The first step you will want to take is to select some geographically specific long-tail keyphrases. Although it is true that long tail keyphrases will be seen be fewer searchers per month, those searchers are far more likely to be looking for your product or service. This is particularly useful if you are also running a pay-per-click campaign as you will end up paying less money for fewer clicks but the traffic will be highly targeted and likely to convert.
Conduct On Site Optimisation
The next step that you need to take to rank well locally is to optimise your website for this. The first and most obvious (although often overlooked) step is to create page titles that reflect what you are targeting. Instead of simply listing some keywords and your company name add the location of your business (or the location you want to create business), for example “SEO Services | My SEO Company | Edinburgh”.
After this ensure that your physical address is located on each page of your website, search engine spiders will see this and notice the location of your business. If you are targeting multiple geographic areas try to mention them in the content of the page. When doing this though always remember that human visitors should come first and you shouldn’t sacrifice the quality of content purely to add keyphrases.
Finally remember to add meta tags, and in them mention the local area. Meta tags are undoubtedly less important than they used to be but they still have some benefits, particularly in Yahoo.
Submit to the Major Sites
After optimising your web site the next stage is to start promoting the site online. The first step is to submit your website to the major search engines local listings. On Google this is done by adding your business to Google Maps and on Yahoo you add it to Yahoo Local. By being listed here you dramatically increase your chances of being listed in Google’s “10 pack” of local results.
Submit to Local Directories
There are a huge number of web directories out there that you could benefit by submitting your site to. Some of these are international directories that have localised sections and some of them are directories solely targeting specific regions. The best approach here is to do your research and find a mixture of strong purely local directories, and very strong international ones with regional sections.
Get Reviews
Many of the major directories that you will have submitted your website to by this point will support customer feedback. Try and persuade your customers to write reviews, or testimonials, for you on these sites. It is acknowledged that you have a higher chance at appearing on a localised section on a results page if you are positively reviewed in the search engines directory.
Sometimes search engine optimisation can be a lot to take in, and it takes a considerable amount of time. I decided to employ an SEO Edinburgh company when I was promoting my new website design, and the results have been excellent.
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