2011 SEO Essentials – Google Loves Local…and You Should Too!

As you all know I’m an SEO nut and recently attended a number of excellent SEO seminars at Affiliate Summit West. There are two big things going on in the Googleverse that directly impact all of us – Google Instant Search and Google’s massive focus on Local. I’ll save Instant Search for another post because what I want to talk about here is local.

One of the biggest challenges for Google is connecting web searchers up with exactly what they are looking for as quickly as possible. Okay, that’s not just one of the challenges…that’s the BIG challenge and how Google’s maintained their edge. When it comes to local Google is now populating 40% of it’s coveted page one to local results. Here’s an example below when searching for “restaurants” – notice that Google reads in my location and provides local results:

los_angeles_restaurants

So what does this mean for everyone trying to rank well in Google for a local business or geo-targeted website? It means that you have to go local with your link-building campaign if you want Google to give you the love you want. Take a look at Meet Up groups, local Facebook pages, local business directories, anything you can do to show Google that your site is local…not just designed to rank well for local.

There was a great article published last year about ten likely elements of Google ‘s local search algorithm. In 2011 being on page one of Google is the difference between running a successful business and simply having a website on your domain. As Google continues to give strong preference to local businesses it’s important to understand how to leverage local SEO. The great thing is this is all evolving and many of the best techniques for ranking well probably haven’t even been discovered yet. The message is powerful though – it’s not necessarily about how many pages of content you have or even how good your domain is, when it comes to local it’s a whole new game and those who are playing it are getting the traffic!

If you want to dig a bit deeper into local SEO here are a few resources you might enjoy:

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton