Does anybody have any tips for optimising a site for a specific local area? i.e. I want it to be found in the Google SERPS when searching for example; "rowing boats Liverpool" or "rowing boats Merseyside" etc... Any suggestions greatly appreciated T
Make sure you host your website in the country that you're talking about, get listed in the Google local directory if appropriate, optimize your site for your keywords and get links from other similar sites. Done!
Good advice on google local. Also if your site is really focused on a specific local area I've found it pretty easy to get backlinks. Most of the community sites are not concerned with PR and will link to good local resources. I've found that making a phone call increases the success rate dramatically. Analyze your competitor's backlinks and approach whomever is linking to them. Run a fund raiser or aggressively promote a local event and issue a press release to your community newspaper. Start a blog about your site's area and topic. Write a new Wikipedia artice on your area and topic and include a link to your site (Wikipedia is now including rel="nofollow" on off-site links but you'll get traffic and if they change their policy as they've done in the past it means instant backlinks). Good luck. Regards, -jay
The core factors for effective Geo-targeting are; 1. Domain in local coutry TLD 2. Server located in target country (Class C IP) 3. Language (including english variants) 4. Contact page/about us location infomation Outside of the the usual KW/Phrase targeting applies as you would for any other target page/term
9/10 times in my experience, when marketing for a specific area, its a lot easier to get ranked in the top 10 as the terms are usually under 1 Mill listings. I suggest, you read www.totaldmag.com/seo.html it explains a lot. as well as the SEO pod cast link in my Sig, which will have lots of pod casts soon!