If you are a small business, or even an individual (such as a realtor or insurance agent), using local SEO is a great and affordable way to market and brand yourself online. Getting your business verified & optimized in the new local search function of the three major search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo) is the cheapest, most effective marketing any small business can do. It is equivalent to getting a nice looking ad in the Yellow pages years ago. However, today, nobody searches for services or businesses in the yellow pages. Instead, 94% of people are now going to their computers and/or smart phones to search for goods and services. Our Small Business Starter uses the latest local SEO methods to get you indexed and optimized for this new local “phonebook” on all four major search engines. Once it is setup, it is basically free advertising that remains permanent for as long as you are in business.

Local online search is the latest and greatest way to find local businesses in your city or neighborhood. Search engines are now giving precedence to small, local businesses with new ‘Local Search’ functionality. This works by search engines knowing the proximity of where the searcher is searching from, and gives results based on location and relevancy. If you do a search for “coffee”, the search engine will show you results of coffee shops near to your location. This is a revolutionary new way for small businesses to get more business in their local area. Once you get setup and optimized on the search engines, it is virtually free advertising for you for as long as you’re in business, and will drive in new customers for you each and every month, just as yellow pages did in the past. Using local SEO is a great way to not only get your business included in local search, but also have an authoritative business profile that ranks above your competitors.

Local SEO is optimizing your business’s online presence to appear in local search results for your city or neighborhood. For example, Bob’s Electric is an electrician in San Diego. He used to only appear in search results if people searched his exact business name: ‘Bob’s Electric’. However, using local SEO, Bob was able to get his business to appear in local search results for several search terms that his customers were using, such as: “San Diego electrician”, “electrical contractor”, and “local electrician”. Now, people who never used Bob before (and therefore did not know his business name) are able to find his company with ease.

Before, it was very difficult for small, local businesses to get much business through online search engines such as Google, because big businesses and corporations always seemed to come up as the top results for every search. Well now, all of that has changed. Google and other major search engines are giving the option for small, local businesses to get listed under their online search. Local SEO, or local search engine optimization, is the method used not only to get businesses listed in several search engine’s local search platforms, but also optimize these businesses to be found no matter what combination of words the searcher is using to find that type of business.