Local SEO Steps

If you are a small local business, it is important that people be able to find you when they search online for local products or services, such as carpet store nanuet ny. But just how do you go about making sure that people can find your business?

Simply follow the five local SEO steps below and you will be on your way to greater Internet visibility.

  1. Keyword research. It is very important that you don’t randomly select search terms to target. Keyword research and analysis is crucial to web visibility. For example, you might think people are searching for u pick pumpkins, but keyword research reveals they are actually searching for pumpkin picking. Or maybe you are thinking people are looking for garden center northern new jersey, when in fact they are searching for garden center northern nj. Keyword research will reveal the best terms for you to target. Remember to be sure to include your target markets, i.e., pumpkin picking sussex county nj.
  2. Optimize your website. Once you have selected the appropriate search terms, you need to incorporate them on your website – in the behind the scenes coding and the on-page copy.
  3. Submit your revised web pages to the search engines. After you have optimized your website, you should submit the revised pages to Google, Yahoo and Bing to let them know you have made changes to your site. This will help speed up the crawling and indexing of the revised pages.
  4. Create local business listings. Google, Yahoo and Bing each offer free local business listings. These listings, which are completely separate from your website, are what typically appear in conjunction with a map above or mixed in with the regular search results. Creating complete and optimized listings on Google Places, Yahoo Local and Bing Local will enhance your visibility.
  5. Add your business to online directories. Online directories such as Superpages and Yelp are a powerful way to increase your web presence. But just like everything else, they need to be optimized. So make sure you select appropriate categories and have keyword rich descriptions.

These local SEO steps will help improve your web presence. If you feel any of the steps are too complicated or you are not inclined to attempt them yourself, you can always call on your local SEO professional for help.