Getting Your Local Business Found in Search Engines

Many local businesses around the world are looking to the search engines to help find customers.

The following steps will help these businesses increase the number of visitors to their website and therefore find new customers:

1) Get listed in the Google Local Directory

Google is the biggest player in the search world. When you use Google to search something like "eye doctor New York" or "dentist Fargo" there is typically a top 10 listing of results for local businesses at the top of the page.

Having your local business listed here is the cheapest and easiest way to attract new customers. You can sign up for the Google Local Directory here: www.google.com/local/add. It only takes a few minutes and it’s quite a simple process.

If you’re a bit more web savvy, David Mihm has a very thorough post on increasing your ranking for local listings.

2) Build a great website

What is the purpose of your website?

My guess is that you want more customers to contact you – therefore you should make sure that your contact information is very prominent throughout your website.

The web design on many local websites looks like it’s from the 1990s. If you’re serious about generating clients from your website you should think about getting a new design. In some cases that 1990s look will give your website a trusting “we’ve been around a long time” vibe. This could mean that keeping your current site might not be the worst option (but it probably is!). One thing you can do is look at some of your competitor’s sites and see what they’re doing.

Building out a lot of great features and content will also help your website rank and increase the chance of people linking to your site.

One thing you could do is start a blog and then contribute lots of quality content to it. Don’t just fill the blog with self-promotional garbage either – try to write about things that your customer will be interested in. If you wouldn’t read it, why would your customer?

And don’t forget that contact information.

3) Get the word out about your website

• Tell people about your site.
• Ask friends, family, customers, and suppliers to link to your site where appropriate.
• Add insightful commentary to blogs in your field.
• Submit content to related websites.
• Join a forum related to your industry.
• Submit to some of the better directories (Business.com, DMOZ, Yahoo directory etc)

4) Hire a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) or Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialist

Professionals in this field can dramatically increase the rankings of your website and bring in highly converting traffic.

A few services they can provide include:

• Adwords campaigns – Adwords are the sponsored ads on the right-hand side when you search for things in Google. SEM professionals can help you decide the best words to purchase and will implement a strategy that will yield a high return on investment (if they know what they’re doing!).
• Website ranking – If you live in small or medium sized city it is usually quite easy to rank your local business for its main search terms. Dentists in larger cities like New York might find that ranking their website is a lot harder than pulling teeth.
• Google Local ranking – As mentioned above, there are a few strategies that you can use to improve your ranking in the local search listings. Implementing these strategies can take some time but finding lifetime customers through search could be a very lucrative way of building a successful local business.

Warning: There are a lot of very poor SEM and SEO companies out there that will do nothing but take your money. At present, word of mouth is the best way to find a SEM or SEO company that will help you generate high converting traffic for your website.

I guess the same could be said of finding a great local business but sometimes word of mouth moves too slow and that’s why we need Google.

Donald Farber works in the field of Search Engine Marketing (SEM). He has worked extensively with local businesses as well as life insurance websites like LifeCover.ca.

Donald lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

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Thank you for the tip! Always good to get great information.

The local verticals are receiving top rankings with the SERP’s, so being there is extremely important for small businesses.
K2seo´s last blog ..SEO Tips | How small business can get better search engine ranking

Absolutely. Getting local business listed in the local search is the best way to promote your product. However getting there is very difficult. Thanks to your post, very helpful.

Great information and wonderfully laid out easy enough for anyone to understand.

I would like to just emphasize the importance of blogs in regards to your page ranking on Google and other search engines. While you are having a site constructed or having a third party work on your optimization you could create you blog page and begin blogging today! Fresh content is so important and your blog is a great way to get some links back to your site. Plus it helps to build your visibility and gives you the opportunity to build a subscriber data base with an auto-responder program.
Cindi´s last blog ..Spinal Decompression Marketing Elite

I do a lot of local marketing and I will say that being ranked high in google local business center is the best thing that you can do for a local service business. They get great traffic!
john- Transponder Keys´s last blog ..Transponder Keys Locksmith Services

Thanks for the tips dude,really helpful.
earrings´s last blog ..Opal Earrings Israel

Searching engine plays a major role in today (online)business. Everbody is having a website and only 60% use them effectively. Most of them just have a site for name sake and just do not promote them. I accept the points you discussed above. I would like to inform that – In DC they are going to start a class for SEO which will be useful for bloggers.

