Google Local Searches – Online Presence

For small business owners, there are so many advantages and so few disadvantages to having a website that you can find it difficult to understand why anyone would not have one. Websites are really inexpensive these days, especially if you set up your own site using software like WordPress. You can easily find information online which explains exactly how to go about setting up a hosting account and creating a website with WordPress. With so much scope and opportunity for small businesses to optimize their services for their local market, there is no rhyme or reason why online business generation can not work for you.

To get noticed on Google local, get your business listed in Google Local Business Center. Being listed in Google maps and Google local has quickly surpassed the importance of being listed in business directories such as the yellow pages. Make sure your business shows up when someone searches your business name and keywords related to your business.

Effectively, Google has flipped everyone upside down. So now the market is wide open and local search can be exploited more than ever before. Who you thought was your online competitor yesterday may no longer be your competitor.

Directories also differ by the geographical area they cover. There are the big online directories which cover the entire planet. There are also small local directories which cover only a particular city, or even a particular suburb. Your best bet for marketing your business is to make sure that your business appears in as many directories as possible, especially the ones which appear at the top of the search engine results pages.

How can you dominate your keywords on Google? The target should be to appear in the top 3 slots in the search results.
The first is to opt for search engine optimization. You need to build specific pages for your products and include related phrases and keywords on these pages. It is also important that the search engine is able to read maximum content of your web site and rate it high with respect to the keywords. You also need to set up an account with the Google local business so that your business is shown on the Google Maps results box.

Then try to achieve double listings. To do this, create two or more pages for the same keyword on your web site. In case of double listings, Google returns 8 search results instead of 10. So, you need to concentrate on the remaining 7 search results as competition only.

Also, you probably need to create a content network. This is done by pasting links to your main web site in popular web sites such as YouTube. You also need to ensure that these sites achieve top ranking for your keywords. This ensures that you dominate the search engine results. Thus, by being smart about it you can dominate the results on Google and give a boost to your business.

If you have an effective presence online, it is an important way to get in front of your customers. Statistics on local searching trends have shown that more and more people are looking for local information by the use of search engines. Studies have shown that search engines such as Yahoo, MSN and Google were the major source of information and data for local customers.

Google Local Business Listings can be the greatest form of free advertising that your business has ever experienced. Many people are missing a few key factors in this new marketing medium that could help excel their business past their competition. The first thing that caught me about Google Local Business Listing is that they normally appear at the top of the search engine result page, above the natural search engine listings.

Google Local Searches – Improve Rankings

Some people are just too smart thinking that they can succeed doing business online without having to deal with search engines and how they really work. Unfortunately for them I should say, what they are thinking is absolutely wrong. Yes, there are several ways to promote a business on the internet, but hey you just have got to admit it – getting your website on top of the Google search rankings is just the best way there is to let your business soar up high.

There are a few basic optimization tasks that need to be done to each web page in order to get ranked well with the search engines. This is keyword popularity research 101.

• Your specific keyword must be in the title. Be absolutely sure to use your specific keyword or keyword phrase in the title of all your content. The page title plays an extremely important role. The search engines give special weight to these words when ranking your page for relevance. When they return the popular search results to searchers they display your page title the way you write it as a link to your page. It’s the first impression that people read in the search engine results page so make it compelling. It must convey some value to your potential visitors.
• Include your specific keyword in the description box. If you are writing a blog post, web page, or ezinearticle you must write a description of your article. Think of your description as an advertisement for your page. Visitors won’t see it on your page but they will see it or portions of it in the search engine results page (SERP). The description is the second half of what searchers see in the SERP. The title being the first. Make it interesting and relevant to the article without misleading. Try to address a need, concern, or pain and provide a lead-in to a solution. Don’t use up the description box real estate by using your specific keyword more than once and limit the characters to no more than 200 less is better.
• Your specific keyword needs to be within the first 90 characters of your article body. Some search engines don’t use the description in their SERP so your article body must have your specific keyword in the first 90 characters. That’s why it’s always safest to include your specific keyword in both the description and article body. The search engines that don’t use the description will compose a description from the first 150-200 words of the article body instead. You can see why missing this step could cost you dearly in the search engine results page. So include your specific keyword in the opening sentence of your opening paragraph.
• Create keyword focused text links within the article body. The search engines put a lot of emphasis on text links or links that are clickable. This not only is a benefit to your page but also to the benefit of the page you are linking to. It shows the search engines that you are providing a value to your human visitors by sending them off your page to a relevant site. Just be sure to make the link open in a new window this way your page is still there underneath waiting for your visitor to return.
• Use your specific keyword in the article body frequently. The search engines try to figure out what a page is about. They do this by looking for certain on page hints. The placement of your specific keyword in the body copy is the direct hints to the search engines. This tells them what the page is about. Search engines have become quite sophisticated at identifying the topic of a page. They need enough hints to understand the topic of the page but too many will get you penalized. So the usual rules to good writing apply. Writing excellent content, using synonyms, related words and generic keywords all help the search engines understand what the page is about. Plus it makes for good reading which pleases both human visitors and the search engines.