How to Dominate Local Listings?

use lots of city names. not a lot of people do this very well in most cities (except for major cities)

Hi Nato,

One page squeeze websites will be hard to rank on the first page of Google if you have any type of competition in your local market. I would strongly recommend that you join the War Room if you want to learn the SEO and traffic strategies necessary to do this correctly.

There is another option if you don't want to spend the time figuring it out on your own.

I build local business websites that successfully rank on page one within a couple weeks as long as the number of competing websites is not ridiculously high.

The websites I build are in the $3,000 to $5,000 price range, but I have a way to offer one of these to you with no initial out of pocket cost. You pay a fraction of those prices and only after you start getting results, not before. I even include ongoing SEO services to KEEP your website on page one for the keywords you choose.

Send me a PM if you would like more information.


Best Regards,
JoeCool

Obtain backlinks with the keyword you are trying to rank for in the anchor text. This is the most powerful thing you can do in order to get higher search engine rankings.

My recommendation is to create a blog and give away information to your target market. Then do the following:

1. Include your complete address even zip code to your site footer.
2. Tell google webmaster tool that your site is specifically targeting a certain country.
3. Basic SEO (title tag, content,etc. that uses your city name)

Also, see if you can buy advertising on strong local sites. That will help build an association with your business and the locality.

Nato,
So, let's say you live in Amarillo, TX and you want to rank for real estate keywords in the surrounding 50 mile radius.

First thing I would do is make a list of every city, coutny, zip code, and "city nickname" for the entire 50 mile radius.

Take the top two cities and the top county and use them as your title text of your homepage: (this is of course dummy info)

Johnson City Real Estate, Barbados Realtor, Opahoma County Realtor Top Agency

Now, I'd make a pyramid.

Start with 1-3 main keywords that get searched frequently for your target market. (Use the Google Keyword Tool or the MSN Excel plugin to get a gauge for which keywords get searched the most.)

Now, start building some secondary pages that have some basic location info...think of the type of content someone would want to know if they were moving into the area. Good content here, you want to show how knowledgable you are of the area.

That's level 2 of your pyramid.

Third, I'd build some location specific "guides" around the city names you are targeting. I'm thinking something along the line of "what to do", "where to shop", "restaurants", etc...

Here's where you can get some love from other local business' who already have websites. After you have them setup, you can ask for links to your site to do a writeup of their business on your webpage. Hire someone to do the calling for you...but get some good links to your site from the surrounding cities you are targeting.

This is a start...but you should start to quickly rank for localized keywords and in turn, that bottom level link love will start to push up the pyramid and get you ranked higher for the top tier keywords you chose.

Make sure you have a good, tested, opt-in sequence so you can capture the leads that land on your site.

Cheers,
Jack

Hey, one more thing...

I saw an ad for a realtor the other day in Google...pretty sweet idea, here's an example of what it looked like:

Amarillo's Best Realtor
I'd Like To Show You Your
Amarillo Dream House Today
www.AmarilloRealtorNate.com/987.321.2443

Ok..so you get the point.

He included his phone number in his Adwords ad...and even if just a few people called instead of clicked, he is cutting his advertising costs...and his ad really stood out on the page.

Just setup good local targeting...I think you can go down to 5 miles within any zip code...so your ad shows to your target market only.


Cheers,
Jack

We need to clarify some things...My tips a few posts above were specifically for the "Local Business Results" which appear ABOVE the organic results for many local related search terms.

These listings appear to use a different algorythm than the regular, organic SERs. For one thing, they don't seem to rely on PageRank or linking of any type.

If you're not sure what the Local Business Listing look like, below is a link to "las vegas hotels"...Note the hotels listed next to the map ABOVE the main results. Trust me, these aren't the biggest hotels in Las Vegas...Yet, they are appearing ABOVE the rest of the results.

las vegas hotels - Google Search

My post above deals strictly with how to rank highly for the Local Business Listings, which should NOT be confused with the regular listings, which use a different algorythm and the "traditional" SEO advice will apply.

Great tips! Here is what I want to accomplish. If you do a search for Sell Home Houston this is what you get:

Sell Home Houston-Google Search

Notice only 2 companies show up next to the map for local business results. My company does not show up. If you click on any of the 2 companies it goes straight to their website.

Now if you click on More Results for Houston my company shows up as H. Why am I not showing up with the main Keyword along with the other 2 companies?

One thing I did notice was if you click on the top 2 companies they have more than one Details, Webpages, Photos and Videos.

I don't know where to add more details in local google listings. I want to show up on the top with these guys. Actually I want to dominate these guys.

ive been using this method for a long time now and taken it to the next level - you can get some amazing results

since im new here im limited to what i can and cant post so i dont want to tread on any toes and step out of line

however what i can share with you if your interested for a limited time is a tool that i am developing specifically for this method:

*** i wanted to post an url here but i guess i will have to wait a little while (need 15 posts)! ***

its still a work in progress and is in beta status - it doesnt look very nice but it works, and has a lot more features to come...

cant promise it will be around forever as its really intended to be used by students only

enjoy!

An adword campaign would be a great place to start promoting - because you can specify the location of where your ads are appearing, targeting the areas or cities that may have a greater response from. This would lower your ad costs overall. If you target the long tail keywords related to your niche, you can target your advertising to your business specifically! Just my 2 cents!

Good questions. If you want all the answers go to ShowMeTheInternetMoney. They have many training videos that show how to do just about anything to market on the internet and get placed high on Google. It sounds as if you have dipped your toe in a very deep lake, I recommend that you learn how to survive (swim with the sharks). Good luck

Wow. I want to thank you guys for the tips. I made some very small changes to my google maps and I am now showing up in the top 3.

That's really good news Nato.

I do this a lot for the company i work for. It may cost you some money but get in touch with some local SEO companies and they can help you.

Guys,
Thanks for all of the helpful information. I was wondering how I could dominate the serps for my chosen keywords in my local community. Now, I'm beginning to get the picture.