Anyone have any tips for improving rank in Google Local?

Does anyone have any tips for improving your rank in Google Local search?

There doesn't seem to be a lot out there about it beyond general site seo and putting your address on the footer of every page.

Thanks in advance,
-the mole

 

I think this really depends on your keywords and how many are you competing with for specific keywords. Try investing for Adwords

 

Here is a little detailed break down of Google's most important ranking factors. Some of these may or may not be actual ranking factors and some may not be significant.

1) Content
a- Keyword in Title Tag
b- Keyword in regular text
c- Keyword toward top section of the page
d- Keyword in Heading Tags H1, H2, H3
e- Keyword in links
f- Keyword in image file names
g- Keywor in Meta Tags
h- Keyword in Alt Tags
i- Keyword in comments

2) Links
a- Total number of incoming links
b- Links from high PR sites or authorative sites
c- On-topic Links
d- Having Keywords in the anchor text of incoming links
f- Having keywords in internal links within the site and menues
g- Age of the incoming links (Currently links less than 3-6 months old, may not even get counted)
h- One-way links may get more credit than 2-way or recprical Links
i - Links coming from pages with less outgoing links are better. Links coming from pages with over 100 links are no good.

3) Factors that may count against you
a- Too much keyword repetition
b- Hidden content via text same color as background or CSS or other such methods
c- Javascript Redirects or certain other redirects
d- Cross linking bunch of sites to eac other in the same network
e- Doorway pages. Pages that are specifically written for search engines and cannot be found by your site visitors via your normal navifation menues.
f- PPC (Porn/Pills/Casino) : Adult, Pharmacy and Casino related content
g- Duplicate content : watch out for those duplicate filters. Make sure your site doesn't have content from other sites or no one else has copied you.
h- Age of your domain. Brand new or less than 6-month old domains may be in the Google Sandbox
i- Participating in Link Farms or services that try to artificially increase your links by doing shortcuts
j- Cloaking : Showing a page to search engines different than what the users see based on their IP address


4) Factors that won't count against you, but are problems
a- Dynamic content, such as shopping cart based content may not get indexed
b- Primarily Graphic or Flash based websites
c- Javascript content and/or menus (navigation)[/b]

In addtion check out the Google Webmaster Guidlines:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html

 

Thanks for help guys, but perhaps I didn't phrase my question correctly. I'm already ranking well in normal serps (1-4 position depending on the phrases), but I want to improve my ranking in Google Local.

For example (this isn't any of my targeted searches), here's a google search for pizza Minneapolis, MN. Notice at the top where it says "Local results for pizza near Minneapolis, MN" - that's the area I'm looking to ranking in.

For my real phrases, I beat every one in the natural serps that outrank me in the Local search.

I did go and fill out there form to update the contact info and what not, so hopefully that will help.

-the mole

 

Then just target your local keyword with your main keywords. For an example suppose that you are a SEO Company in Uk then use the keywords SEO Uk in:

1. Your Title
2. Your Description
3. Your Web Copy and
4. Your Text Links

these thing will help you achieve top ranks for local searches in Google.

 

1)Be sure to edit the local listing and include the relevant business category
2)Add to the Title of the Business to include the key phrase
3)Get lots of web references (these are like links but not as rigidly defined) that reference the main key phrase
4)Be sure that your own site has lots of references to your local address and key phrase
5)Join the Better Business Bureau/Mobile Travel Guide
6)Be sure to get some good reviews from the reviewing services the Google uses