Here are some of my tips for doing SEO for a website that targets a local area. 1. Keywords Generally your main key phrases will include the name of the city, or region, you are targeting. If your site is about Green Widgets and you are selling them in Timbuktu, then your main key phrase would be Timbuktu Green Widgets Include these words and phrases on your site. Use it in title tags, meta descriptions, h1 titles, in body of text, in link text, etc. Searchers looking for a particular product or service will type the key phrase and then tack on a location either first or at the end. "Timbuktu Green Widgets" or "Green Widgets Timbuktu". If you are a locally based site, DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME TRYING TO OPTIMIZE FOR THE NON-REGIONAL TERM. ie, GREEN WIDGETS. It will be far too competitive from the large information sites and international sites. Even if you could pull it off, doubtful in most cases, the extra traffic you get is wasted on people who will not be potential customers. 2. Your Business Address and Google Local Include your full mailing address (with zip code or postal code) and phone number on your pages. The footer is a good place for this. It lets the search engines know you really are located in that city. Submit your site to Google Local. Being in Google Local should allow your site to appear at the top of page for regional searches for your terms. If Google has any listings in its Local database it will display them as "Local results for Green Widgets near Timbuktu" Being listed in Google local will also help your organic search results. And will appear on Google Maps for anyone doing searches there. 3. Backlink strategy i) Reciprocal Links Recip links are not entirely dead. They are very useful with local sites. Get links from other sites in your area. Here the relevance is the city, not necessarily the subject of the site. Preferably sites that mention the city in its text. If you can find sites that are doing the exact same thing (selling Green Widgets), but in a different city then ask for a link exchange. Because they are operating in another city they are not your direct competitor. Business partners, suppliers and distributors are also good link opportunities. ii) Directory Links Submit to directories using your key phrase that includes the city name. Mix it up a bit. ie. Timbuktu Green Widgets, Green Widgets in Timbuktu, etc. If the directory has regional categories submit it there, not always under the main non-regional category. Focus on directories that are located on servers in your country (use an ip checker tool). Directories in other countries are fine, it is another link, but directories in your country should be the primary ones you seek out. Submit to a few hundred free directories (there are plenty of lists floating around), but hunt down the best quality directories in your country, or region, and pay for inclusion if need be. Submit to DMOZ directory in a regional category. Your local chamber of commerce will likely have a local business directory. This is a highly valuable place to be listed. Google sometimes uses these types of directories to populate its Google Local results. But check first if the directory is search friendly. Unfortunately many are not. Mouse over the links to businesses in the directory. If you see a php or cgi redirect its not a SE friendly link. Check source code too to check if they are using Java for the links or frames or placing nofollow tags. If its free to be included in your local business directory then submit anyways, regardless of SE friendly or not. If you have to pay then be certain it is SE friendly first. Otherwise don't waste your money, there are better places to spend it. iii)Paid Links Pay for text advertising on local newspaper sites, or local radio station websites. Some newspapers have SEO friendly web classifieds, others you may need to pay for a sidebar link. These can be good for traffic too. Check to make sure they are using SE friendly links, not redirects through some ad management script. Hunt for other local portal types sites. If they offer banner advertising try to get a text link with your main phrase right below the banner. These sites (newspaper, radio, portal, etc) can also be good for traffic. Its local traffic. Focus on those that offer SE friendly links for their advertising spots. You'll get traffic and link juice, killing 2 birds with one stone. 4. Outgoing links Link to a few of the major authority sites in your city or region. Lets Google know that you too are in that region and feel those sites are worthy of a link even if they do not link back to you. Keep it minimal though, so as not to bleed off too much of your PR. 5. Web Hosting Make sure your site is hosted on a server that is located in your country. Use an IP tool to determine this. Many hosting companies are resellers for a larger company that owns the boxes. A small host may operate their business in your country, and say so on their site, but the servers could be located elsewhere. Server location plays a role in regional searches. Especially on the regional versions of Google. ie. Google.ca, Goolge.co.uk, Google.de, Google.com.au, etc. ----------------------------------- That's most of what I do. If anyone else has some other ideas, please share.
Join the chamber of commerce and other local organizations. Often there are several in each city devoted to the city. Get links from them.
Another thing you could do for a local business is to support local events and charities. Ask for a link in return.
Nice ideas. A lot of it makes sense in general anyway. Like the hosting, for example. Whether or not it helps with the search engine rankings, it makes sense to host the server as close as possible to your target market. Even if you save just a half-second per page for each person visiting your site, it will make an impact on the user experience.
This applies mostly to those of us outside the US. The vast majority of low priced shared hosting packages are available on US servers. But a site targeting Canada, and residing on a US server will not always do as well in searches done by Canadians using the .ca versions of Google, Yahoo, and MSN. It can mean the difference between being on page 1 or Page 3. Or if a searcher chooses the "pages in Canada" option, the US hosted site could disappear altogether. Same thing goes for all other countries outside USA. Saving a half second on load time is nice too.
All very good information. And well stated. I too find that geographical relevance is very effective.