A small and local business profile can also attain a high ranking in the local searches if they keep in mind certain key things. This need not involve link building and online advertising. Sometimes merely updating the website’s business profile can be of immense help in positively influencing the ranking of the website in local searches. If your’s is a local business house with just a small website, then you should funnel your energies towards luring local clients only. That is why it is quintessential to harp on your local identity. Each page of the website should have a section mentioning the physical location of your business.
You should act prudently in describing the physical location. For example if your carpet cleaning business is in Oswego Illinois, the title of your website shouldn’t proclaim “Carpet Cleaners Oswego, Illinois”, because many people have hardly heard of this relatively obscure place called Oswego. However, since Oswego lies in Chicago’s geographical area, which is quite well known, you should rather tout your business location as “Carpet Cleaners Chicago, Illinois”.
However, stressing your physical location in web page is only half the job done. Now you should also add proper contact information which can also help your business in local searches. If you think that is improbable then you can’t be more wrong. You should always get your business enrolled with Google Maps or Yahoo Maps. This is quite an easy task when you go to these Google or Yahoo Maps website and search for your physical address when you find that you can link that page to your website with the “link this page” option. Then you can paste that link in the contact information section of your website. This would also help your customers not only to find your business but also post reviews about your business in Google and Yahoo through that particular link.
If you provide some driving directions in your contact information section of your website with some relevant local keywords and key phrases even, that can to some extent help in your website climb up the index in local searches. Thus, not only through keywords and link building, but by effectively tweaking your business profile you can help yourself get noticed in local search engines of Google and Yahoo. The Meta description or keywords used to describe your business in local search engines should also contain the most effective part of your location to help you get noticed in local search engines.
These tips of optimizing your business profile can also be used when you advertise your business in free local directories. Enlisting your business in good local directories with an optimized business profile is also a great way to augment your chances in local Chicago area SEO.