We’ve been looking at various strategies that are commonly overlooked in many SEO campaigns, some a little more obscure than others. These last two specifically target local search results and are extremely beneficial if you want to make sure you pop up in searches performed for local businesses, especially on mobile web.
Claiming your Local Business Listing – This is a topic I’ve mentioned in previous posts and it’s worth revisiting as many times as is necessary for business owners to realize the importance of this. It only takes a few moments and you’ll be surprised at how effective local search ranking becomes when you claim your listing and add relevant information. To add to the benefit, you’re also protecting yourself from someone else claiming your listing and damaging your reputation.
Most of the major search engines already have businesses indexed. They pull data from the major suppliers that handle telephone directories and such. At the very least, you know your business name and contact information is online especially if you’re already in the Yellow pages. By claiming your listing, you’re able to add enhanced images, company information, site links and more.
Statistics show that web users are 7 times more likely to click on a local business with additional information and images than a barebones listing.
Geo Tagging your Pages – Local and regional search is undeniably the biggest ticket item on the agenda of many businesses. Many business owners that don’t branch out beyond their local region are looking for every way possible to stand out over their competition and gather as many customers as possible. To increase your chances of showing up for specific regional searches, you should definitely consider Geo Tagging.
Geo Tagging means you’re including the latitude and longitude of your business within your site. It’s extremely easy to do and a great strategy if local search is important to your business in any way.
Here’s a fictional example of how geo tagging works: A company has a brick and mortar business located at 45.124819 latitude and -83.742019 longitude in Northern Michigan. Here are the meta tags you would need to include in the head section of your pages in order to properly define your geo position for search engines.
<meta name=”geo.position” content=”45.124819;-83.742019″>
<meta name=”geo.placename” content=”St Johns Garden Center, Long Rapids, Michigan, United States”>
<meta name=”geo.region” content=”US-MI”>
It’s important to note that you must use uppercase in the geo.region tag for the country and state abbreviation
If you’re not sure how to located the latitude and longitude of your business, there are a variety of sites that provide this information. The most notable would be Google Earth. You can type in the address and navigate to your physical location. Place the cursor over the map location and the status bar will show you the longitude and latitude.
It’s worth noting that if you want to see your latitude and longitude coordinates in decimal degrees through Google Earth then you’ll need to adjust your options.
Tools > Options > select Decimal Degrees, then OK.
Once you correct this setting, the latitude and longitude will be displayed in the proper format within Google Earth for use in Meta tags.
Itouch Map is another excellent tool. It allows you to type in an address similar to Google Earth. Itouch Map will pin a flag to that location with the longitude and latitude in decimal degree format. Itouch Map requires no additional downloads, you can quickly find your coordinates online.
http://itouchmap.com/latlong.html
Sometimes in life we often overlook the simplest answer to a problem, even when they are the most obvious. By applying these tips to each of your SEO campaigns where applicable, you can ensure that you’re one step ahead of the crowd.
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Joerg Weishaupt is a 46 year old entrepreneur, software architect, search engine optimization and social media expert. Joerg has been building a lot of profitable Internet businesses since he put his first website online in 1995. He is also one of the founders and partners of Social Media Science LLC, where he launched a content syndication network called SYNND.
Joerg resides in a small, quiet community about 100 miles outside of Munich, Germany. If you ever seek to find him, look for where the cows gather.
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