Meta Tags are the most basic form of SEO.? However, for local search they may be all you need! Meta tags are what the search engines use as a title and description of your site. By comparison, they are the equivalent of a book's title and it's table of contents. Most Meta tags are not seen by your visitors except in the search engine results. A Meta tag is the description of your site that the search engines displays for the people who are searching.? As we all know, after they click on the link to your site, the visitor sees your actual content!
Search Engine Optimization techniques for local search are a little bit different than other types of general SEO. The are two main differences.? First, with local SEO it is a lot easier to get results because competition is not as fierce as in national or international markets. Second, with local SEO you will have to be location-specific (i.e. city, county, etc.), as well as business-specific (i.e. auto repair, restaurants, beauty salons, etc.), thereby focusing and narrowing your target audience. The four Meta tags mainly used in local SEO are:
- Title
- Description
- Keywords
- Zip Code
The title of the page is what you see on top of your browser and the rest of the tags are only used by the search engines. For this type of online marketing you want to associate the type of business you have and your physical location or service areas. In the title you want to incorporate your business type and location. For example, "Automotive Repair - Mike's Auto Shop Servicing Country Town, USA" would be a good title for an auto repair shop in Country Town, USA.
The description is where you would add what your business offers in more detail. Continuing the previous example, you could describe the site's content as "Mike's Auto Shop servicing brakes, mufflers, tires and general auto repairs. Stop by our location on 1313 Mocking Bird Lane, Country Town, USA for all of your car repair needs".
Keywords are where you put the few main words that ultimately describe your site - the "target words" that people would actually use to search for a business like yours. In this case you would want to add "Auto repair, brakes, mufflers, tires, Country Town".
Finally, the zip code tag is where you add the zip codes for the areas that you service, each zip code separated by a comma.
Once you specify all of the correct information, chances are the search engines will find you, they will put your site in the proper place and traffic to your site will begin to improve.
