The Internet has changed the face of industry forever. It has grown so much that a huge percentage of people no longer look for any type of information in traditional ways. Instead of looking in the yellow pages, they turn to the internet to find any type of business. People search for products and services locally and further afield through the search engines.

This means that even small businesses that cater solely to local clientele now need websites. This can often become a dilemma for traditional and long settled local businesses. So it is not an illogical question for a local business person to ask whether they really need SEO. It is far easier to grasp the concept of search optimisation when thinking about large international companies.

Keep it local

Small and localised business need search engine optimisation and marketing exactly as their big international brothers and sisters need. The big difference is that they need a specific form of SEO; the need local SEO instead of the normal global SEO. In fact, businesses that cater to the local market absolutely do not need global optimisation as it will complicate things.

These businesses do not want to be bothered by queries and phone calls from people who are not in their targeted local market at all. So in reality they need to ‘sidestep’ global optimisation. What is needed is that the SEO techniques used must make the website more visible to local searchers. This means making sure that the place of business, the actual locale is strongly highlighted throughout the optimisation effort.

Making it easy

Without the strong emphasis through optimisation on the local target market, the website will simply disappear amongst the millions of websites on the internet. It is not difficult to switch from global to local optimisation. You start at the very top of the page and make sure that your location is prominently displayed.

You must include your location in your page title. The location must again be mentioned within the first paragraph of your web page. The location must as a matter of fact be mentioned in every optimisation and marketing action. This includes in all your ads as well. If you are going to use a pay-per-click campaign to market your business as well, the location must be stressed within the PPC campaign as well.

Vital keyword

All optimisation, whether global or local involve highly targeted keywords. With a local optimisation effort, your location becomes your most important keyword. You can add extra local mention to your slogan or logo by adding a tagline. For example: “baking bread in Birmingham since 1982″. Local search engine optimisation has an extra perk.

When people outside your target area do searches for your type of products or services in your location, the search engines will pick up your website because of the location keyword. This works whether searchers are in other cities in the UK or overseas. Local search optimisation means your site will be seen by searchers in your target audience, and not by random searchers.

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