Search Engine Optimization, now including Local Search Engine Optimization, is not a basic science. Customers, more often than ever, are asking the following question and we will try to answer with useful ideas.
Search Engine Marketing Question: I have a Los Angeles website design company and 90% of my business is local based. How should I do my SEO / SEM for my website design? Do I have to do something different for Los Angeles SEO and search engine marketing?
The ATAK Interactive Answer:
Organic Local Search Engine Optimization for Los Angeles Web Design and related service keywords. If you have a Los Angeles business and you want to reach local prospects, search engine rankings for local keywords are critical.
With local SEO, one does the same things one would go with global or international SEO. Local SEO still must consider keyword research, ensuring site crawl ability, creating unique and useful content for pages, submitting to local and non local directories, and building out other links from other sites.
Here are some additional useful tips:
1. Local directory listings can be cheaper than general listings and provide a solid ROI. If website pages are ranking well in relevant Google search results, they are good places to be listed.
2. Submit your website design to local Chamber of Commerce and Better Business Bureau. A Los Angeles website design company can join more than 20 chambers in Los Angeles County alone.
3. Build editorial linkage through directory listings and other related link building activities that do not charge by the click. Paid inclusions can be costly, especially if the people who are clicking were searching for your name. If your site "Los Angeles Web Design Company” does not outrank the listing, then it is worthless being forced to pay a recurring click cost every time a user is already searching for your brand name. Yahoo! and Google Sitemaps are good tools to review.
4. Sometimes it pays off, when starting a new site from scratch, to create a temporary site in conjunction with your main site. Creating a mini site on an already established site can have you seeing ROI faster. For example losangeleswebdesign.com may have been around for 10 years and offers a fee to establish a business account. This allows the site owner to leverage the losangeleswebdesign.com trust.
5. If you cater to a specific country other than the United States, you may want to purchase a .uk or .ca domain extensions for countries such as the United Kingdom or Canada. This does not necessarily apply to global brands. If you must target multiple local markets with different languages, you should use sub domains by language or different domains for the secondary markets.
6. Post your business address on the home page and one other page. Format this like 1615 Westwood Blvd. #206 Los Angeles, CA, 90024.
7. Focus on one page per location. Your home page should target the most important city or few cities, and use interior pages for other cities. Too many towns reduces page relevancy to local searchers. Smaller towns tend to rank easier by using good title tags and internal page linking. The more relevant your page is to a buyer, the higher the conversion rates are.
8. The Google Local Business Center allows one to list businesses on Google Local and Google Maps for free. Google is also testing AdWords ads allowing users to buy local ads on Google Maps.
9. Yahoo! Local offers free basic listings and a monthly flat rate advertising fee based on your local market size and business category.
10. Other local search sites and local directories are: Verizon Superpages, TrueLocal, and CitySearch. Other options include CraigsList, judysbook, switchboard, and local library web sites.
11. For Local Search Advertising test market demands using: Google Adwords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and MSN AdCenter.
12. Local Search Advertising Questions to ask yourself: Are you bidding on ads relevant to your area? Are you bidding on core terms and alternate ways to define your products? Is your add copy for each keyword group relevant?
13. Google AdWords allow users to set up advertisements in many ways using modifiers to target your local ads.
