If you’re looking for the best way to optimize your site to bring in web browsers who actually convert to customers, local search is definitely the way to go.  Many companies will implement an Internet marketing strategy that is not focused on local search marketing − however, this has been proven to be an excellent way to generate local business.  Local search marketing ensures you bring in the most valuable traffic, resulting in high conversions.

So how do you go about implementing a local marketing strategy?  First you need to ensure that your website is listed in all the popular local directories on the internet.  These include Google local, Google maps, yellow pages, Yahoo local, MapQuest, and MSN local among several others.  Some of these sites require you to manually submit your site whereas others will index it automatically, provided it is optimized for local search.

Local results will always appear at the top of a search engine results page if the user enters a city or state as part of their search string.  Most users do not look past the first page of results and the vast majority of traffic goes to the first few listings so you can see how important it is that your business is optimized for local search marketing.

In order to make sure your website is found easily with a local search, you need to ensure that the content is optimized sufficiently as well as making sure that it is indexed in all the major directories for local internet marketing.  The first step towards doing this is to check that the city and state that your business is located in is included in the website copy several times.  Pay particular attention to page headings and make sure that the title of every page includes your company name and location.

In addition, it’s always advisable you ask your satisfied customers to submit reviews of your service online.  All the major local search marketing engines include reviews as part of their listing and the more reviews you have, the higher your ranking will be.  If you keep an email database of your customers, an easy way to do this is send out an email with a link to the review page and possibly offer an incentive such as a discount on future services for those who complete a review.