Small businesses need Local SEO to learn how to dominate their niches to compete locally.

1. Local Search Engine Optimization
for
Small Businesses

2. Local SEO:Topics
• Local On-Page Optimization (2 Slides)
• Local Off-Page Optimization
• Social Media Influence – Local SEO (2 Slides)
• Local Citations & Reviews
• Directory Submissions & Local Listings
• Track & Improve – Google Analytics

3. Local On-Page Optimization
• Local Address & Phone # on every site page
• Meta Description Tag – Strong call to action
• Page Titles – unique for each page + keywords
*Include city in Page Title & Meta Des Tag*
• H1 Tag – Keyword in text

4. Local On-Page Optimization
• Optimize URL Architecture
(www.website.com/birds/eagle instead of
www.website.com/allanimals/?type=bird&spe
cies=eagle)
• On relevant images include keywords in alt
tags & filenames (<img src="smiley.gif"
alt="Smiley face">)

5. Local Off-Page Optimization
• Submit site to major search engine’s local
listing
• Yahoo Local
• Google Local
• Bing Local
• Ask City
• CitySearch (Data feeds Ask.com & Bing)
• Yelp (Data feeds Bing & Yahoo)

6. Social media influence - Local

7. Local SEO & Social Media Influence
• Google Places, LinkedIn, Twitter
• FB, Yelp, G+, You Tube, Pintrest,
• Small Businesses all need some sort of Social
Branding – “Social Credit” for Local Search
*Select the right social channel for your
business*

8. Local citations & Reviews
• Citations are “mentions” for your business
name and address on other web pages
• Also known as “web reference”
• Key component in ranking algorithms in
major search engines – Local Search
• Superpages.com, Local Chamber of Commerce
• Reviews – separate site page

9. Directory Submissions & Local
Listings
• Industry Specific Directory Submissions
• Dmoz
• Yahoo – Yelp
• Bing – Ask City
• Merchant Circle (Hard Costs)
• Whitepages
• ThinkLocal – City Search

10. Track & Improve
• Let Google Analytics run for 2 weeks before
doing any SEO – baseline
• Top 5 Search Terms that define business
• Monthly screenshot of SERPS

11. Google Local Search
Google (+) Example

12. Many Thanks
and Good Luck!
• Brian Tucker, MBA
• Digital Marketing Specialist