Feb 26, 2009
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Search is still one of the best forms of advertising today. For those who have local businesses there are several things that they can do to more target the geography within the search engines. Instead of going after broad keyword terms you can hone in on more targeted geographic terms.
People are searching for information and products using search engines more and more each day and that is true when it comes to searching for local businesses. For example Brooklyn attorneys, Phoenix accountants, or even more targeted Phoenix Arizona accountants and Las Vegas web design.
Although the search volumes will be lower for these targeted geographic phrases searchers are using local terms to find exactly what they need. Even if you are a big company that spans various locations and is going after lets say web design, it is also best to go after geographic locations so people in those local areas will find you when they search for web design in their local area.
You will also want to work on more than just Google even though they are the major player in the game. Google also has targeted adwords and you can geotarget television commercials through Google with their Google TV ads which is an extension of Google Adwords. This is where you can have commercials run in places that are more geotargeted.
You can also geotag your YouTube videos when you are uploading them. Plus not to mention Google will include their YouTube videos in their search results.
Google Maps is also another thing that people use to find things as Google is continually improving their map software. Google has recently made some improvements and updates to their Google Adwords local business ads for Google Maps.
Some things that people will also search for is address citations or zip codes. Your listing will be pulled up if you have all of your information listed on your website. The more local people can find you through several means the more exposure you will receive and top of mind awareness.
It does not make sense if you are local business to always go after broad keywords. If you are starting your company it will take a lot of work to get ranked high in the search engines for broad keywords. You will want to go after geotargeted keywords as you continually go after the broad keywords.
When optimizing for local geotargeted words the same philosophy applies when it comes to have high relevance, popularity, and authority. Depending on what location you are going after there will be some differences in competition.
If you are going after New York attorney it will be more competitive than St. George attorney so keep that in mind. If you are a New York attorney you might want to go after some of the smaller cities that you service in New York instead of solely focusing on New York attorney.
As you go after geotargeted keywords and place yourself in front of the different mediums people use to find local businesses online you will increase your authority and most importantly your sales.