How to get on the front page of Google (Part 3)

Friday, 16 April 2010 00:00

You know what they say: Location Location Location.  It's important on the web too.

Location based search details

People are tired of searching for Pizza Delivery and getting results from the other side of the world.  Imagine ringing Tokyo from Auckland and asking 'Do you deliver?'

So, more and more people are starting to enter location information to refine the search results. 

This is particularly relevant if your business is geographically dependant, eg lawnmowing, dentists, childcare centres, restaurants etc.  So there is going to be so many other similar business distributed across the globe that you'll be competing with all of them if you don't narrow your focus.

Recommendations:

• Include your location details on your site. Preferably not just on the contacts page where you'll only get one instance of your location.  You could include it in your footer to increase the number of instances the location words are used.
• Treat location as one of your keywords so you appear ahead of that Christchurch promotional company if you are in Auckland (if the searcher has entered Auckland).  You probably want to keep it to the general area (eg Auckland rather than Browns Bay), unless you really do only want to attract local residents.  This might be OK if you are a vet clinic for example.
• Include your location in your directory listing information and descriptions.
• Get a local business listing in Google.  It's easy and free.  You'll need to sign up for Google but that's no hardship.
• Consider your business name - eg Auckland Barbecue Warehouse.  If you are able to choose which location, use the one earliest in the alphabet, ie Birkenhead Optics rather than Verrans Corner Optics.  This is an old directory trick, hence the reason for so many businesses named "AAA Barbecues".
• Include your location in content - eg Testimonials, blog posts (erm, like this one although it wasn't intentional!).  For example, "Tony's Tire Service in Henderson got me four new tires for the price of two!"

Footnote:

There is a lot of buzz lately around something called 'location wars'.  This sometimes refers to competition between Foursquare and Gowalla which are mobile social applications, or it can mean the general rush to grab a piece of the location based services action.  These use the GPS capabilities of smart phones to help you shop or socialise (for example).  Sadly in NZ our mobile data prices means it will be a while before enough people take it up for it to be useful (topic for another post)!