optimization is that you can get your website positioned in the top ten pages on search engines for your desired keyword easily. This is because, when your website is optimized for local area, your competition certainly narrows down to a few as compared to the whole of U.S. This enhances your chances of getting visibility in the top ten lists for your top priority keyword.

However, for achieving local search success you really need to take care of the following essential points:

• Make sure that the physical address of your business is mentioned accurately.
• Submit your latest phone numbers, email address, and other contact details to the local search.
• Also include the location map that leads to your store from all directions.
• Including the picture of local landmarks is often more effective.
• Get yourself listed on the yellow pages as well.
• Try to get links from the ones that contain the regional phrase.

Not many people realise that local SEO can be implemented in order to ensure your site is indexed in the correct geographic location. Google is the most popular search engine however the results it displays on Google in the UK and the results it displays on Google in America are significantly different.

You see Google places massive emphasis on relevance therefore what would be the point in showing an American company to a British audience? It is for this reason that Google takes into account local search engine optimisation (SEO) and your competition will consist of those companies targeting the same keywords in the same location as you. I want to run through a few ways of ensuring your site is locally optimised.

Two factors Google consider when deciding where your site should be indexed is you top level domain and your hosting locality. So to ensure you are listed in the correct index, make sure your domain represents your target country ie. uk – United Kingdom Com – USA – CA – Canada etc…

The other factor is your hosting account. Google will use the IP address of your site to establish where it should be indexed. This is more powerful than the above factor therefore if your hosting account is in the US but you have a co.uk domain, your site will be listed in the com index.

Another of enhancing your local SEO, is to link to other local sites, look for government sites, business directories, contact pages and other businesses within the area to link to. This will have a dramatic impact on where your site is indexed and the position of your site. Also try and write your content for the people in the area you are targeting, not every English speaking country uses the same phrases or slang. This will not help your search engine optimisation (SEO) results but will help your visitors become more profitable.

Another way of making sure your site is locally targeted is by submitting your site to Google webmaster tools and using the settings to select the country your site is targeting, this is very effective and you should see results within the first month.

To some, a local search might sound like a lot of extra work for only a partial gain. But in truth it is far more than that. Without the local optimization running throughout your site and beyond, you could find that your business is missing out on a lucrative niche market.

Assuming consumers within the surrounding area know of your whereabouts as a company is a dangerous game to play. Regardless of how big your offline presence is within your community, online is an entirely different entity and one that should be approached in a whole new way. Local search will provide search engines with an exact location for your business; so whenever anybody searches for related services in your locality your site should be right up there.

You can be as specific or broad as you wish with local search. It is almost entirely dependent on where you perceive most of your business to be coming from and the searches you want to target. The most obvious place to start though is the city or town that your company is based in. If you approach search engines as being a digital Yellow Pages, you can better understand how vital that your business is visible within your immediate vicinity; otherwise all of those local customers could well go elsewhere for their goods and services.

Even on the Internet, where you can get work done remotely and buy goods from the other side of the world, people still prefer to use their local goods and services. There is a reassurance that comes with knowing who you’re dealing with, where you can visit them and how best to contact them. Optimizing your site for local search will provide exactly that. It’ll show you’re not just an online entity but a genuine business offering genuine services.

There are many ways that you can go about implementing your site’s local search credentials. The first and most obvious way is through simple copy changes. By integrating a few mentions of your locality alongside the service you offer, for example ‘Southampton Florists’ or ‘Hampshire Florists’, you’re already one step closer to gaining increased local visibility.

But that is very much only scratching the surface; in order to gain maximum exposure and ensure your website is top of the heap in your area you need to go much deeper. GEO tags are an extremely complex but highly effective way of pinpointing exactly where you’re business is based. By incorporating key terms and even global positioning coordinates within the HTML Meta of each page, the search engines can instantly locate your business and list it for your area.

Links and directories can also get you climbing those local search rankings. By signing up to online directories, either broad business based (Yell, Yelp) or smaller focussed directories based on location or industry sector, you can gain optimize your site with a link back and also boost your local search credentials. If you are creating links, whether internal or external to your site, you could also use the local term within the embedded link phrase. Again, returning to the initial example, if your link goes to a specific page within the site and the text that links there is ‘Southampton Florist’, search engines will assign more weight to that phrase and assign it to the page it links in to.

It may sound complicated, and it can be to get it absolutely perfect, however the benefits more than speak for themselves. Regardless of the business competition in your surrounding area, you can gain hugely improved visibility in what is very much a niche market. Those people who are looking for your services locally need to be able to locate you just as much, if not more than your wider international traffic.

It may appear to be narrowing your search options, but in truth local search provides added focus that can and will work in harmony with your SEO and PPC work. A much needed and vital addition to any aspiring business website.

Firstly, we have advertising via search engine. This can be achieved in two different ways: one is to make us of keywords as a mean to target local qualifiers and two, the use of national distribution to capture local market targeting. For many reasons, the first one seems to be more effective as it is far easier to capture a localized market. Listings and results can be a bit more confusing if the national market is being targeted.

The second form of local search strategy is through optimization tactics for search engines. The search functionality has become more efficient as consumers in this case will not only be able to find contact information of what they are looking for on online yellow pages, but they will also be able see rich content and more pertinent information about it. Business profiles can be placed at no extra cost on the web while additional advertisement space is slightly charged. The yellow pages on the web are one of the most frequently visited sites every day.

