Attracting Local Clients (Again)

Google has rolled out a new update recently which has had a huge impact on the search engine results for local search.

Essentially they’ve integrated the local search results with the normal organic search.

So whereas before, they would sometimes show a map with partial listings of local businesses who’d registered via Google Places on that map – now the local business listings are full and mixed in with the normal results. The map is in the right sidebar and floats above the paid search results.

This is a huge change. Now getting a a good ranking in local search is absolutely vital.

Do you remember my little local search experiment from a few weeks ago where I showed how to get ranked highly on local search – and then did it live with a made up business? (check out the posts here and here for details on how to succeed with local search).

Well, that little 3 page site I put up with just a few minutes of SEO work is now ranking number 1 in Google UK for the search term “business coach manchester”.

Remember, this was a few minutes of work focused almost only on local search optimisation. I haven’t built hundreds of backlinks or created an optimised, content rich site.

Yet the site is ranked number one. The exact same could be done for any local accountant, lawyer, or even plumbers and joiners.

I lay out the simple steps I used to get that ranking in my original Attracting Local Clients Online blog post.

In fact if I did search engine optimisation full time I’d stop trying to sell on a proposition of “we’ll get you to page 1 of google” and just do it. Build a simple site just like I’ve built the business coach site. get it to page 1. Then sell it to a business who wants to be on page 1 for that keyword.

Tags: attracting local clients, google places, local search