Your website defines your online reputation. Its overall design speaks about your personality and its contents reveal your professionalism.
Think about it. Offline, people visit the mall to shop (for example: new pair of jeans, new shoes, new wallet), to find what they need (for example: food for the week, toothbrush, pens, new smartphone) and to buy something they wish to have (for example: books, new tablet, laptop).
Online, people visit your website to see what your products and services are (for example: About Us), to read your blog updates and to know your contact information (for example: Contact).
For this reason, you need to make sure your website and its pages follow the technical, content and social guidelines prepared by Google, Yahoo! and Bing.
Technical guidelines refer to a number of techniques that might or might not require the assistance of a webmaster. Your local website is considered technical-friendly if:
1. Major search engines can index the homepage.
2. Major search engines can see and find all pages.
3. The website loads fast in PC, tablet and smartphones.
4. User navigation is simple and friendly.
5. Its professional theme contains plenty of whitespace.
6. Your website needs to appear in different browsers (Chrome, Firefox, IE, Safari).
7. All pages need to contain your business name, address and phone number in meta description.
A website without variety of contents is like a shopping mall with only one brand of rubber shoes. Search engines might love it but your visitors will get bored if they only see long well-research articles written in long paragraphs and complex sentences.
A local content-friendly website contains:
1. Quality articles written in bullets and chunks.
2. Balance amount of photos and videos give support to articles.
3. Case studies of success and inspiration.
4. Transcribed interviews.
5. Free ebook downloads.
6. Slide presentations.
7. Downloadable podcast.
8. Blog articles link to branded pages such as homepage and contact.
It isn’t enough to focus on technical and content techniques in local search engine optimization. Nowadays, you’re required to promote your website in social media, where your targeted customers are. A local website is socially healthy if:
1. Your profiles in Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube and Linkedin link to your homepage.
2. Your website is listed in popular review sites.
3. Your photos are uploaded in photo-sharing sites such as Flickr and Pinterest.
4. You submit your blog articles in social bookmarking sites such as Stumble Upon and Delicious.
5. You regularly participate in two forums related to your business. Answer people’s questions and make sure your site’s homepage is your signature.
Leads Ahoy 
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