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Hyperlocal search strategy is an often underlooked market for many local businesses - especially the local service industry. If you are a plumber in Des Moines, IA and you aren't in the "local listings" when you search "des moines, ia plumber" - than the people companies listed are stealing business from you... Even if you are the #1 organic search result

The top web search results are buried by three local search results. If you're a local business, and you want to get traffic, you'd better get placement in that 'three box' (or in some cases, 'ten box') that shows local results. On the bright side, this version of universal search gives you yet another way to hop, skip and jump right past all the other web search results. All you need to know is how to best position your site for a local search listing.

Now let us again do a quick recap on what are the companies for which local SEO is a good idea? If you want to reach the local consumer base, the local SEO is the ideal solution for you. Since it focuses on a certain geographical area, you have better opportunities to concentrate on the specific needs of that community. This is why the local SEO is a must for a company that sells products to a specific geographical area.

We've been saying this for years... Even "local" businesses need a web strategy.. Does yours?

In these stats lies a big - but fleeting - opportunity: serving local businesses by helping them use online well. By this, I don't mean doing what local newspapers have been doing: trying to sell them display or directory ads, just as they did in papers but in a new medium. Instead, I mean redefining what it means to help them succeed online. This might mean helping them place ads smartly on Google with good SEO (see Fred Wilson's tweet out of our New Business Models for News Summit at CUNY). It might mean finding was to help local businesses interact more meaningfully with their own communities.

But one problem nags at me. Local merchants like "Joe The Plumber" usually don't have a web presence and many don't really even want one. But if you are going to buy cpc advertising, then you'll need a place for the clicks to go. The local ad agencies and local oriented web services are happy to create a web presence for local merchants, but they are often poorly designed and there's no standardization of them.

Great tips on Local SEO for niche and small biz. Good copy goes a long way for local SEO but so are inbound links...

I know this Local SEO guides have been written many times by others, so I'll try to cover it well enough so readers don't feel the need to read more Local SEO tips and waste more time.

An excellent post about localized search engine optimization and all the ways your small business can target local search. The items are prioritized so you know which to focus on first.

It is my hope that this study will help small business owners confused by Local Search, or those strapped for time, to prioritize their marketing efforts.

Great list of terms dealing with Google Local search results and local SEO

A collection of terms and definitions from a number of Google's patent filings on Local Search (not everything discussed in these patent applications have been incorporated into Google Local search - but the interesting thing about many of these patent filings is exploring whether or not they may have been).

The study found that local search - the practice of using online search tools to find local businesses, products, or services - grew 58% in 2008, reaching an annual total of 15.7 billion searches. By comparison, overall core US web searches grew at a much smaller rate of 21% year-over-year, nearing 137 billion searches by the end of 2008.

A recent addition to the Google Local Business Center enables companies to link directly to coupons listed on Google Maps. Links can go to all coupons or individual ones.

A recent addition to the Google Local Business Center enables companies to link directly to coupons listed on Google Maps. Links can go to all coupons or individual ones.

Think local. Depending upon who you listen to, somewhere between 20% and 40% of all searches have a local component-a place name, or some other inferred geographic qualifier. So, what's your catchment area, what are the towns, villages, locations, urban areas, landmarks, counties, states, and even countries that you're looking to serve? Add those to your list too

The following examples with Google Analytics will help you get more insight in your local traffic. Basic knowledge of Analytics is assumed. Google Analytics (GA) should already be set up for the website in order to continue the following examples.

Sometimes organic search seems straight forward, type in a keyword and returned is a list of 10 recommended websites. Of course, getting to the top isn't so simple, but the notion that once you arrive at the top, traffic will ensue is a hypothesis hard to deny. Local search results don't play into this scheme. They have variables such as size of the map, and definition of a region's center that combine with trust, a citation, or sometimes what I call "sureness factors" to determine what businesses should be recommended.

Great local SEO tip

This is a Showcase Lawn Map on the web site of WiseGrass, a small lawncare service provider in central Pennsylvania. It's an embedded Google Map with user-created content for each of the showcase lawns. Here's a list of reasons why this is great:

Well, you can't specifically track the exact position of the keyword that was clicked like you can do with AdWords. But it is possible to determine the page he was on. A ranking tool can tell you over and over again that a certain keyword is around position 15 in Google while Google Analytics claims he is on page 1 (position 1 to 10). This effect can come from 'personalized search' or 'local results' that can influence the Google rankings dramatically. People see other results than you see with your ranking tools. And therefore you need Google Analytics to do the real ranking.

I bought a local night club and needed some clever marketing to bring in the business. One of the best ways to invite new customers is to hold a special event and make it a big deal. The problem is the advertising cost that can choke out your profits from overspending or going the wrong direction. The YepText reviews offered a solution to get my lounge jamming almost every night of the week.