pageoneresults - 3:59 pm on Mar 29, 2006 (gmt 0)

Before this topic takes a turn, we're talk about Marketing a Web Site at the State Level and not the Google Sandbox. There are plenty of other topics here to discuss Sandbox issues.

Marketing at the Local Level

It's been mentioned above to make sure you have a physical address. I might suggest including that physical address in a standard footer on all pages of the site. It should follow the standard postal format for your country. You should also include a telephone number, 800 number (if available), fax number and a link to contact you (no spiderable email addresses).

Depending on the product and/or service, local ads are a big plus. Those could include newspapers, magazines, local hangouts, cable TV, radio, etc. The possibilities for promoting at the local level are almost limitless.

Some additional tips for local marketing...

Be sure to utilize plenty of local terms throughout your copy and make it look and read naturally. Don't force the terms.

Be sure to use those local terms in links throughout the site.

If you have local business partners, set up pages for them. Not just a link on a page, but an entire page, let them advertise, for free or paid. This is a great way to generate local content while scratching your business partners backs. Hopefully they will reciprocate. If not, don't worry about.

Does the company being promoted have vehicles out and about? If so, get them wrapped and emblazon that web address on the front, sides and back of the vehicle. This is great viral marketing, especially if you have a vehicle that stands out like a sore thumb! When the vehicle is not in use, park it in a high visibility area so the web address is clearly seen.

Local sites are much easier to promote and require less online activity and more traditional activity. Trust me, it pays. I work in both a traditional and online environment and get to combine both strategies as I work mostly with regionally specific clients.

All documents produced by the company should have the web address printed on them in a visible area. It usually is on a line by itself along with a generic email address like sales@ or info@.

Back to the website...

I can't reiterate enough that you need to carefully craft your content to be localized so you can dominate local searches.

Provide a directions page. Link directly to a Google Maps interface with the client address. List four or five different ways that the visitor can arrive to the client location. For example...

If you are coming from the 405 S...
If you are coming from the 5 S...
If you are coming from the 22 W...
If you are coming from the 55 S...
If you are coming from the 73...

Be sure to carefully craft your mapping instructions. Use full street names, city names, etc.

There's much more and I'm sure others are going to share their strategies. :)