SEO: How to Optimise Locally

The internet is global; that's why we love it. The internet makes it just as easy to message instantly a friend in Japan than it is to chat with a friend in the next village. That's not all the internet is about though, SEO can be maximised to reach the village next door and not waste time on Japan.

Clever SEO however can be manipulated to operate locally. Local small businesses are interested in reaching those customers who live in their own country and especially appealing to the nearby residents who might be particularly interested in their local service.

There are a number of techniques. Most broadly SEO can be aimed towards a specific country by using a specific country code top level domain. This is the final caveat towards the end of the websites URL address, each country has a specific top level domain for example ".co.uk" is specific to the United Kingdom, Palestine has the code ".ps" and the generic global domain is ".com". Although these country specific domains are still accessible to people in other countries, the value is that they let Google crawler bots know that the web page should be aimed towards searchers in that country. So when it comes to optimisation it will be focused towards the local country.

There are also techniques revolving around the design of key terms. SEO is aimed towards key search terms and choosing a term that is specific to a locality will access customers already searching for services in that locality. For example a Barry Island hairdressers, instead of just optimising "hairdressers"; which would be competing against every hairdresser in the country, actually using "Barry Island hairdressers" will refine the marketing strategy.

It is important to make sure these more locally specific searches are popular though, SEO agents will use tools like the Google Adword search to find how often a term is searched for. Businesses can also throw a wider net using a broader area, rather than the little town, using the town's county or region can work just as well. Therefore that Barry Island hairdressers might opt for "Vale of Glamorgan" or even "South Wales hairdressers" to still reach customers who are likely to be interested.

Many local directories focus on specific areas. The Yellow Pages are a valuable resource who market companies specific to regions and are fairly popular for that very reason. There are other directory services too, as well as industry specific directories that help channel customers to where they need to be.

Broader techniques of local SEO are also helpful. Social Media is a valuable tool to publicise specifically to the Facebook and Twitter accounts of specific individuals. Therefore by setting up a Facebook account for a firm you can add as friends as many local people as possible who might be interested.

So SEO is very valuable to focused marketing, localised SEO techniques access specific customers and can vastly improve conversion rates.