9th Day of Christmas

Own Your Local

Let’s face it: your marketing budget is minuscule. You don’t have the money, staff or resources to broadly broadcast your message. So don’t even try.

Admit it, you’re local. You do business within the constraints of your physical location. Granted, you may distribute your services and products worldwide, or your customers may come from the ends of the earth to you. It still comes down to a pin in a map. That map is owned and controlled by Google.

Maximise your local asset. Focus on wringing from it everything you can. 2011 is the year that single location address and local phone number rates you higher in local search. It’s about damn time too! This is the gold SEO ring to grab for every type of SME out there.

My gift to you today is to get on Google Places. This goes far beyond merely pinpointing your location. You can add photos, videos and link to your web site. List your services, which is great for long tail product or services searches. By incorporating customer reviews, you get the added advantage of peer approval. For those of you in the leisure or hospitality sectors, it improves your chances to be found by people from all over the world. My stocking stuffer is to check out the potential of linking your blog posts to My Maps.

For the love of God do not get penalized by Google by stuffing key words, or doing anything to game the system. Hide your address and you might as well be invisible. Instead focus your energies on improving your reputation. You build your reputation by being active on blogs and forums associated with your industry. And by creating links back to your web page from reputable sites.

Darn I know that sounds like work. It takes time to build a reputation.

Read this article on ranking factors for your homework. It includes excellent background articles on local search for SMEs.