08.12.2009
The growing importance of local Search Site Ranking.
If you are a website that sells goods or services and your client base is local or UK only, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) needs to target that fact.
Say as an example you are a bathroom showroom in the south of London. You decide to start offering items online through a shop website. You decide that shipping items abroad will be a lot of trouble, and want to concentrate on customers within a certain distance from your base of operations, but would ship within the South of England as it is economical to do so.
Or you are a professional or private business in Surrey, offering services to a more localised area in the south of London and Surrey.
How do you get people who are searching for your type of service or the products you are selling to find your website?
Lets look at a couple of examples:
1. Someone is wanting to find a product or product range e.g. bathroom furniture.
Go to Google and type in "bathroom furniture" into the search field
Google tells you that the page displays Results 1 - 10 of about 20,800,000 for bathroom furniture, so the competition is huge. And don't forget that a results page only contains 10 organic listings (as well as some paid for listings).
Our view is that if you are not found within the first 3 pages your probability of a click through from your website link is greatly reduced.
If however you type in "bathroom furniture kingston" Google tells you that the page displays Results 1 - 10 of about 78,200. You therefore have a much improved chance of getting on one of the first 3 pages.
It has been well documented that once someone is used to the web, they will frequently begin with location search terms to find a supplier. Of course there is a lot more to it than this and you should have your site correctly optimised for search engines (SEO), which will have all relevant search terms including the locations of your customer catchment area.
2. Someone looking for a service or profession e.g. heart bypass surgery
Go to Google and type in "heart bypass surgery" into the search field
Google tells you that the page displays Results 1 - 10 of about 4,510,000 for heart bypass surgery, so there is a lot of competition.
If however you type in "heart bypass surgery surrey" Google tells you that the page displays Results 1 - 10 of about 19,700. You have a much improved chance of getting on one of the first 3 pages.
People are much more likely to search locally for this type of result as well, for obvious reasons, so optimising for broad search terms (no location) tends to be much less successful.
We have also found that postcodes are being used more and should also be included in SEO.
Understanding how people search for products and services is key to getting good ranking.
