If you own a local brick and mortar business who targets local customers, then you don't need to compete for the same search traffic as global businesses do. Google has gotten increasing better at picking up local identifier words such as "
Tulsa web design" or "
Owasso book stores" and returning search results that are associated with local businesses. However, if your local market has a lot of national retailers who are also local competitors, you may find you are competing against them for local search results. Even if national retailers are showing up in your local search parameters, don't worry about it. The national retailers are not proactive about getting local search results and can easily be beat on the local level. These national retailers generally have online store and they are busy competing for non-local keywords.
One way to get started ranking for local search terms is to let Google know you are a local business. If you haven't signed your business up with
Google Places, then it is time to do so. If you do not give
Google your information directly, then they will either pull it from a phone book directory, like Yellow Pages, or a service like InfoUSA. This information may not be the most up to date information or be the information you wish to have showing for your listing.
One of the most important aspects of ranking in local search keywords is your website content. This is the one area you completely control in the aspect of getting ranked and you must get it right. Once Google came on the search scene, every search engine optimizer in the world started talking about getting links to be able to rank. Google does use links to help you rank, but it still expects you to have great content and a correctly designed website (proper use of tags, good coding, and even useful meta-data). Speaking on the link topic, your website is the one place you can control all of the anchor text used in your linking of pages - use this internal linking to it maximum benefit.
While getting all of your on-site search engine optimization correct will get you started in the right direction, you will still need to get some authoritative inbound links to help complete your goal of getting ranked #1 on Google for your local search terms. Contact
Torxweb Design for more information about getting your ranked for your local search terms.