11 Local Search Tips for New York City Websites
Recently I did series of interviews about local search tips . I decided to go through some of the interviews and show how they could applied to local businesses in New York and the surrounding area.
Get Local Links: When you join your local Chamber of Commerce you usually get a link on their directory. This is true for big cities like Greater New York City Chamber of Commerce, Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, and the Bronx Chamber of Commerce. In addition to getting a link this helps establish your link neighborhood and your relevancy for that geographic area.
Reference Local Landmarks: Are you located a few blocks from the Empire State Building, mention that on your website. Located near Belmont Racetrack, Yankee Stadium, or the Long Island Duck make sure you tell everyone. People shop, eat, drink, and browse around landmarks. Take advantage of people who search for extra places to visit.
Airports: One of the most common uses for local search is looking for businesses or services when you’re travel ling. If you’re reasonably close to John F. Kennedy Airport, LaGuardia Airport or Macarther Airport mention it. Also be sure to use the designated airport abbreviations like JFK, LGA, and ISP on your site as well.
Location, Location Location: Do you have more than one location, if one is in Brooklyn and the other is in Long Island create a separate page for both, for two locations in downtown Manhattan one page is fine. Don’t be afraid to put up a picture of your physical store so customers who visit you on the web first know what to look for. Keep your picture current, if you changed that maroon awning 5 years ago update your picture.
Telephone Information: As the cost for long distance service continues to drop many business invest in toll free 800, 888, or 877 numbers. However people still use search engines with local area codes like 212, 917, 718, and 516. Be sure to list both numbers on your pages. You can put your toll free number in a highly visible location on your masthead, then put your local number in the footer area of every page.
Register with the Local Search Engines: Make sure your business is listed in Google Local and Yahoo Local . Not only are they both free but Google registering in Google can get you map listing in standard Google searches.
Advertising: Take advantage of low cost advertising options like “Featured Listings” at Yahoo. You can get listed for as little as $25 a month. If you offer coupons get involved in the Google Coupons Program it’s free and a great way to attract new customers and get new leads.
Press Releases: If you’re using a press release for your local business be sure to mention the location that’s important to you. Include the borough like Manhattan, Queens, or Brooklyn and the local town like Jamaica Estates or Prospect Park .
Use Local Names and Terms: People who are visiting might search for Bedford Stuyvesant, Greenwich Village, or South Hampton. Locals use “Bed Sty”, “the Village”, and “the Hamptons”, so don’t miss out on reaching new regular customers you could be missing.
Regional Directories: Many of the larger directories like Yahoo or BOTW have regional categories for cities like Manhattan. Getting listed in a regional section is great way to help the search engines figure out that you are relevant for a particular area. Don’t be afraid of smaller more regional directories for places like Long Island which will also help drive traffic.
Mobile Search: While mobile search is a very new and very small market, it’s something to watch closely. As phone interfaces improve and become more user friendly and teens who are attached to their phones mature into credit card carrying consumers, utilization rates will increase at a rapid pace.
Tags: local+search, search+engine+marketing, seo, seo+class, seoclass
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March 5th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
Hello,
What would be a smaller more regional directory as stated in the “Regional Directories” paragraph? Thank you.
March 5th, 2007 at 11:44 pm
Why restrict this just to New York City. This is a great example to be applied to any city! I like how you mentioned nick names, here in Queensland we have “the Valley”, “the Loo”, “Surfers”; every city has it’s unique long-tail terms.
Choosing which directory to list your site on isn’t easy and can often backfire if you drop your grades low enough.
March 6th, 2007 at 6:34 am
Michael S an example of a regional directory would be Layayette Online which was run by Carolyn who I also interviewed.
Michael V yes you could apply this anywhere I just used NYC as an example since that’s where we’re holding our workshops.
March 6th, 2007 at 9:36 am
Thanks for the shout-out Michael. Great job with the local focus and the launch of SEO Class. I plan to hook up a few of my charity biz contacts with the program - so thanks in advance for being so philanthropic!
March 10th, 2007 at 12:36 am
Michael Sass, I would include a couple of new kids on the block in the local or “regional directories” category. One is outside.in and the other is Local.Wikia.com. Both are so new entire neighborhoods are devoid of content. This presents an opportunity for local business or organizations to establish the tone. Eventually these venues will be populated and content may well enjoy spots in the spidered indexes.
March 10th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
Some good information here on localized search. I find that local association links are a bonus as well. These speak to the region as well, as well as on a business and professional level.
March 13th, 2007 at 11:05 pm
The Chamber of Commerce suggestion is an old one, and not always a good idea (I think it’s an urban myth actually, from when the CofC website was the only directory game in town). The CofC is a commercial entity itself and can be very politically active. In some towns Chamber membership is a badge of affiliation that can carry a stigma. It’s (almost?) never a free listing, and usually not an optimized one.
I certainly wouldn’t jump at it as an early listing.
March 14th, 2007 at 11:36 am
>>>It’s (almost?) never a free listing, and usually not an optimized one.
It is usually one that can carry some trust though as chambers have an approval process in nearly all cases.
March 16th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
[...] 11 Local Search Tips for New York City Websites - SEOCLASS.com A great primer on building links with local organisations/directories and use of localised terms. [...]