Not only can small business compete online…You can dominate the search engine result pages provided your local profiles are well optimized for search traffic and consumer reviews are in your favor. If a local restaurant in Newtown PA, local attraction in New Hope or a day spa in Bucks County wants to succeed online they need to take ownership of the local reviews…it’s your Online Reputation

Manage your Local Profiles & Reputation
Last year we decided to launch our Local Search Domination marketing package when a client received a negative review on Philadelphia.citysearch.com. Bing’s Local Business Portal relies almost entirely on CitySearch as their ratings tool and therefore this was a VERY big deal. By setting up an account, optimizing the local profile with keywords we identified with his website SEO program, we have since been able to bury the 1 negative review with many positive ratings. Their partner sites, InsiderPages and MerchantCircle 
Good Keyword Research is a Must
a title=”Keyword research” href=”https://e-xplorations.com/2010/11/keyword-expert-philadelphia/”>Keyword research should be part of the foundation of any local optimization project. The next step is to understand the local community and how consumer reviews integrate with search
results. Google Places for example presents reviews from Yahoo, SuperPages, Yelp and many niche directories. That means that you should have an optimized local profile within each directory that influences social search resu
lts. What we mean by optimized is to produce keyword rich descriptions, anchor text links, categories and rich media like images and video. You have to choose your battles and select only the local business profiles that make the most sense for your industry. You just can’t manage them all, so choose wisely.


InnerSpa of Newtown is a Day Spa reliant upon local clientele therefore our Local Profile Domination package for them focused on:
- 3 Search Engine profiles (Google Places, Bing Business Portal & Yahoo Local)
- 2 social sharing communities (Yelp & Merchant Circle)
- 2 niche directories (SpaFinder.com and an Alternative Medicine directory)
If the client was a restaurant, the niche directories may have been Zagat’s and UrbanSpoon
since they both solicit reviews from their community members, are very highly rated and most importantly, Google uses these reviews in search results.

Now it is time to engage your audience, encourage them to share your good news within their own communities by being a giver first and asking them to return the favor. Reaping the benefits of these social communities will come provided you are consistent in your messaging.
What type of business benefits most from a Local Search Domination package:
- Restaurants ♦ Day Spas & Massage Therapists ♦ Medical Doctors – Dentists
- Alternative Medicine Practitioners ♦ Sports and Recreation venues
- Remodeling Contractors ♦ Lawn and Garden Services ♦ Home Services
- Automotive Repairs ♦ Preschools – Adult Education ♦ Arts and Entertainment
- Smaller Retailers: ♦ Jewelers ♦ Bike Shops ♦ Consignment stores

Thumbtack.com is a newer local directory that seems to have a growing footprint in the Philadelphia market for small business. I will keep an eye on this directory and report back in a couple of months its value. Do you have any local directories that work for you? Tell us about it.
Can we optimize our blog for local audience.
Blogs, videos. social profiles, etc. All can be optimized for local success.
Just wish to say your article is as amazing.
The clarity for your post is just spectacular and that
i could suppose you are a professional in this subject.
Fine with your permission allow me to grab your feed to stay updated with drawing close post.
Thanks 1,000,000 and please continue the enjoyable work.
The Google guide is a very good starting point for learning about SEO. Of course the guide leaves out the other half of SEO. Off page optimization, which is about back links and social media. This is just as important as on page. Because you can have the best content in the world but if no one knows how to find it you site will be lost in the sea of the internet.
Hey Tom,
I was hunting for this type of Local Search engine optimization guide. I wanted to get my uncle’s company “Movers and packers” ranked in their state. Thanks for sharing this helpful guide with us. I’ll be waiting for more search engine optimization guides here.
Thank you
~Nitin Singh
Hey Tom, Awesome piece of content!! Got to know many things through this site of yours.I am now almost an expert in seo and credit goes to you. Thanks again.Going to use these for my clients 😉