6 Ways To Optimize Your Site for Local Search

With all the talk of the “world wide” Internet and globalization, it can be easy to ignore the profit potential of people living in your area. People are still people, and they still prefer to buy things from people who they know and trust. So why not make sure those in your physical vicinity are able to find you and your website?

If you are using the Internet to maximize the profits of your brick-and-mortar business, you definitely need to make sure that people can find you with a local search. You’ll probably also want to make sure your website is optimized for mobile. More and more people are conducting searches on the go with their smartphones, and you don’t want to miss out on their business just because they can’t find you or read your site on their phones.

Here are six things you can do to makes sure potential customers can find you with a local search:

1. Add Pages About Your Area

Add pages to your site that reference your location. Examples include “Our Business and the Community,” “Things to Do During Your Stay,” etc. This will connect your site to your geographical location in the eyes of the search engines.

2. Give ‘Em Your Address

It’s a super simple step that maybe you’ve forgotten to do: make sure your address shows up on each page of your site. This will also help the search engines connect your location in cyberspace to your location here on Earth.

3. Alert Local Search Engines

Don’t forget to put yourself out there. Add your business to all of the “local” sites of the major search engines: local.google.com, local.yahoo.com, and local.bing.com.

4. Use Geotags

Geotags are basically latitude and longitude coordinates that you can use on your pages, pictures, and maps. They are most useful if you have an actual brick-and-mortar storefront that you want to make sure people can locate.

5. Don’t Forget the Phone Book!

Make sure your business is registered with any local web directories and online yellow pages. (And there are still some for whom the doorstop-style phone book is not entirely dead, so you might want to place an ad there as well.)

6. Think Mobile

One of the biggest benefits to the rise of smartphones and mobile web is the ability to make last-minute decisions about where to eat, what to do, and where to go. Make sure you aren’t missing out on being found by a prospective customer who is standing right around the corner and looking for you (via your site) on their phone. Take the time now to optimize your site for mobile users.

Remember, if someone is looking for your business or a business like yours of their own free will, you want to make it as easy as possible for them to find you. After all, you didn’t have to go out and find them by spending money on advertising or convincing them to buy from you. Do yourself a favor and implement these six simple steps to optimize your site for local search. They will help ensure that your business isn’t hiding under a rock when potential customers come knocking.