How do I rank for local keywords?

[gman5432]

Hey guys I think I have an idea on how to rank for keywords globally, but how do I rank locally?

Let's say I own a local catering business in Houston, TX. If I wanted my site to show up when people typed in "catering company" in Google would I have to optimize my site for the keyword "catering company?" If I do this I assume I could rank on pg 1 globally with a lot of work, but a lot of my traffic would be worthless since I only serve the Houston area. So do I rank for the keyword "Houston catering company" instead?

Also, from what I understand, when using adwords I can target the keyword "catering business" and make it so that my ads only show up for people who live in Houston. Is this correct?

So in general, if I'm just doing on-page and off-page SEO what would be my strategy to rank in my local market?

[theseoguys]

Put your site in Google places for starters. It will take a couple weeks to get verified. That time frame may be different in the U.S. Or, I hate to say the obvious, optimize for Houston catering company, or catering company houston, or at least have a page dedicated to that and catering company as a primary search term.

[jesustamez]

Definitely go for keywords targeting houston in some way, so catering in houston or houston area caterers.. something along those lines.

[Jeannie Crabtree]

To get an idea of what people are searching for, don't guess - at least use Google keword tool (Google that).

Type in Houston catering and then see how many searches are made for the various terms.


This is not an absolute, but will get you started in the right direction.

Title of page for example: Houston Catering | Name of your company

Then you put that keyword (Houston Catering) as an H1, and in the first paragraph, last paragraph and a few other times, but don't make it spammy. write for people not the search bots.

Use titles for some of your paragraphs and use the keyword again, Making it an H2.

All done in ways that make sense.

Take a look at your top 5 competition and how they have put their sites together.

Jeannie

P.S. search youtube.com for local seo website

[sureshtechendeavour]

Do some local classified submissions, this might help you to target local keywords.

[ghazia]

Set the geographic location of your site to your country in your Google web master tools account. This helps you to rank your site in local search. Submit your site to local directories.

[wilsonn44]

u can submit ur sites in local related sites like classifieds, directories like that. we can easily target that kwds.

[Fixers]

Plenty of ways to focus your site.

1. Google webmaster tools - use this and place the area targeted where you want and it will help it rank.
2. Google places, use this correctly and it will do brilliantly for you. Have a look at this checklist it will help!! davidmihm dot com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml
3. Host it locally if possible (although this is not always possible).

Hope this helps.

Thanks

[Jeannie Crabtree]

Mobi, it would be best if you start your own thread. You will get more help.

Originally Posted by mobisofttechnology

Hey, How I will improve the ranking of Bulk sms services.

[genanovlis]

Try commenting to local forums related to your business. If you use Adwords Keyword Generator Tool, there is an option to know what location you are viewing. Don't forget to put Houston on your set of of keywords so that the result you will get will come from Houston. Hope that helps.