"70% of U.S. households now use the Internet to find local merchants and services, which is equal to the percentage that go to newspapers" (March 2005, The Kelsey Group). What does that mean? When someone searches for products or services that you offer, there is a high probability that they are searching for a solution near their office or home. Therefore, it is important to optimize for local searching. If you wanted to buy flowers to pick up and bring to someone, would you search for "florist shop" or would you be more targeted and search for "florist shop in Saginaw?" Apply that concept to your product/service offerings and optimize for all possible local searches!

What are the Steps to Get Started?

1. Optimize your site for the local searches by using the location name(s). Check with your webmaster about your current search engine optimization capabilities (or lack thereof). Once you determine what keyphrases you want to use, enter the information into the appropriate places on your website (meta tags, body copy, title tags, alt tags, etc).
2. Include your address on every page.
3. Get listed in the directories (for example, look into Google, Yahoo, Yellow Pages, etc.).
4. Use social netorking tools like Yelp to get listed in local searches.
5. Post ads on services like Craig's List. 
6. Ask customers to post comments on websites like Angie's List.

Additional Resources

• 25 Ways to Optimize for Local Search
• Ultimate Local Search Optimization Resources
• Local Search Engine Optimization Tips
• 5 Quick Ways to Optimize for Local Search