The introduction of Google’s Local Search into it’s regular results (Universal Search) has been a real game changer as more, and more categories and locations are offered up near the top of organic searches.  We’re going to cover the bases on what to do to improve your business’s rankings in the local search results & a few pot holes to steer away from.  Please note, it’s no substitute or an organic search engine strategy, but can compliment one very well since many of the same content and inbound linking principals still apply.

1. Your Site’s Contact Page

   • First of all – have a contact page!  Title it “Contact” as is the convention around the web, and name it something like “contact.html” or “contact-my-company.php.”
   • Include a full address including city, state, and zip code within the locale that you’re targeting.
   • Include a local phone number, i.e. – make sure the area code matches the the targeted location’s.
   • Have multiple locations?  If you run a multi-national corporation, why not hire an SEO company to rank your locations because it gets a little tricky and is outside the scope of this post.

2. Title Tags, Meta Tags, and Your URL

   • Use a hCard in your website’s head section.  Learn here, create here. Simply use it as the markup/HTML for that part of your contact page.
   • City/State in Contact Page Title Tag
   • City/State in Index Page Title Tag
   • Location in URL (Ex. – AthensGAWebDesigners.com)

3. Your Local Business Profile

   • 1st, go to Google’s Local Business, and claim your business’s profile if you haven’t yet.
   • Profile using local phone number (area code matching the target location)
   • Location in Profile Title
   • Service/Product in Business Category Fields

4. Customer/Client Reviews

   • Customer Reviews are Important!
   • And it’s not just the reviews on Google Maps itself -
   • Google feeds it’s listings with dozens if not hundreds other third party review sites.  For example: Kudzu.com, Yelp, InsiderPages, and many industry specific review services.

5. Pitfalls & What not to do

   • Don’t List a 1-800 number on your profile or on your contact page, I know it makes no sense.  Have one, get your web guys to use an image to display it.
   • Negative Reviews – I know they’re hard to stop, but if you can contact the reviewer & ask them to remove it – do it.
   • Don’t use multiple Business Profiles with:
     1. The same business name
     2. The same phone number
     3. The same address (this one is particularly detrimental)