I am wondering if anyone has any resources, links, or tips to local/regional SEO. I know many of your sites are national and international and you need to rank high with very broad terms. What about just making sure you show up locally or in a small geographic region? I am not trying to show up to the world, I just need local buyers to find me when they search. The second part is that I need things in "layman terms" so that a non-techy can figure it out. Any tips, articles, or links is appreciated.
Welcome to the Game Local search is fun First, on all your site's pages, place in the footer your full address and phone number ( on one line). The SEs will use this in thier local calculations. Second, select the most important keyword phrase (3 words). Then in the <title> section, add these keywords. You then add the "city name" to the front of this string for exact matching or add the "city name" to the end of this string for a broad(er) match. Do this for each of your web pages using different keyword phrases. Third, add the keyword phrase to the <h1> tag without the "city name". Fourth, add to the ALT attribute of the "logo" image, the keyword phrase with the "city name" at the front of the keyword phrase. Fifth, somewhere in the body content, add the keyword phrase with the "city name" in the same sentenance, (i.e internet marketing solutions in Dallas, TX). Then, somewhere at the end of the body content, add the keyword phrase with the "city name" in the front of the keyword phrase, (i.e. Dallas Internet Marketing Solutions). If you want, add the <b> bold attribut to this one. This should get you started. Also, make sure you are using Google's Webmaster Tools account and using an XML Sitemap. When in doubt, use "view source". This is how we all learned. Have fun...
Everything Jim posted there was great. Don't forget add yourself to local directories as well. I am listed in many Portland and Oregon based directories, and that seemed to help get me started.
links from the location you are targeting is also great as part of LB procedures. Good luck on your GEO campaign.
Have a look at, http://www.toprankblog.com/2007/09/local-seo/ and http://www.seomoz.org/article/the-beginners-checklist-for-small-business-seo
Sorry guys this might be in the wrong part of the forum, but have any of you tried submitting a Local Business to Google? And what are your opinions on it?
Thanks for all the insight. I am going to get started on some of these. I have a few questions on some of the more technical ones but I will give it a shot before I start asking dumb questions.