Great article!

It gave me lots of good information about getting better search engine results without being so techie that an average guy like me could understand it.

Eric

Healthy Eating Tips
Healthy Eating Tips´s last blog ..Healthy Eating Using Superfoods

hi, I tried with google local directory, but couldn’t find my country there. How to get my blog listed there?

Very good post.Well I have already done google local business listing, google local directory submission but I am still to find a desired ranking for my new website..I will try to follow the other steps that can be taken according to you.Thanks for sharing.

One of the main reasons why I love your blog so much is because of its high value advices.:) Really really really great!!! Thank you very much

I trust that the most important thing is to develop a solid site with quality content, and after that think how to please Google: sending your site to directories and even posting quality articles on article marketing sites.

This magnificent post looks like a real guide! Thanks for sharing this. Before reading your article I was convinced that getting listed in local directory can hardly be done and is almost impossible for a usual user.

I think, the most practical way is to have your business listed in the Google Local Directory; this is safer and a lot cheaper than hiring an SEO/SEM (especially for novices.

I’ve seen so many businesses engaged themselves in online marketing to improve their connection with their target market. Luckily, it’s actually increasing based on what they are expected. I believe this could be the trend for years to come.
Harrison Stuart´s last blog ..Spying on Your Spouse’s PC- Right or Wrong?

nice tips,follow that and i`m sure that your site/blog will boost fast

Thanks for the tip. What about online businesses with no physical address, can be hard to get a local business listing, no?

I like that google has opened up about getting the local listings, and given us more opportunity to add photos and even coupons, that’s great. What stymies me is that there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to who shows up in the first 8 results of the local search.
I have a friend that has a top 3 organic results page for a massage web site, but there are 8 people above him in the local results, so he gets like little to no traffic. He gets more from yahoo than google – so I assume the above local results are taking all the customers.
Front Page Search Results´s last blog ..So you want to be number one on google

Thanks you for this article! Good info!!!

You have mentioned about the 1990s look of websites. Maybe you can write an article about 2000s looks of websites. What is in and what is out, so that your readers may also pick from there in getting a really neat web design. Anyway, thanks for this article. It was very helpful.

We noticed the “local search” trend a while back and started working on it immediately. Fortunately it’s showing results, although as a previous commenter mentioned we’re struggling with the way Google cramps a lot of what they believe “local results” before our pages. Although we’re getting a fair share of traffic, we feel we deserve more giving the hard work we’re putting towards it.

Thanks for the great post…Nice way of increasing the number of visitors. In fact the traffic from Google plays a great role.

To be in the local business rankings, it’s a great benefit fot the business owners. It benefits the local market as well as the web owners to go forward.

Very good tips thanks for sharing. I will check that google local to know more how it works. Thanks alot hope to hear more great tips from you soon

Hi! Does the choice of the directories for submission depend on the peculiarities of the terget audience of the website? Thanks in advance.

I would totally agree that getting ranked in Google is one of – if not THE most important strategies for businesses of any kind. It still amazes me that there are a few people out there who legitimately think they don’t need a Google presence to succeed, usually the local mom & pop shops who think they can rely on word of mouth and tradition to keep them afloat.

I think that’s suicide, personally. As we move forward people will use the web for more and more parts of their daily lives, Google being the number one portal for that.

But alas, I’m starting to ramble…

Great post! It really got the gears in my head moving, as you can probably tell by this long rambling comment, haha!
Van´s last blog ..Books On Network Marketing

Thanks a lot for this comment..
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This is true when it comes to finding a good company the does SEO, I have asked for references on their past clients sites, and had luck with that. Great tips as well.

Thanks Donald. With the advent of Local Search and most of all mobile browsing, it’s definitely a plus for a local business to be able to be found in search. This allows you to face the instant consumerism expressed by mobile browsing: I want something now; where can I get it close to my location?

