Local Business Essentials

By Martin Summers


Search engines are universal by nature, so it is necessary for local businesses, such as estate agents, to concentrate on local search engine optimisation, because global reach won't get them the desired results. It would bypass their real customers that are situated locally, such as in 'South London' or 'Fulham' and would result in complete wastage of resources.

Emphasis on the local community may seem impossible as Google doesn't categorize websites on the basis of the location, but with the following tips, you can easily tap into your local prospects.

1. Your exact location should be included in the body text

Location should never be missed in the body text. If you have optimised your text for 'Estate agents' which is a generic term without any specific location, it won't help you in ranking high for 'Estate agents in London'.

2. Include your business in Yahoo Local and Google Places

Both these are great directories as they will list you according to your location.

3. You must use your specific location as a anchor text

It's quite difficult to build location based organic backlinks as such terms usually do not sound too natural. For example; 'property London' is not a grammatically correct phrase, but you can easily use the terms in blog comments with the proper anchor text to drive traffic to your site.

4. Locally targeted PPC ads

It is great to submit to these two directories, as they can list you based on your specific location.

5. Check your chosen keywords

You must regularly check the search volume for each of your keywords as volume generally shifts depending on various factors. If people are searching for 'property company London' instead of 'builders London', you can replace it accordingly to increase traffic to your site.

6. Base your ad-campaigns depending upon your location

You can drive significant traffic to your site with the help of locally targeted PPC campaign. You can easily drive local prospects to your site and make effective use of your marketing budget.

7. Your location should have separate page

If you have a business that is spread across many places, then it is quite helpful to have separate web pages for each location, as they can target the local market in a much easier way.

8. Testimonials and reviews

You can win the trust of your customers by promoting yourself as a quality trader. Try to publish the comments of your customers on your site as well as on certain review sites such as Yelp.

9. Each of your business locations should have separate pages

You should regularly check the search volume for each of your keywords. Usually shift is expected in volumes over a period of time. For instance, if people are searching for 'property company London' instead of estate agents in London', that means you are being found using the most popular keyword.




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