Website Marketing for Local Business and Local Search

“My website has been online for six months, but I can’t find my site in Google!“

As a website and internet marketing professional, I hear this often.  Most of the time, when I speak to small business owners about their existing website, I hear stories about how that website  does not get the traffic that they were expecting.  The small business sector (those businesses who have less than 10 employees and that serve a local market) are becoming more sophisticated, and realize that they need a website as part of their every day marketing efforts.  However, too many of these business owners do not know how to get their website to rank in search engines.

There is a difference in strategy when marketing a website that serves a local market (i.e. restaurant, local contractor, a hotel, etc) than there is marketing a site that targets a National audience (i.e. online retail).  The basic strategies are the same. But the difference is that there are a number of things that a website owner can do FOR THEMSELVES that will greatly help the search engine rankings.

This article  is written for the small business owner with a website. Listed are some items that can really help a website gain ranking, and are things that can be done without a webmaster’s help. All it takes is some time and patience. These are things that our company, AIM – Arizona Internet Marketing, does as part of a larger search engine marketing effort on many websites.

1) Google Maps and Local Business Listings

Google, the number one search engine by far, offers a mapping service. When someone searches the web for local services, the results will often show up with a map that includes listings of local businesses. Take a look at Google’s listings for “Prescott AZ sports equipment” for an example.

• List your business in Google Maps by clicking here.
• You will create an account for your business and add your general business information.
• You can add coupons, your logo and business information.
• It’s free!

2) Local Search Terms

When writing your page text for your site, make sure to include geographical information. Make sure to include the name of the town, city, county or state that you serve. It’s generally easier to get listed higher by targeting a smaller geographical area.

For Example: If you have a welding shop, you would not target the key term “welding” by itself. The reason is that you would be competing against other welding sites worldwide. There would be thousands of competing websites.

Instead, consider saying “Boise Welding” or “Boise, ID Welding Shop” in your page text. You would still have the key term “welding” in your text, but that would be safely supplemented by the local area terms.

* NOTE: In some cases, you may not have access to your website to be able to write or change content. In many cases (depending upon how your website was built) you may have to submit your page text to your webmaster and have them post it to your pages. If your site was built using a Content Management System, then you can update your own page content.

3) Directories

There are thousands of free directories across the web. Take some time to search out these directories, find the appropriate category for your website and submit a listing. You probably won’t get very much traffic from these links, but you will have something called an “inbound link.” Inbound links are very important for your site in search engine listings. Examples include…

• Yahoo
• DMOZ.org
• SuperPages

4) Local Advertising

Ensure you include your website address (your URL) in all marketing materials. Include it everywhere you would include your phone number. This includes business cards, signage, brochures, print advertising, letterhead, Yellow Pages, etc.

5) Get Links

Try to get a link to your site from other websites!

• A link TO your site is called an “inbound link.” Inbound links carry a lot of weight when it comes to ranking in the search engines. Essentially, a search engine sees these links pointing to your site and assumes that you are offering important information. They assume your information is important enough that another site wants its visitors to look at your content. The more inbound links, the more important your information must be. If your information is important, then you rank higher. Get it?
• A link on your site going to another site is an “outbound link.” These carry no weight in search engines (ok, they do to some extent – but not to the extent that you might expect). A common mistake that website owners make is to put a lot of outbound links on their site thinking that this helps their website. Not true. However, those links may be of some value to your visitor, so don’t completely disregard them.
• You can get links from the Better Business Bureau, Chamber of Commerce and professional organizations. Note that you usually have to be a member of these organizations to get a link. You can also get links from businesses you work with, site directories, blogs, message boards, etc.

6) Social Bookmarking

Another great way to obtain inbound links, and to drive traffic to your website is to take advantage of social bookmarking. I will write more on this in a separate article. But for now, all you need to know is that social bookmarking is a powerful way to get your site noticed by the search engines. If you have good useful content, this will also drive new visitors to your site! Social bookmarking is free to do. All it takes is time and patience.

Some social bookmarking tips…

• There are hundreds of social bookmarking sites out there, but if you stick to the more popular sites (Diig.com, Stumbleupon, Redditt.com, Del.icio.us, Newsvine.com, Technorati.com, Kaboodle, etc), you will be in good shape.
• Take your time to write good titles and descriptions. Don’t rush the process, or your results will suffer.
• Bookmark all primary content pages within your site!

7) Cost-Per-Click (also called Pay-Per-Click)

• Google AdWords offers CPC campaigns that can be targeted to a visitor’s geographical location. You can even set up your campaign so that your ad will only show for people located within 20 miles (any amount of miles) from your business!
• You can target campaign keyterms such as “Chicago Real Estate” or “San Diego Dry Cleaners” to ensure that only realistic prospects click on your ads. If you only target general keyterms like “Real Estate” or “Dry Cleaners” then you will get clicks from all over the U.S., and spent a lot of money unnecessarily.

Write an Article on Your Business

• Consider writing an article on a subject that you know about. You can submit that article to one of the many article sharing sites online. One example is ezinearticles.com.
• Include two links to your website in your article. These links carry a lot of favorable weight with search engines and will help your site improve in ranking.