Optimize Your Business for Local Search

You may already know something about search engine optimization and rankings, SEO, or what page your site is on Google. For the absolute newbie or someone who is a little confused all you really need to know is that they all mean one basic thing—where your website appears in the list of search results for a relevant query. In every list of search results, there are 3 types of listings: organic, paid, and local.

Organic search results (see image below) are determined by your website content and links to your site. A good organic search listing (the 1 to 3 slot) used to be the golden spot for businesses.

Paid searches appear above and to the right of the organic and local search results. They are driven by pay-per-click ads (Adwords in Google). Paid search results are often ignored because they are viewed as ads and can be expensive.

As the new kid on the block, local search the internet’s answer to the phone book (and way beyond). Local search results (see image below) are shown before organic listings and offer a huge opportunity for traditional, brick and mortar businesses to win in the search arena. It’s easy to optimize your listing and get that top spot and since local search is relatively new your competition may not be taking advantage of it yet.

If you are ready to make the most of your local search listing, stay tuned. I have written a series of posts to help you tackle your local search optimization one step at a time. Each step can be completed in less than an hour and can be done all together or one day at a time. This is a very basic approach—it is meant to be something that the average business owner can do themselves without having to sacrifice precious time from their already overfull schedules. Contact us if you want to get even deeper into local search or take your efforts to the next level.

Look for a new post each day this week on optimizing your business for local search starting with Step 1: Create Your Listings.