Local Search Marketing tactics can also provide local search items before the main searched item. These prominent search engines usually enter into contract with the providers of local information in order to enhance the search visibility on the website and to also increase their branding impacts. Whichever tactic is used by online marketers, optimization is always the key for successful searches.

What Is Localized Search Engine Optimization?

Localized search engine optimization is the addition of local search terms to your tags and web pages. For example, if you work in Sonoma County, California and are targeting local or state visitors, be sure to include “Sonoma County” and “California” in your tags and in the text on your page. This way when searchers look for services in Sonoma County, California in the search engines, your website will have a better chance of showing up in the search engine results.

How Do I Include Local Search Terms?

There are many way to include local optimization terms. Oftentimes we as web page creator do not think like the user: we are too close to the subject matter we display on our websites. Sometimes when you know a subject very well you speak in shorthand when talking about it. Take a step back and read your web pages again. Spell it out for your visitor, using easy to understand, clear information. Realize that your visitors may not be as familiar with your message or product as you are. Get specific. If you sell blue widgets, say so in your text. If you sell primarily to a Sonoma County audience, include Sonoma County in your tags and text.

Include your local search terms, just like your typical keyword phrase terms, in your title and meta tags, headings, link text, and web page text as reasonable. Most importantly, include local information on your contact page, where your city and state location information is typically listed.

The simplest way:

* Title tag

Blue Widgets Sonoma County California

What if you want to get even more specific? Try including:

* Title tag

&amp;lt;title&amp;gt;Blue <br>Widgets Santa Rosa Sonoma County California&amp;lt;/title&amp;gt;

* Heading tag

&amp;lt;h1&amp;gt;Blue Widgets For Sale – Sonoma County, <br>California&amp;lt;/h1&amp;gt;

* Page text:

Looking for blue widgets? We have the most affordable prices on blue widgets in the Sonoma County area. We deliver throughout Sonoma County and all of California.

In this way, users searching for “blue widgets sonoma county” will more likely pull up your web page of blue widgets for sale.

What About Sales From Other Places?

Don’t worry, localized search engine optimization works much the same as regular optimization. With local search terms, you are simply providing additional information for your local customers, much like you might in the yellow pages. Your other search terms work the same way as always. This will not change your opportunities to pull in traffic from across the country if you have your regular optimization in place. What you may want to do is specify a few pages on your website for local search terms, instead of the entire website if you are reaching for both a local and country-wide audience. This gives you the opportunity to drive local traffic to specific sections of your website with regional information. Some users feel better about supporting their local economy when buying from local vendors. You can even dedicate specific content pages to your local search visitors, including advantages to buying your product locally. In this way, you get the best of both worlds, your local audience as well as visitors from across the country.

Use Localized Optimization

Be sure to use localized optimization to bring in your local visitors, providing them with a personalized touch and regional information. Widening your scope of traffic builds the number of your visitors, both near and far. Get specific for optimum local website traffic.

3 Reasons to Optimize for Local Search:

1. Build Brand Awareness. Optimize your website for local keywords to increase brand awareness geographically.

2. Leverage Trust. If local visitors trust your brand, this can translate on to the web and capture the attention of global visitors. This superiority will set your website apart from your competitors.

3. Increase ROI. A recent survey shows that, local seo tends to convert more often, is cost effective and leads to increased ROI.

How to Optimize your Website for Local Search?

Optimizing a website for a locally oriented business includes all the steps of on page and off page optimization along with a few tweaks and additions. The following steps will ensure that your website marks its presence in the local results.

1. Add Your City Name to the Meta Tags. It is highly important to add the name of your local city to your original keywords and place them accordingly in the title, keyword tag and description tag of the web page. While crawling and indexing the website, the searchbots interpret the emphasis on the name of the city; then use the city name for the search engine results pages from the database.

2. Use Other Localized Metadata Available. There are various other Meta Tags present in HTML which favor local website optimization. Some of them are present under the Meta name as ‘country’, ‘geo position’ or ‘ICMB’. Meta Name – country can be used to input the name of the country where your target visitors reside. Meta Name – geo position or ICMB can be used to input the latitude and longitude coordinates of your business city. Every country has its own unique ICMB code. These details give the search engines more favorable data to rank well locally.

3. Submit Your Website to Google Local Business Center. Google lets you submit your business listing free of cost to its local business center. You can add business details like address, area of operation, contact number and hours of operation to the listing. All these details are available on the screen with a snapshot of a map which shows the detailed location of your business. All you have to do is add the listing in the local business center by going through a quick verification process and the visitors will find their way to your business website.

4. Build High Quality Backlinks. Link building is the most important aspect of search engine optimization. Search engines give a lot of importance to incoming links and consider it as a measure of a website’s popularity. You can build quality backlinks by submitting your site to high PR search directories, internet yellow pages, local search engines and Google webmasters tool.

5. Select the Correct Service Provider. If your business is based in UK and your domain (.com) is hosted with a service provider whose servers are based in its Australian data centers, then chances of your website ranking well in Australia are more. This is because; the search engine will interpret your website to be an Australian website making it harder to rank well in UK search engines (.co.uk). Thus, hosting your website in the country where most of your customers live is a practical decision.

Website optimization for local search is a must for websites with service based businesses to increase lead generation, sales and ROI.