In a world where nearly every small business has an online presence, it has become critically important for small business owners to implement local SEO strategies in order to draw local visitors to their sites. As the yellow pages begin to die out, search engines have moved up to take their place, meaning that local businesses need to do all that they can to draw traffic from internet users in the geographic region. Local SEO can help make higher visibility to the public a reality.

There are plenty of steps that can be taken to increase search visibility. Some are easier to implement than others, and many a web design and development firm has opted to be become a local SEO reseller in order to get results for clients without having to implement the strategies itself. A company that is an SEO reseller purchases service from a company specializing in SEO and works through that company for all of its clients’ SEO needs. Many local SEO companies are white label, meaning that they allow resellers to claim the service as their own when interacting with clients.

Regardless of whether the service is performed by an SEO reseller or an SEO company, the steps are the same. The first step in local SEO is to submit a website to search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and MSN. Search engines can’t include entries that they don’t have, and submitting is arguably the easiest part of Seo.

The next step is to lace the keywords you want to be found with into your site, along with the name of business. Choose keywords wisely, as you want them to be specific enough to eliminate some competition, but general enough that users are likely to use them. This step, known as on site optimization, also involves incorporating the keywords into meta descriptions.

The rest of the steps in local Seo involve off site optimization through marketing, social networking, and analytics. Businesses that are serious about being found through local searches will create an entry in Google+ Local, seeking a 100 percent score and will create business profiles on a variety of social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Foursquare. Links from social networking sites are highly regarded by search engines and can do wonders for search engine ranking.

For those who choose to resell local SEO, the next step is the one that is often outsourced. Launching an online marketing campaign may involve the use of Google Adwords, off site blogging, and other content related services. Pay per click advertising and organic search result improvement are both parts of the services offered by many SEO companies and can be very complex.

For small businesses, local SEO is becoming more essential with each passing year. As more of the consumer base is comprised of internet users, a strong and consistent internet presence will help to draw a tech savvy generation to the site and through the doors of a small business, and local SEO is what can make that happen. Helpful research also found here.