‘Crash Course’ in local SEO

Sorry about the pun..

Anyway I was doing to catching up on the php template engine called Smarty just and clicked on the “crash course” link as it does what it say on the tin..

The thing is I’m so used to reading FAQ or guide and that’s why “crash course” caught me eye.. My first thought was do people search crash course and would anyone search for a crash course in driving? well no1 suggestion is of course a is  ‘crash course is driving’.

Now what’s this got to do with SEO and Local seo for that matter. Well Check out the screen shot below.

”]Back in February 2011 this year google added markers to adwords ads. So this is old news? well yes but the key here is more and more ads are poping up in the UK with markers.

It’s also worth noting that on the screen shot it would seem people from blackpool are in most need of a crash course. If you select “crash course blackpool” google first suggestion is driving crash course blackpool so is blackpool full of learner drivers ??? who know google seems to think so.

But… google suggest is great but it knows where I live, my IP and still give me blackpool, I’m sure google will update the ago for suggest very soon regarding local search and it will have a big impact on seo…

This is a simple reminder that if you run a site that has physical local e.g. a driving school don’t forget to add your places account to your adwords account.

As you can see from the screen shot C is the closest to me (st albans) then A(red) then C with the Blue A being very far away from me but winning due to is PPC being linked up.

Not only are other advertisers / site missing out but 2 A’s are on the map, A is always best isn’t it ? 🙂

Some simple tips to get more local business from you campaign:

• Add yourself to google places www.google.co.uk/places
• Use adwords to get more exposure sign up here http://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/ads/index_a.html
• Most important make sure you link up your places with adwords
• If you sell online don’t forget to feed google shopping (google merchant)

So your local and you sell online ?

OK..  google now link up google place (local search) with google shopping search (google merchant)

Here is an example

Here  you can see a snowboarding shop near me (it isn’t really) but as the account has places, adwords and a number of review google well help it and add the “nearby store” link which really stands out.

So that’s my simple crash course in local seo. I live by the words “target your niche” 🙂