Localizing Online Search for Retail Shop Success

Mark N. Cahill -- Expert Business Source, 2/10/2007 11:34:00 AM

When I mention the importance of “search engine optimization” to retail shop owners looking to spruce up their websites, the response is almost always, “I don’t need SEO – I’m only interested in local customers.” This attitude is not surprising, but it’s dead wrong.A localized search strategy can help business owners tap into a new source of walk-in traffic for their retail stores.

Search engine optimization is a technique for improving the ranking of your website on search engines such as Google, Yahoo or MSN. The design and coding of your website, particularly the strategic use of keywords throughout the site, will influence search engine rankings. The higher the ranking, the more prominent your site will be when someone performs a search on one of your keywords.

SEO is not a technique limited to large corporations. Consider the story of Over the Top Chocolate, a small chocolate shop in Chelmsford, Mass., that also rents chocolate fountains throughout central Massachusetts. Just over a year ago, the business had a very rudimentary website that the owners had built themselves. The site didn’t show up in Google’s results, even when you searched on the company’s actual name.

A simple redesign, with an eye toward localized search, increased walk-in traffic dramatically while also boosting phone orders from both within and outside of the area. We started the redesign by thinking about how a local resident looking for a chocolate shop would go about finding one on the Web. The term “chocolate” is simply too broad for a targeted search; Hershey and other major confectioners would dominate the first page or two of results.

Instead, we looked at a regionalized version of the keywords, including “chocolate central Massachusetts” and “chocolate fountain rental central Massachusetts.” We then coded the pages and redesigned the content to maximize the prevalence of those keywords throughout the site. After the redesign, the site achieved the No. 1 or No. 2 positions on Google for all of the localized terms. Additionally, in Google Maps, our listing came up first.

That’s great from a Web development perspective, but the real victory came from the walk-in traffic the shop began drawing from Boston residents and other visitors from around the state. That’s cold, hard cash from sources you would not have otherwise tapped.

Want to achieve the same success as Over the Top Chocolate? Here are six things you can do to improve your localized search results:

1. Adhere to best practices in your Web design to optimize for your keywords. Use keywords inside of standard heading tags, use boldface fonts on your keywords, and use the keywords in your “alternate text tags” or “ALT tags” for images.
2. Develop a list of search terms that someone might use to find your store and products. Search on them and see what pops up. Then optimize your website around those terms.
3. Think of the regional components that someone will use to narrow a search. Will they use the town name only or a more generalized region, such as “Blackstone Valley” or “central Massachusetts”? Include those terms in your optimization.
4. If you have a variety of products, create at an optimized page for each one. This will help you achieve a top search position for each product, not just the business in general. For example, if you sell dresses and accessories, you should optimize around category-specific terms such as “prom dress” and “fashion accessories.”
5. Review your search position monthly.
6. Make sure your shop is listed in Google Maps, which is quickly becoming a standard for people planning trips, as well as acting as a de facto phone book. Include a detailed description of your shop and, of course, a link to your website. Similarly, make sure you’re listed in MSN Live Search Maps and Yahoo Maps.

Mark Cahill is webmaster at Atex and has worked on numerous projects for small/medium businesses (including Over the Top Chocolate) with Vario Creative, a marketing services and graphic design company.