I’m trying to get my friend’s local pizza shop in Philadelphia to rank high in the search engine. I have just learned how to utilize Google Maps recently.

-Kai Lo

hey really thanks i got and learn some real and important from here really i am dam sure it is prove important for me i am telling this because now a days am in big trouble and finding that type of information actually i am a home tutor and my subject is related to that post so in that post i finding my answer and finally i got it so really thanks for help me out i am again come back thanks for that really by heart.

thanks for a great article, i’m not too keen on adwords campaign have you had any luck with it…I prefer seo and artcle marketing
matty´s last blog ..Buying silver bullion the effective way

Great Advice, the web is a tricky world.

Local search is definitely a good way for businesses to target their local markets. Getting listed in both Google and Yahoo local would help drive traffic to the site. More traffic equals a potential in more sales! So of course the website has to be good too, it has to be easy to use and it should have relevant content. Thanks!

Jarmaine

When insurers compete, you win. Whether you’re looking for a good deal on health insurance, reasonably priced home insurance, a fair auto insurance policy, or an affordable life insurance policy,helps you get the best policy by letting agents compete for your business!

Matty:

I have dabbled in Adwords, but only slightly. I tried some direct linking campaigns to affiliate sales pages last summer. The results were mixed – I didn’t spend enough money to get the necessary clicks to make a significant conclusion.

That said, I do know the guy in charge of a very large online retailer’s PPC campaigns. He says this particular company owes at least 75% of their revenues to PPC Advertising… he also told me not to get into it without being willing to “invest” (i.e. “lose”) several hundreds or even thousands of dollars learning the ropes and refining your funnel. But if you’re willing to do that, he said, you can run a 200% or 300% ROI in your sleep.
Van´s last blog ..Network Marketing, MLM, Multi Level

Thank your sharing. This Google service is unfortunately not available in most of countries in middle east.

Great post!Local businesses need to position themselves to take advantage of this rapidly growing trend. A strong web presence is critical to have so customers will be able to find you!As more and more people are spending increasing amounts of time on online. They are starting to use search engines to find local businesses.

Search engine submission, get listed on web directories such as dmoz accompanied by viral marketing are good ways to be found on the search engines.

Shikeb Afghan. Hah, thats why I am trying to use it and it not opening…

Thanks. This is a very useful service but I think it should be possible to not mention a local address. I mean, what about strictly online businesses?

You know I really wanna skip the “Hire an SEO” part..

Thanks for the link and for the info you shared with us…SEO is the main technique and the main factor to found your website in SEs…This info is very useful to get higher traffic in Google…

Useful contents, Actually I want to know about Pay per click campaign. Waiting for your next post and hope you will write full information about PPC.

Thanks in advance
Rimmy Parker

It is really very important to be indexed by google. i really thank you for these great article

nice information shared. Thanks

NAPW

@Van , both learning the ropes with Adwords and most recently with Facebook advertising, takes hundreds if not thousands of dollars. We’ve been through it with Adwords, but luckily the past effort is turning into good results at the moment. Now preparing for the pain with FB :)

Raton Mickey

A strong web presence is critical to have so customers will be able to find you!As more and more people are spending increasing amounts of time on online.
This is a very useful service but I think it should be possible to not mention a local address. I mean, what about strictly online businesses?.

I enjoyed to read your articles

This trick is one of the most commonly used in online marketing strategies. Thanks for sharing!

Great article!

It gave me lots of good info about getting better search engine results

I think it should be possible to not mention a local address. I mean, what about strictly online businesses

Thanks for useful information, I want to know about Pay per click and Search engine submission

Thanks for the helpful advice. It can be difficult to get noticed locally. I mean it’s great to get all this traffic from all over, but if you’re trying to promote a shop in one city, you want people to find your store.
Aaron Wong´s last blog ..Can Men and Women Be Friends?

it was good that Google provide service local business which help us to give more good result and help in business

The new product is still in its experimental phase so you will need to log in to your Google account to sign up for the experiment as well as see the social search results.