Local Based SEO

Local based SEO refers to one of two things - either the Google Local Business Center (LBC) or geo-targeted searches. For example, if I searched for "raleigh auto mechanics" I'd see the LBC results with the addresses/phone numbers for 10 local mechanics somewhere on the first page of search results - and I'd also see regular web pages as well.

Many of those sites will be other directories like the YellowPages.com or SuperPages.com and so forth - which isn't what I'm interested in, because if I was just looking for those types of listings, why not just click on the Google LBC results with the map right there?

What I might be looking for though is a national chain store finder, or a local guy's website that details the services he offers, costs, hours, etc. These are going to show up in the regular search results. And for Joe the Raleigh Mechanic, that's about the extent of what he can do on the web (after he puts his site in the LBC too). But if it's Joe's Nationwide Mechanic Company, now we've got to rethink the strategy.

I've posted on local business SEO before, but yesterday while doing analysis for a client I noticed something new: drop down menus on the homepage for popular/large geographical locales.

Usually these "find a location" links either involve you entering your ZIP (which Google can't do) or having some obtuse map tucked away on some inner pages of the site. While a "enter your ZIP to find the nearest WHATEVER" button might be a little more direct (and possibly quicker) - it's not the best practice from an SEO standpoint. Then again, hiding your locations from users AND search engines isn't a great idea either.

Now, the drop down doesn't guarantee that the national company shows up in the LBC, or even the top 10 results for the search - in this instance they showed up #10 for one keyword and #14 for another (with the "raleigh" modifier). If you had a map on your homepage, you'd probably see similar results if you had links to all the same locations (though text works better than images).

Obviously, it helps a lot to have links to your Raleigh location(s) directly off your home page - and I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of chains start moving in this direction. I know I'll be advising another one of my clients to do this on our conference call tomorrow.