How to Survive and Win the Local SEO Competition

How to Survive and Win the Local SEO Competition

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Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a set of techniques for improving the visibility of websites in the internet. SEO targets user searches for pages, videos, academics and images in search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing etc.) It is an important aspect of internet marketing, especially now that people use search engines for almost every needs for purchase or information in the web. Contrary to popular belief, small and growing companies can indeed participate in the competition through local SEO.

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Most internet marketers once believed that small companies couldn’t outrank large businesses in search engines result pages (SERP). Fortunately, recent innovations and techniques in local SEO allow small businesses to become highly visible in search engines. In fact, these optimization techniques can be done without investing much on manpower, software and automation.

The Basics of SEO

Every web page is automatically indexed by web crawlers, which are bot software sent by search engines. They visit all pages and, through a special algorithm, check how well a page is optimized for specific keywords. Websites around the world or those belonging in a particular geographic region will be ranked. Of course, those that score higher PRs (an index for scoring optimization) will receive high ranks.

Optimization is done by making web pages highly relevant to keywords. These keywords are the words and phrases used by searchers in search engine search bars. Optimizers increase the density of keywords on the text content of their pages, including synonyms and varieties. They also build link systems by adding relevant websites as backlinks.

On Local Competition

Naturally, there are businesses that share the same market. Don’t worry if you own a small online business and there’s a large veteran company that shares your market – especially if the company is overseas. You can have the advantage of proximity. In other words, people that are closer to you in terms of physical location still have a good chance of finding you at SERP’s high ranks. That’s all thanks to local SEO.

Take Google and Yahoo for example. There are domains such as Google International, Yahoo US and so on. There are various scales of searching, ranging from worldwide to local. Your first step as a starting internet businessman is to dominate the local market. In other words, ascend gradually. You can identify your competitors in local SERPs simply by using your business’s keywords. See the websites on the top 5 ranks? They are your target competitors.

Note that your goal in local SEO is to obtain a spot in the top 5 ranks. It is not enough to land a spot somewhere below the page. Internet statistics show that 90% of all search engine traffic goes to the top 3-5 ranks.

Affordable Resources for SEO

Don’t be daunted if you have no funds for keyword research software and specialty SEO teams. These are just optional luxuries in local competition. You can perform your own keyword research by using the freeware of popular search engines. For example, Google allows you to find popular keywords that are relevant to your product. You may also search for the recent performance of the keywords and predict their potentials for the future.

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