By: Arthur Cooper
Submitted: 2011-02-20 11:26:37 | Word Count: 664
Advancements in online technology area are difficult for many small businesses to keep track of on their own. That’s why SEO experts keep track of developments and the different strategies required to engage them for e-businesses.
The Google Places function, which is designed to help people find a local listing, is a great tool for small companies with a specific geographic market. It’s also a way for them to make targeted marketing decisions. Here at Optimum7, we understand the tools available in the marketplace and we can use them to help your small business grow.
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Google Place added an algorithm that included a way for the search engine to determine geographically relevant results. This is good news for small, locally based businesses, but remember that it takes more than your location to end up in a SERP. For example, if you sell electronic products in Denver, a user search featuring the keywords “tv store denver” might not list you in the results, even if you primarily sell TVs!
You have to make sure that your site is SEO optimized for Google to consider it relevant. Content is the all important factor. Do you have unique product descriptions instead of just copy/paste or live feeds that you aren’t tweaking? Does your site feature customer reviews? Does it have a blog? A Facebook Page? A Twitter Account? Is it properly indexed so Google can find it?
It doesn’t matter if you are a local company; to survive and be profitable online, you must have the kind of relevant content that will enable you to be visible to your target demographic. Your marketing strategy should include trying to rank for location specific search terms. In other words, make sure your content and site are optimized for Denver, not just the general phrase ‘electronic store’.
There are other crucial ways to make sure that your website is optimized. If you want to turn up in a SERP for a local listing, then you have to make sure that your site will be crawled by Google not just for general content, but in terms of those geographical markers. You want to make sure that simple, easily readable local identifiers are present throughout your website. For example, make sure that your full phone number with are code is prominently displayed on not only your contact page, but also in your footer—which is on every page.
Another key factor is to make sure that your site will load fast even on dial up. This is particularly important for those businesses serving a geographic location that is otherwise underserved by high speed internet providers. You can simplify your loading page by reducing the number of requests it has to make to load and be viewable. Save all the images as one background image, skip on the Flash, use CSS for faster scripts (which places your styles in an external file), Remove items you don’t need and keep your code as clean as possible.
To increase your visibility and ultimately your conversions in your local market, you will need to employ these and other highly effective SEO strategies. Contact us today, we can help. Call us at 1-800-736-9618
