What Is Local SEO?

Local SEO refers to the optimization of your web content in your local area to appear high in a search engine’s results page (SERP). A local search engine’s page ranks are an indicator of a website’s popularity and authority. The higher a website’s page rank, the more popular and visible it is on the internet. A high page rank ensures that your website is seen by more internet users and is therefore most effective for advertising your products and services locally. For businesses looking to implement local SEO, there are a number of options available.

One strategy is creating a website and advertising it to attract visitors from within your local area. With this strategy, your products and services would be more localized and therefore more accessible to your local consumers. A well-designed website with high quality content could lead to increased sales and traffic. Another option for local search marketing is developing a store within a shopping center. An internet marketing solution that offers integrated campaigns that target a store within a shopping center provides a greater opportunity to gain exposure for your products.

Several internet marketing solutions offer integrated optimization and local search marketing solutions for your website. Some of the options available include optimizing your web pages for local search terms, optimizing your meta tags, optimizing your keywords in a meta description and creating content pages that target local searchers. These solutions work to make your website visible to potential customers through both organic and paid search results. Organic search results are provided by Google and Yahoo and provide searchers with the most relevant results. Pay per click campaigns are also available that use your website as a pay-per-click advertising platform.

Local SEO encompasses several elements including meta tags, title, h1 tags, alt tags, image tags, header tags, and descriptions. Meta tags are used to provide context information about a web page, such as keywords. Title tags are used to attract users to your site based on what they are looking for. H1 tags identify the top ranking pages for each search query. Each search query is assigned a unique URL that can be displayed on a web page.

A recent study found that over 80 percent of Internet users conduct local searches that are specific to their location. When a user performs a local search using a search engine, the URL of the website used for that search is sent to the user’s browser. The location of the website on a user’s screen can determine where that user is located and thus how they will view the website.

Creating an optimized website that targets keywords relevant to your business show business is essential to your success. Local SEO allows you to be listed in the search results for keywords and phrases relevant to your local area. It also allows you to get closer to first page listings in Google search results for those same key words and phrases. With over 1 billion searches performed every month, it is essential that businesses address all of the local search ranking factors so that they can be listed in Google search results for their local target market.

There are many different local SEO options that are available today. In addition to directory submission and website submissions, some companies offer free services that improve a businesses’ website ranking with search engines. These companies use techniques such as keyword density, internal linking from other websites, building link popularity, content optimization, social bookmarking, and more. Businesses can also choose to go through local services such as search-engine marketing to increase the visibility of their website in local search engines. Directory submission and social networking can also help businesses gain more exposure in search engines, but in most cases, directory submission and social networking are the only two options available for businesses wishing to take advantage of local SEO.

While directory submissions are beneficial for local search marketing and optimization, businesses may not be able to compete in the competitive field of local search results. In this case, Google and Yahoo offer paid search advertisements that allow local businesses to compete with larger companies. This option is much more competitive, but can still allow smaller local businesses to compete with larger competitors. Some businesses choose to go through local search marketing and optimization alone, while others choose to use pay per click advertising with their local SEO strategy. The choice is up to the business owner.