Nowadays, Local Search is very important while recent researches demonstrate that over 40% of all searches are concentrated on local services like ‘dating London’, ‘Trowbridge dentist’, ‘Kent plumber’ and so on. Whether a business targets national and/or international prospects, there is still a good market concentrated on local searching.

This article will teach you the basics and some top-notch tips to rank higher in local search and appear in Google Places, ex Google Local Business Centre. The most important thing when optimising for local search is that as more specific the search is, the more qualified and targeted traffic you will receive. If you operate in ‘web design’ industry and you are located in Manchester for example, the ones that search ‘web design in Manchester’ is strictly interested in your services therefore it is quite simple to transform them from simple prospects to pure customers, so taking advantage of the local search would be a huge benefit for any business.

First and foremost, any business should be registered with Google Places. The competition will be at high levels, but try to use these tips in your advantage :

– Ensure the location you target is found in the contact us page and homepage, as well as in the description and keywords meta tags
– Moreover, full address details should be found on homepage, contact us page and any other places where it is useful for readers and for engines (hint : footer pages….)
– Text used in those pages should include the phrase you are running for, like ‘web design Manchester’, but no keyword stuffing
– Also, phrase should be first in the page’s title to show its importance when Google visits it

However, these are some basic tips anyone should take advantage of. On the other hand, here are some really great advices for ranking higher and become more visible in Google Places, as well as in organic searching for geo-locating search :

1. Choose the proper category for your business, it’s a critical aspect !

2. Add photos to your Google Places profile, as much as you can. It makes your profile more visitors’ friendly, create a more professional image and makes your listing look complete.

3. Add a local phone number.

4. Associating videos could be a good move, although major increases will not occur due to this add-on.

5. Use a company email, such as info@company.co.uk.

6. Work on your on-page SEO ; this is available for Local Listings as well as for organic search in general.

7. One of the most important aspects is web citations. There are some trusted directories with high authority you should not miss from, however an impressive effect comes from link from local directories, local business associations, local classifieds, local chamber of commerce and so on. As much as you can gather will definitely give a boost in your rankings. Thomson Local, TouchLocal, Yellow Pages, the possibilities are endless.

8. Links from local blogs, so citations from Manchester based blogs related to web design in our case will definitely help.

9. Get positive reviews. Lots of them ! Although this advice is on 9th place, on a scale from 1 to 10 it should be somewhere in top 3. Huge importance for any business searching higher ranks in Local Listings. Although quality of reviews counts a lot, quantity is also a decisive factor, and it is so easy to get a review from a happy customer…Not only that this will help your rankings but will also be a huge advantage when prospects are getting data about your business and reach places where positive reviews are a majority. Moreover, it seems that reviews containing key-phrases your are after have a much positive impact on rankings.

10. Although number of inbound links counts in organic search, it seems that for Local Listing this is not a decisive factor. However, correctly using the anchor text will definitely be an advantage over your competition.

So here they are, some definitely ‘to do’ steps in order to ensure a great visibility for best-quality visitors : targeted prospects. Although this article is concentrated more on Google, you should also use local services from Yahoo and other engines, but in general the steps to follow for higher rankings in Local Search are the same as above.

Any other tips&tricks ? Please feel free to comment below.