The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
January 2006, Volume 5, Issue 1

Optimizing for Google Local: Sometimes the Answer is Right Next Door

by Timothy G. Fitzgerald, Search Marketing Specialist, iProspect

As the Internet grows larger and larger, so too does the number of alternatives a potential customer of yours has when looking for a product, service, or solution online. With so many companies engaging in search engine optimization (SEO), how can you make sure your website is selected among the millions of alternatives?

It appears that at least one answer to that question lies in local search. According to The Kelsey Group, as much as 20% of all search queries are in some way modified to localize the results. With Google often preempting natural results with a local result, and making local search available on mobile phones, that percentage is sure to grow. We’ve seen the Internet’s “big bang,” and with the emergence of local search we may actually be seeing something of a “big crunch.”

Astronomers believe that the universe will continue to expand until it hits a critical point at which the gravitational pull of its matter will cause everything to contract almost instantly. In a far less dramatic way, Internet users’ emerging tendency to look for businesses close to them, rather than in the infinite vastness of the Internet, could be considered the search industry’s version of the big crunch.

The universe of competition for any given keyword phrase can include millions and millions of websites. While it would be great to be found at the top of the results within that universe, it is not always a reality for some websites to do so. By capitalizing on the trend of users demonstrating local intent in their searches, websites now have the opportunity to compete in a much smaller world.

Optimizing for Google Local

Having observed the trend of users modifying their searches to include local terms, and having acknowledged that optimizing your website for these local terms will dramatically reduce the number of competing sites, where do you begin?

There are several ways to optimize your search marketing efforts for local search.

Organically optimize your site. All too often, websites will only place contact information on one page, or behind internal search functionality. This severely limits the opportunity to be visible on a search for product and location. Ideally pages will have contact or geographic information on the same pages as their targeted keyword phrases, allowing search engines to find all words in a search query on one page. If adding this information to existing pages is too cumbersome, unique pages can be created that contain targeted keywords and locations. Additionally, optimization of meta data to incorporate local terms will help your site rank on local searches.

Feed Google with details important to users. Data can be fed to Google with set parameters using the Local Business Center, or from the Froogle Merchant Center for businesses with more than ten locations. Feeding this information to Google allows the engine to populate these fields with information important to potential customers. Users are beginning to adopt new programs such as Google Earth, which combines satellite and map imagery with listings for local businesses. It follows that the more details available in these listings, the more likely a potential customer chooses your site over your online competition.

Target local keywords in your pay per click advertising campaign. Google Adwords detects users unique IP addresses to identify a location and will feed different results based on that location. For regional companies, spends are not wasted on markets that aren’t serviced. For larger companies, specific markets can be targeted. Optimizing a site for local search can provide quick returns in terms of traffic and conversions. Users will continue to qualify their searches with local terms. By considering this while optimizing your website, you will be capturing the audience at home, while your competition continues to exclusively target users in a galaxy far, far away.

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The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article: January 2006, Volume 5, Issue 1

Optimizing for Google Local: Sometimes the Answer is Right Next Door

The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
January 2006, Volume 5, Issue 1