About a third of people deliberately search for information about local businesses on the Internet rather than through the phone book or other traditional means. Ignoring this fact can be detrimental, but those who take advantage of local business internet marketing will see the advantages that are available. There are three basic steps that a local business can use to promote itself online. They are not necessarily followed in any particular order, but include managing online business profile information, optimizing web pages for local Internet searches, and increasing local site popularity by dominating search results. .

There are several sites that provide business profiles, with the most important being those run by the major search engines. To ensure search engines have an accurate profile of a business, profile data needs to be improved and corrected through various online channels. These include data providers such as Amacai, infoUSA, and Acxiom. The search engines themselves also have business profiles. These include Google Maps, Bing Local, Yahoo Local, Local.com, Ask.com Local, and TrueLocal. Search engines get information from national data providers, but they also allow companies to submit their information. Internet yellow pages such as Switchboard, YellowPages.com, SuperPages.com, and Citysearch should also contain up-to-date information.

The next step is to optimize the main website. This means conducting keyword research, providing relevant local information, organizing the site so that users and search engines understand it, and getting links from high-quality sites related to the topic of the business. In addition to these tasks, which are relevant to all online businesses, a local business marketing strategy will focus on keyword phrases that reflect local needs, and the information on the site will appear to be targeted at local traffic rather than local traffic. a generic audience. In addition, a local phone number and address should be included on every featured page of the site, or even on every page. Show a local phone number even if a toll free number is also available, as this is helpful for search engines and people to determine the location of the business. Driving directions can also be helpful.

The final step is to dominate the search results for business-related keywords. The first two steps contribute to this. There are three locations in which a search engine can display a website: general search results, local listings, and ads. The first step focuses on ranking high in local results and the second step focuses on ranking high in overall results. By taking advantage of pay-per-click opportunities, a business can also advertise next to search results.