Local SEO

We live in an age where everyday more and more people are connecting online. The internet is more of a household necessity than passing fad. With the proliferation of smart phones, laptops and wireless internet, people can access the internet anywhere. If someone needs information they are more likely to turn to a search on Google than they are a magazine, encyclopedia or even the handy yellow pages. The last point is what makes this guide valuable. When people search Google for a local service or product, are you showing up to them? If you aren’t then you are missing out on a number of potential leads and sales. The power of Google has never been more alluring. We live in a society where a common response to a question is “I dunno, I’ll just Google it.” This guide will share five steps that you can take to make sure you show up in Google searches when potential customers are looking for your products or services. We will focus on local search terms, so that you can rank quickly, and receive very targeted traffic that is based in your own community. What Are Your Customers Searching For? Since we are working on local search terms your research should be pretty simple. All you need to figure out is “What do my customers search Google for”? This search term will become your keyword.

Essentially it comes to a simple pattern, just combine your location with your product or service. If you have a restaurant in Toronto then a pretty good start would be “Toronto Restaurant”. If you live in a popular town name you might want to include your province as well (i.e “Toronto Ontario Restaurant”). Once you have combined your locale with your product/service you can use the Googles keyword tool (http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) to get an idea of how many people search for your term.