Local SEO For Your Maine Small Business

By now you are probably familiar with what SEO [search engine optimization] is and how incredibly valuable it is to you and your business. In fact, it is getting to the point that if you website isn’t optimized correctly, you are probably missing out on many, many valuable clients/customers.

Did you know that 20% of all the searches that Google processes are related to local search? This means that at least 20% of users are now adding a location to their search. Since there are so many people that are looking for Google’s recommendation on local services, there is a huge opportunity for those local businesses to increase their online visibility, even if they don’t already have their own website.

There are some things you want to make sure you include when you are doing local SEO for your Maine small business:

  • Owner verified listings – Local Yahoo, Yelp, Google Places, Bing Local, plus hundreds more! Add all information – Pics, logos, video, URL, email. You want to make all of the information you have on the Internet about your business the SAME! Also, double check that you selected all possible categories that are related to you business.
  • You want to make sure that you have your physical address on your website as text, not an image! This is a common mistake found on many websites.
  • Verify that the ‘Whois’ information for your domain name matches your business’ address.
  • You also want to make sure that your BBB [Better Business Bureau] listing and other professional memberships link back to your website. These are a strong indicator to Google about the trust and credibility of your business.

Local SEO for your business is only one piece of the inbound marketing puzzle, but a very important one. Too many business owners over look taking the time to verify their listings across all of the various sites and don’t fill them out completely. If you need assistance with your local SEO efforts, whether you’re not sure if your listings are verified or want to fill them out completely with pictures and video, give Mainely SEO a call today for a free consultation.

Below are the slides from my recent presentation on Local SEO for 2013 at SMBME.