The number of local searches keeps growing with the internet. You are about to learn about a few SEO techniques that will take you far in this business.

One of the simplest SEO tips that you can take home is creating optimized local classified listings. This is a very easy way to leverage the local searches in your area because the major search engines really like those kinds of sites and using them a lot is a great way to send local traffic to the website of your business. When you are beginning your efforts you should start with Craigslist because it is the most popular classified web site on the internet. As a business owner you need to be sure that you are posting optimized ads on Craigslist on a regular basis. The ads you post should be targeted exactly to the market in which your business operates. Take care that your ad is simple and not garish. When you write your ads for classifieds sites you need to focus the most of your attention on the headline of the ad because this is what will catch people's attention. The keyword phrase and your city and state should be included in the title. Be as careful with your Craigslist ad as you are with your landing page because, typically, the ad will outrank the actual site in the search engine rankings. A good strategy for Craigslist is to use it as a channel for funneling traffic to your website, which is your main goal. USFreeAds is another highly ranked classifieds site that you can use--it won't work as well as Craigslist but it can get the job done. Your main goal with the classified websites should be to send as much traffic to your best offer by either posting directly or using their traffic as a starting point.

When you're targeting local sites listing services such as Yahoo! Local, Bing Local and Google Places, you should first start off by logging into them and claiming your profile. Each of these sites has a fairly straightforward verification process to claim your profile, and all you have to do is complete some boxes and verify your address and phone number. This is a relatively fast and easy process that gives you an advantage over the many other businesses who neglected to do it. By including photos of yourself or your business on these local site listings, you enhance your reputation, as people feel more positive and trusting when they see an image. It isn't hard to upload some pictures from your site, camera or desktop, and it can benefit you quite a bit. These pictures don't have to be taken professionally, but since they'll be representing your business, you have to see to it that they're decent.

Try to diversify your anchor text. All SEO marketers understand that long tail keywords are valuable and that they can help raise your business's rank in the search engines and if you are working with local SEO, those are the keywords you are using. Long tail keywords allow you to play around with the anchor texts of your links, the diversification of your anchor texts and you are better able to expand your efforts. For instance, let's suppose you have a local chocolate store, don't just optimize for "New York Chocolate Store". Two other things you can use are "Chocolate Store in New York" and "Chocolate Stores in Manhattan, New York." Whatever you do, don't forget that search engines place a lot of value on anchor texts which means that you need to use as many variations as you can if you want to raise your rankings. Local SEO is the best way of getting you the exposure you want; there's no denying that.