subject: Important SEO Tips to Help Your Business [print this page] Local searches are rising as the Internet grows rapidly. Keep reading to learn about a few SEO tips that will maximize your success.
As a local SEO marketer you should try to think like your targeted prospects/customers/searchers. Before you can do SEO for your site, you have to get into the customer's mind. Pretend you were using a search engine to find something you were selling, and consider what terms you would most likely search under. Imagine that you are the owner of a store that sells only one kind of item, golf accessories. Search engine users who type in "golf" are doing an extremely broad search and are mostly not going to be looking for what you have. Likewise, people who type in "golf tournaments" are looking for something other than what your store offers. Some people, however, will type in "golf accessories," and since this is your specialty, you should be targeting this keyword phrase. Businesses trying to generate local traffic tend to overlook keywords that are relevant but not hugely popular. They only look at the most popular keyword phrases, which get a high number of searches but also have lots of competition. Putting yourself in the place of your prospect is what gives you the best insight into creative and profitable keywords. Your ability to find targeted keywords will improve with practice, and you'll find more customers and you will eventually be able to rank for a variety of relevant keywords.
If search engine optimization is something you've been doing for some time, you know that title tags need to be focused on. Many new internet marketers ignore the title tag, and then wonder why they don't rank as well. If you're going to focus on local SEO, you need to concentrate on your title tags. You'll be happy to know that targeting the local searches means you're not going to face as many competitors, which would be the opposite if your keywords were more broad.
This is why all title tags must have the keywords you have decided to use, and they must also include what city and state you've decided to target. This will make the search engines' jobs easier and they'll place you right in front of your target audience. This is so important to your SEO efforts and it must be used if you hope to be successful. You will also want to make sure you use a minimum amount of keywords in your title tag so as to keep to things simple.
If you can get significant local websites to link to your site, this will help you rank well in your area with the search engines. It can be very beneficial to get a listing with a high status local organization such as the local Chamber of Commerce or Better Business Bureau or similar groups. Search engines can give you more ideas along these lines, so simply type in the name of your city plus "directory of businesses" or the like. Then you'll have a useful list of local websites you can try to get a listing with. Finding these sites will only take you a few minutes, so it's well worth the effort.
All in all, these SEO tips can take you far as long as you use them.
