If you want to dominate your local market then you may need to adapt the SEO techniques that you're using in order to find success. It's surprising how few small businesses are successfully tackling the local search results.
This may be because they believe that there's simply not enough traffic to make this approach worthwhile. This is, however, often incorrect. You may be surprised by the impact that local targeting can have. You may find that it does bring in signficant visitor numbers and that many of those visitors will actually be more likely to make a purchase.
The great thing about this type of optimization is that it allows you to draw in visitors who are looking for something very specific. This can really work to your advantage, helping you to turn those visitors into customers. This is the main aim of most SEO strategies.
So how will you adapt your tactics to take into account the fact that you are looking at the local area? The first thing to say is that your website should certainly reflect this approach. There's no point building links unless your on-site optimization is right.
Don't be afraid to clearly mention your local area within your content. It's likely that you're proud of where you are based. Don't forget to shout about it!
When you're looking for links, remember that you're still trying to appeal to local people. You'll find that many local businesses and individuals like to buy from other locals. They are your target audience.
If you're based in the UK, for instance, then make sure that you use language that's appropriate to readers from your part of the world. You're not aiming to attract visitors to the website who live in the United States or Australia, so there's little point writing articles (or website content) that ignores your location.
There may be less competition when you are targeting local searches, but you can only take advantage of the situation if you use an intelligent approach. It would be foolish to assume that you can easily gain the best search engine positioning by using the same techniques that you would use if looking at competing on a nationwide basis.
Competing for visitors in your local area will require a very specific approach. Fortunately, you're in a great position to succeed because you will already have a great deal of knowledge about what local people are looking for.
Take advantage of this knowledge to dominate the search engine landscape in your local area!