Optimize your Website for Local Search Results

Optimize your Website for Local Search Results :

• Use and select your main keywords with location, means if you are a SEO consultant from Washington, then use the keywords like ” SEO Consultant Washington, SEO Washington, Washington SEO services etc”. This will show the search engines that this page targeted for a specific place.
• Use the main key-phrase along with the location you are targeting in the file name of the web page.

• Use your local based keywords including language terms and grammar ( Some words vary in different locations ) in the Title and Description Meta tags on the page.
• Use one of your main keywords-phrase and the location in the H1 tag for the page.
• If your business delivers to the local area you may wish to include some of the suburbs you deliver to for some more local targeting.
• And also try to host the website in your targeted country or location, this can boost your traffic for sure.

Local SEO Techniques :

Choosing a Local Top Level Domain (TLD) :

Arrange for local domains and local hosting, your top level domain name or your website hosting must be within the country only, means for example if your are in USA, you can choose your top level domain (TLD) .us, this just another way to show the search engine crawler that your website is targeted for local country.
The Second thing is your web hosting, your website hosting must be in within your country, check whether your service provider hosted your website in any USA data center or something, and tell them to change it to the local country data center. This will power up the task that your website is ready to show on local country search only.

Target Geo-Location in Google Webmasters Tool :

Google Webmasters is the best way to tell the Google bot that what it has to crawl and where it has to target, in the Google webmaster you can set the Geographic location target for the website. This is really a simple way you can target the local website for local search engines.

How set Geographic target for a website in Google Webmasters Tool :

1) Go to Site Settings.
2) Now select settings under site settings.
3) Check the box Target users in. And select the country you want to target.
4) Save the changes, you are done.

Correct the Language Issues :

In targeting different countries, you encounter the problem of mirror content when you simply put the same content to your websites located on different domains. You might think Web pages translated into different languages avoid the mirror content problem. In performing local optimization, you need to adhere to local approaches.

Local inbound links & Directory Submission :

Search engine spiders consider the inbound links that form your link profile. Inbound links from local TLDs will help you to get into the top results of local search engines. Try to gain links from local business partners, chambers of commerce, government agencies, suppliers, etc.
You can submit to some local directory websites like, Listings in the regional sections of the DMOZ, Yahoo, and BestOfTheWeb global directories will also help to improve local link popularity.

Submit to Google Places (former Local Business Center) :

Google Places, offers a free listing on Google maps. When potential customers search Google Maps for local information, they will easily find information about your business: your contact details, hours of operation, even coupons to print out and bring to your shop.
Google’s terms of service restrict any misrepresentations of your business in the listing – the business’ title should be a direct representation of its name. Well you can add its city, such as “Omni Hotel San Diego,” to help your ranking for regional searches.

Posted by Arafath Hashmi

Source - Optimize your Website for Local Search Results

Posted in: LBC