Internet marketing for a local business is far more simple than most people believe. In general getting search engine exposure for a local business is much easier than getting ranked in search engines with the correct keywords for an online business that is targeting the world. The reason why it is easier is because your only competition is mostly just local competition in your city. Not only that, there is a very good chance that your competition isn’t marketing their business online properly. Google’s search results are always tailored to geographic location for the searcher, this means you already have an advantage if you are targeting customers in a close geographical location. I have had personal experience with getting my websites ranked in global high volume markets with competitive keywords, this takes being search engine savvy and a lot of work. The local market is much easier!
I have looked at hundreds of clients and potential clients websites to discover that about 80% of these websites for local businesses are all making one fatal error! Here is a valuable tip for any local business’s website that is so important and simple that they are literally missing out on swarms of potential traffic. It is a simple website update that can take only 30 minutes to update.
And the golden tip is…UPDATE YOUR TITLE TAGS WITH YOUR MARKETS KEYWORDS, this is a form of “on-site” SEO. I cannot believe how many websites don’t do this. For example; If you are trying to rank in Google for “vancouver physiotherapist” and you’re a physio-therapist in Vancouver you better make sure that your PAGE TITLE has those keywords in it! For those who don’t know what a PAGE TITLE is, it is the first bolded line of text you see on Google results. I see so many local business websites that only have the default “Company name” as their PAGE TITLE. This is a fatal error and any website developer who builds your site and doesn’t update this should not build websites for a living, period!!
So the first thing you need to do is find out what keywords you want to rank for by using the free google keyword tool. Once you do that plug those keywords in your PAGE TITLE, META TAGS and PAGE DESCRIPTION. Then you have completed your first step to SEO and optimizing your website. You will have a much better chance getting ranked in Google’s organic results as well as Google’s Maps placements.
Do do everything correct from the beginning I cannot stress enough the importance of keyword research. It is the first and most important step to a website. Keywords are the lifeblood of any business website, treat this step with care.
There ya have it now you know more than 80% of the population! 
