Are you a brick-n-mortar business looking for ways to expand your marketing and increaase your sales?  Well, your local customers are searching for you right now on the search engines, Google maps and their iPhones, Blackberries and other hand held computers.  What steps do you take to drive local search engine traffic to your website?  The local search engine optimization (SEO) process is different from "national level" SEO.  I am going to explore each step of the local search process in the next sequence of blog postings.

1. Identify local keywords.  Determine what local keywords people use to search for your product/service. This can involve researching keywords related to your state, region, city, county, local landmark, etc.

2. Evaluate the local competition. Like national SEO, the most popular local search keyword phrases will have aggressive competition.  However, the local competition is often not as aggressive as national SEO, and you can be more aggressive than them.  So the process for picking the most "efficient" search keywords to target is different.

3. Create local keyword optimized content. This process can be significantly different than national SEO. Caution is needed with your copy so as not to trigger any negative filters at Google and Yahoo.

4. Use the Google/Yahoo local search service. The big search engine offer extensive resources for local search, make sure you do the right things here.

5. Links from local authority sites. Inbound links, or back links, are critical to good rankings. Identify the local authority sites (sites that Google/Yahoo feel are important) and obtain links to your site. Just a few ideas: Chamber of Commerce, colleges, and non-profits.