Not all websites are built alike. Well, some are because competitors often steal content and designs from other sites but that era is coming to an end because Google catches such things. In order for your site to rank higher nowadays you’ll need to employ the new basics of SEO and if you’re targeting a local region, the local SEO is the key.
Local SEO basically means that your site is designed to grab the attention of people looking for products and services in a specific locale. Your website should feature the name of the city or town and how it’s relevant to the surfer’s needs and wants.
First let’s look at the old school way of doing things. Webmaters would populate a page with keywords and keyphrases to the point that Google had to re-engineer their algorithms to compensate. Google realized that spammy websites crammed with keywords, keyphrases, and horrid backlinks were sending their surfers to no good pages that blocked great content from reaching the public. This makes Google lose money and surfers.
To battle all this Google implemented several software options and that now makes things different for webmasters to do the webmastering they should. Now the bottom line is content and high end quality content at that.
The mistake that most webmasters make are so simple, so fundamental, that they face palm themselves when they realize what they’ve overlooked. Structuring your webpage is first. Welcome page, category page, about page, contact page and interlinking these pages so that the surfer and SE’s can get to the content that is relevant to them. Once you’ve go the fundamentals down, that’s when you start decorating the cake so to speak. Fancy layouts and so on may look good but do they impede the surfer or not? Make things easy but well organized and don’t forget the value of Schema.
Don’t take anyone’s word regarding Schema, study on your own, learn how to apply it directly from their website. There are so many know-it-alls out there regarding Schema that one can get confused and even end up being detrimental to their goals.
Don’t forget the kind of content that you’re using. A blog is essential nowadays. One that is updated somewhat regularly with relevant information. If you’re using video then you had better make sure it works properly, is tagged properly and delivers the message of your site so that the surfers and Google know you’re alive and that surfers who find your site will get excellent content regarding their region. That’ called local SEO.
Local SEO will have the name of locale of your shop, business, etc.. A map of the area, a Google map is best. Google likes to spotlight sites that use Google content. Mix your content so that you’ll have on a page some copy, well written copy, video, links to inside or other site pages, and especially how to contact you.
Remember, the secret here is building and maintaining a quality site. Local data needs to be prominent and appear on every page of the website. Doing this allows for the SE’s and directories to find your site, list them and in the long term grow up the SE rankings.