SEO for small local business site

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   WryLiltposted 13 years ago

   A lot of the information on here is applicable to sites that want worldwide or nationwide coverage. Just wondering if anyone has advice or tips for a local business website since a friend asked me...

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      Dale Nelsonposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Wrylit,
      
      I made a site last year for the local market and found that there was no seo headaches because of the longtail keywords with the geographic location.
      
      For example, a site with a local domain may rate as more relevant (note sure though) depending on your keywords.
      Say " painting contractors" would get less specific searches than " painting contractors miami florida" would.
      
      So if I had any advice it is the way that the in-website page html are labelled to help with localised traffic relevant to the company. Worked for me.

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         WryLiltposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you very much for the reply.

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      netmktingposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Yea I would also make sure to put a specific location on the pages like the city even zip code and then go to google maps and make sure they are all listed and stuff with the website and hours everything google loves when a company fills out a complete company profile

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      HomesbytheBeachposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Please check out the following hub page...
      
      http://hubpages.com/t/1cd60c
      
      An article on getting more Local traffic for small businesses.
      
      Hope you find it helpful.

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   livewithrichardposted 13 years ago

   Get the local business listed with Google maps. That should be priority 1. Have the local business create a short info video and post it on youtube.  Use the location and service as the title, for example: Rich's Chicago Bike Shop.
   
   edit: Geotargeting will always be more relevant in Google searches than broad targeting.

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      WryLiltposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you

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   Spacey Graceyposted 13 years ago

   Hey Wry - I have been setting up a few sites for small local businesses.
   
   In the Uk we have lots of free online business directories that people forget about.
   
   What I do is google terms I think a customer would be using e.g. adult ballet class royston.
   
   On those 10 results were about 6 business directories. So I applied to be in all of them.
   
   Now if someone googles that term they might find my site, but there are also 6 other opportunities for them to find the business as they may click on a directory link instead.
   
   I actually went through the first 30 google results and picked out about 20 pages to get listed on.
   
   Hope that helps.

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      WryLiltposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for the reply. Good info too - I will store it away. However this thread was raised from the dead - someone was looking to buy a business in my local area and had asked my advice on how easy it would be to rank some other businesses.
      
      You're making sites? I thought you said you weren't doing that? Done any of your own yet?

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   Spacey Graceyposted 13 years ago

   Should've checked that really shouldn't I - doh. Anyway we can use the thread to chat now
   
   I have done three sites. Just around 10 pages for dance schools. Just placed where the teachers can say a bit about themselves, the classes, timetables etc.
   
   I build them on Moonfruit on the express understanding that it is their site, and therefore their responsibility - I am simply charging for a few hours of my time to populate the site, then I give them all the log in details and the moonfruit user manual so they can take care of it themselves. Its easy to maintain once there is stuff on the site, just a pain to raise it in the first place.
   
   I like moonfruit because it lets them have the site for free if it is only a little site which is perfect for these tiny businesses. Only really doing it for friends.

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      WryLiltposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Hmmm interesting, I haven't run across moonfruit yet. Quick look at their site - how can they afford to give everyone a few domain name?
      
      Or is it like youname.moonfruit.com?

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   Peter Hogganposted 13 years ago

   Here is a link to a Stepforth download i found useful in setting up and optimising a Places Page for a Canadian company. Although the document is Canada specific it will give you a good template to use in other regions.
   
   http://www.stepforth.com/resources/loca … gs-canada/

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