If you’re a local business selling to local people then it’s important that your website should be geared up to get found in local search.
In other words; when someone searches (on Google, for example) for your business type in your area then you want to ranking high enough in the search results to win some of those clicks.
So, how do we make sure we get found in local search on the search engines?
Well, most of the businesses I deal with are small local businesses selling to a local market. And every single one of them wants to be found on the search engines for local terms.
Currently I’m working with a fitness centre or gym on the North Shore here in Auckland. And it makes sense for them to be found in the search engines for North Shore gym or gym on the North Shore or fitness centre on the North Shore.
Those who are from Auckland will know exactly what that means. But if you’re from other parts of New Zealand, you probably won’t.
But they’re a local gym serving a local market.
But here’s the thing. Many websites don’t have their location adequately scattered around their website.
Quick SEO tip to get started:
Here’s a quick example:
One of my clients is a small local business serving the Auckland market.
And he’s been paying hundreds of dollars a month for over a year for SEO services on his website.
But when I took a look at his website, I realized that the word ‘Auckland’ was on his website only once.
That’s right, only once. And that was on his contact page.
The company who had been doing the SEO hadn’t put Auckland anywhere else on his website.
So, here’s a quick tip; if you want to get found in Auckland, make sure the word Auckland is all over your website.
Because it will give Google a very clear message that this site is all about Auckland.
And, for example, with the gym, if they want to get found on the North Shore, they will be making sure their website has North Shore written all over it and Auckland as well.
Almost without exception, the gym clients are close to where they are.
If you’re a local business, serving a local market, make sure your location is all over your website.
Now, don’t just scatter words all over the place randomly. Make sure it makes sense.
So if you’re a car mechanic service in Manukau, make sure you have “car mechanic in Manukau” in several places on your website.
It could even be a bottom of every page and Google will spot that you’re a car mechanic in Manukau.
If you’re a hairdresser in Howick, then it makes sense to have ‘hairdresser in Howick’ all over your website.
Why? Because Google will latch onto the fact that you’re a hairdresser in Howick.
So, when somebody searches for a hairdresser in Howick, you stand a good chance of coming up reasonably close to the top of page one of Google.
Now, obviously, I can’t guarantee that you’ll be on page one of Google at all. Nobody can unless you’re paying for advertising.
But I do know from my own experience, having run a web design agency and marketing agency for nearly ten years, that this stuff works.
We’ve done it time and time again and we know it works.
You can do this stuff yourself, here’s how:
The cool thing is that you don’t need somebody else to do it for you.
There’s loads of videos on YouTube on how to do SEO on just about any platform, whether that’s your own WordPress website, Weebly, Wix, Squarespace, or whatever.
And if you’re having a bit of a disagreement with your website guy on getting your login, then you might want to question whether your website guy really has your interests at heart as a client.
But this isn’t complicated. Google wants to give the best possible results for people who search for stuff.
So they will give people the most relevant information.
Google wants local businesses to get found in local search.
If they’re searching for a car mechanic in North Wellington, for an example, then they will look for websites which are optimized for that particular phrase or have that phrase or variations of it scattered all over the site.
Search engines will never give you things which are irrelevant if you’re doing a local search.
More people do local search than ever before.
Believe it or not, local SEO has become absolutely vital if you want to be found in the search engines, because more and more people search very locally.
I live in a place called Mairangi Bay in Auckland. People search for Mairangi Bay. People search for hairdressing Mairangi Bay, they search for bakery in Mairangi Bay.
It’s just a small suburb of Auckland but people are doing very localized searches.
So wherever you are, if you’re serving your local market, make sure that your local location is in your website.
Not just once or twice, but scattered about the place in natural language all over it.
The search engines will latch onto what you’ve done and start to bump you up the search rankings against your competition who aren’t doing this.
It’s a good thing to do and the great thing is that it won’t cost you anything (or at least it shouldn’t). Just do it and then you’ll get found in local search and reach more of your target local audience.
Want more help for your website in the search engines? Check out:
SEO for small businesses – The fundamentals of SEO (YouTube video)
How to win in the search engines with a content sharing strategy (Blog post and video)