5 Local SEO Link building Techniques for 2014

This is a guest post by Debarpan Mukherjee.

Local SEO (Search Engine Optimization) works to inform people in your local area of your existence. This is good if you have a local business that may gain a better footfall as a result of online advertising. Local SEO getting more and more popular day by day. Most of the small business are focusing on local people to dominate the market. This makes it so that when people search for a certain business in your area, then you are going to rank higher than the national businesses. It is also good for mobile Internet as people tend to use GPS apps to find local businesses, and many of them mine the Google search engine for results.

1. Get yourself on Google locations and maps

   The Google locations function and the Google maps function are part of the same thing. When you sign up for Google locations you are automatically put on the grid for Google maps. The locations function takes a little longer than you may expect. This is because you first have to sign up to it. Next you have to validate your ownership and the existence of the business. 

   This involves some form of manual process whereby you may need to wait for the Google admin staff to read what you post and then verify your position on the locations index and the map. Still, this doesn’t take much effort and you have to remember that a lot of apps use Google maps and the data held within, so this is well worth your time.

2. Optimize a few of your pages on your website

   It is quite easy as all you have to do is add in your address. Put it on your About Us page for sure, and on your Contact Us page too as Google will be expecting it on there.

   There are some people who have their address on a footer at the very bottom of their site homepage. This is not a bad idea at all as it helps Google to see that you are based in that area. This is handy if you wish to rank on the search engine results for more than just your Google locations feature. Still, if you are going to restrict your address to just one area, then the Contact Us page is perhaps the best one as Google pays more attention in this page.

   

3. Have your website listed on directories

   Stop reading other articles that tell you to get listed on local directories--it does not matter. You can be listed on a directory on Mars, just so long as your entry mentioned the place your business is based. Many trade and consumer directories ask for your address anyway, so just to be sure you get it right and your local SEO will improve.

   There are sometimes directories that link to you because they are listing certain businesses that they have found useful. With this in mind you could spend money hiring people to write directory articles of this nature, but always be sure that within the anchor text of some of your directory listings is your location as well as your business name or website name. It will definitely help to reassure Google of your location and will rank you up for searches when people look for your type of business in your area. In which case it is also helpful if you enter your anchor text with a keyword or two describing your company's nature of business, along with a keyword about your location.

4. Get links from local websites

   The ones near you may help you rank up, specially if there are quite a few backlinks coming from your local area. Google looks at your website and your keyword profile and starts to notice that a lot of people are linking to you from a particular area. This indicates to Google that your website and your business is relevant to a local area and Google will start to believe you on your Contact Us page when you state where your business is based.

5. Mention your location on social media profiles

   When you build your social media profiles such as your Facebook business page and your LinkedIn profile, you should also mention your area and your address. When you link to your website and when you add your website into your profile bio then Google connects the dots. They see that you are from that location and so rank you up on the search engine results when people look for your type of business in your area.

   This will also going to help if you create a few posts about your business on social media and add in your location details for a few of them too. This again helps Google to see where your business is based and that you are working on your online reputation within that area.

Hope all these above mention 5 techniques will help you to dominate your business on local market. But remember customer satisfaction is more important than all of these. If your local customers are happy then you will definitely going to dominate your market.

About the author
Debarpan Mukherjee is a young blogger, entrepreneur, engineering student from Kolkata, India. He is addicted to technology and blogs on TechTrickHome.