Local SEO

People are attracted to different kinds of stimuli when it comes to being seduced, and Google can be almost schizophrenic when it comes to what they find “attractive” for the different areas of their search results.

The Google “Maps” or “Local” results are ranked 100% differently than the organic search rankings, and what Google finds attractive there is completely unrelated to what uses for organic rankings.

I can show you an almost countless number of businesses that appear just fine in the Google Map results when they don’t even have a website, and I can show you just as many that have a perfectly “SEO’d” website, but don’t appear at all in the local search listings.

How can that be?

When Google first rolled out these local search results, they populated that entire section of their results with data that they licensed from some established Internet directories, and in the past couple of years, according to industry statistics, the vast majority of small businesses have not even claimed their listing on any of the big three search engines yet.

This could help you get a huge leg up on your competition, so the very first thing you should do is go claim your local business listings. A good place to get started is here at Google Local Business Center – Yahoo Local business Center,  and the Bing local Listing Center

However,  before you rush off to take care of those, you might be interested in a few things that are a bit different in regards to local search…

Duplicate Content is Good
in the world of organic search, you want to ensure that you’ve got no duplicate information on various pages of your website, or even hosted in other domain. However, for the local search listings, this isn’t the case!

In fact you want to ensure that everything from your business name and description, to your phone number, extensions and even business hours are exactly the same. The search engines see this duplication of information as a verification of credibility, and they’re more likely to believe that you really are who you claim to be.

Before you start listing your business, create a text file that you can copy and paste from, to ensure the accuracy of your information from site to site.
Obtain Relevant Geographic Links
If you’re a business that’s geographically centered in a certain city, then it only makes sense that the vast majority of your links should be coming from other websites that are about your city. Whether it’s local news and information, or membership sites like your local Chamber of Commerce, if you’re a local business, you’re going to have backlinks from other businesses in your area, and that too adds credibility.

What other local organizations do you belong to that might let you have a link, or allow you to update a profile page?  Schools, non-profits, and even your suppliers or customers can all be a valuable source of local link love.

Link to Your Contact Page
Unlike the organic rankings, where you probably don’t want your contact page to show up,  the goal with your local listings is to link from those directories people to the most relevant information for a directory – which IS  your contact page. That contact page should always  includes your name, street address, and phone number, and  if you have multiple locations, then you actually do want multiple pages.

It’s important to  have a separate page for each of your locations, which you can not only list at the informational directories, but you can even build links to them to help you rank higher.  In the local listings, or “Map” areas, these links to your contact pages have come to be known as “citations” in the search industry.

KML Sitemap
This is pretty geeky, but for local businesses, Google Webmaster tools now offers you the ability to upload something called  a KML sitemap.  This is a differently formatted XML file than a regular sitemap, and it includes your latitude and longitude.  If you have a lot of locations, thhis one may be critical some day.

At this point in time, this is a relatively new offering that doesn’t seem to have much weight, but like everything new with Google I do expect it to gain in importance over time, especially for large local business types, like franchise operations.

Google is going to want to integrate seamlessly with all of the various auto navigation systems, and it seems to me to be one way they’re going to do it.

Beyond The Big Three
Besides claiming your business listing with the search engines, a few other places to get some bang for your buck are Localeze and   Info USA and Acxiom, and there’s a great service called Universal Business Listings that can speed up the submition process to multiple places.

It only costs about $30 annually, and I’ve found it to be hugely efficient and effective, and I’ve been a fan of Universal Business Listings  for some time now,  religiously listing each and every local client with them.