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Atlantic BT: Our Thoughts

March 23 , 2009

Quick Tips for Local Search Engine Optimization

by Mark Thompson

About 65% of searches have a local intent. So how do you show up in search results when people are searching locally for what you do?

There are a number of things you can do both on-site and off-site to help stimulate more local traffic. Here are some of the basics you can do to get your started.

Onsite:

  • Make sure your local address is in the footer of your site (on every page)
  • Use local terms wherever possible within your content (ex: San Diego, Hollywood, Wake County)
  • Use your local zip code and/or PO Box on the site
  • Use the <address></address> element
  • Use your local city/state in some page titles
  • Make sure your local area code in on your contact us page
  • Get a country specific domain (ex: .com for the US)

Offsite:

  • Register your website in webmaster tools and set the geo-location
  • Gain local inbound links to your site
  • Register for local business listings in the major search engines
  • Register for other local business listings like Yelp, Local.com and Insider Pages
  • Get sponsored on local organization sites (ex: chamber of commerce)
  • Use city or state specific anchor text in your links
  • Use a local hosting company
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Posted in: Search Engine Marketing/Optimization

This entry was posted on Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 4:58 pm and is filed under Search Engine Marketing/Optimization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

 
Mark Thompson

About the Author

Mark earned his BA in Marketing from Le Moyne College located in Syracuse, NY. Since he graduated from college in 2005, he has been working in the internet marketing industry. His expertise consists of Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Pay Per Click Advertising, Blog Marketing, Content Development, Web Analytics, and Social Media Marketing. Mark has also met the requirements to become a Google Adwords Qualified Professional and Yahoo! Ambassador.

More posts by Mark Thompson

2 Responses to “Quick Tips for Local Search Engine Optimization”

  1. Jim Deming says:
    May 5, 2009 at 4:04 pm

    I went to Yelp.com and looked for Atlantic BT but did not find it. Is this the case of the cobbler’s children go bare foot?

  2. Jon Jordan Jon Jordan says:
    May 6, 2009 at 2:07 pm

    Hi Jim,

    Yes, that’s about right! We just recently launched our new site after making do with our old one since 2004. We have grown 40% each year and 60% in 2008 so we’ve been doing all we can just to keep up, and we haven’t had much time to invest in our own “shoes”. However, we’ve added some additional capacity recently and are pushing our own marketing to the forefront as time allows.

    On a separate note from what I can tell Yelp is much stronger for B to C then it is for B to B, recommendations so it hasn’t been a high priority. I have seen competitors pretty openly offer their customers incentives to complete reviews in Yelp, Google local, etc. but I prefer not to try and coerce feedback as it kind of defeats the purpose.

    Thanks for commenting!

    Jon Jordan, President

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