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Local search is a great way to get traffic headed to your website as I have mentioned in other posts. Here is a good guide on ways you can improve your rank once you have signed up:
http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml
Hope this helps some of you who aren’t making it ot the first page on local search just yet.
Justin,
Could you give us a synopsis of what the study found. I read the page and got lost in all of the technical jargon. In other words could you give us 3 or 4 things we need to sure put in our sites.
thanks,
JamieA few things that are fairly easy to do with your local search that will make a big difference:
Make sure you list as something like
Heaven’s Best Carpet Cleaning [Location Name]
This will help you have keywords right in the title and boost your rank.As this article mentions, make sure you actually claim and manage your local search campaign. If you haven’t, the search engine will often pull from other sources and this does not rank near as high and is not accurate. Here is the link to get started if you haven’t already. Also make sure that your business is verified (an optional portion of adding your business to local search). A google computer will call your phone and you have to touch a few numbers, well worth the effort.
http://www.google.com/local/add?hl=en&gl=usCustomer reviews are a big part of how your rank is calculated. I found that in Atlanta, GA kudzu.com reviews seemed to be the most valued by the search engine. Look at top cleaners in your area and see where google is pulling the reviews from. Often the local reviews from a local site will be given more weight than others. When a customer really appreciates your work, ask them to give you a review and offer some sort of bonus for it. Reviews can be placed on the search engine itself, on a service like yelp.com, infousa.com, superpages etc. With time google will pull these reviews into your local search summary, and more reviews means a higher rank in the local search game.
The most difficult part about local search is that google expects you to have a local address. Actually having one is the best, PO box comes next, and just making one up is bad practice but better than no listing at all. Theory makers are also saying that being closer to the city center is better than being closer to the limits. I haven’t found a great solution to this one just yet, and I’m not sure getting a PO Box in each city is really the solution. If anyone comes up with a good idea for this one, certainly let us know.
The total number of pages linking to your page can also increase your local rank. We will have to leave link building for another post though as it is a fairly extensive topic.
And lastly, if you don’t know what local search is or why its important, please feel free to call or e-mail me about the subject.
Evan, Sorry I wasn’t more clear.
Once you have signed up here:
http://www.google.com/local/add?hl=en&gl=usYou will be able to manage your local search account and make changes to it. This includes business hours, web address, phone number, location, etc. Listings claimed and managed by the owner should list higher than those that are not.
If for some odd reason you have a listing but are not able to access it for editting you will need to “claim” it. This happens rarely when a local search result is generated without the owner requesting it from what I understand. If you need help claiming a listing let me know and I will try and help you out.
Hope that clarifies the whole idea.
Justin i currently use a third party company to do my search engine listings. Are you saying Google frowns upon this and it’s effecting my placement?
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