The age of hefty Yellow Pages tomes is coming to an end, and I bet the era of TV rule is on its last leg too. Their fate was doomed with the Internet storming into our life some 20 years ago. The advent of the Global Web was triumphant: now there are 227,719,000 Internet users in the US only, which is 74.1 % of the whole country’s population. Letting alone the world’s economic giant, move to the developing Africa: every 5th average Egyptian and every 3rd guy you meet in Tunisia surf through the vast of the Net. And Internet devotees’ armies multiply by thousands every single day.

But what does this "shift" to virtual space means to us, the entrepreneurs? Huge new opportunities we are yet to explore. The Internet turns all marketing and advertisement pillars upside down, and we’d better fit in these changes, harnessing their power, if we want our businesses flourish.

The most revolutionary and cash-promising concept emerged is, no two ways about, Search Engine Optimization. It’s not for nothing, after all, that the world went mad about it. SEO tempts thousands of business-owners by the sacred "targeted traffic" it serves out in reward. SEO techniques make your website the first one shown to oodles of users who search for their needs in search engines. They see you first – they click your link first, and they buy from you first. The stress of "targeted traffic" is laid upon "buy from you": these people go to your website not for the fun of it, but because they’ve been looking for something you offer.

Ok, being the search engine leader means flows of "targeted traffic". The strategic aim is clear – SEO your website to push it to Google’s leading position. But wait! Can we do better than this? Can we extra-target our targeted traffic? Yep. That’s what local SEO implies. Let’s say, your business is Seattle pizza delivery. Will anybody order your Seattle pizza to Houston? To Liverpool maybe? Aim SEO "fire in your belly" at locals, and that will triple the payoff, for they are your real targeted group.

Local SEO is on the lips now, and tons of articles are written about it. But the bulk of them don’t go beyond the commonplaces. If you’ve already read any of such articles, you know you should, for instance, get your website listed in the local-search biggies like Google Maps and Yahoo Local, and submit it to "Yellow Page" Type Directories (YellowPages.com, Superpages.Com) and local databases. But here we’ll talk about some little-know "holds" and the way SEO software can help us. (The software I use as an example is SEO PowerSuite toolkit. Some of the tasks can be managed with other tools or manually, but it’s SEO PowerSuite I consider the leader in local market targeting so far).

Mind your keywords

As with website optimization in general, you start with finding keywords to optimize your page for. Your business is still Seattle pizza delivery? Then, reasonably enough, you target at "pizza delivery". What else? "Pizza home delivery", "24 hour pizza delivery", "best pizza" and tens of other phrases people use searching for pizza. In RankTracker tool from the SEO PowerSuite toolkit I’ve mentioned, for instance, there are 16 methods for you to get new keyword suggestions (the tool also analyzes how difficult it’ll be for you to get first position for each of these words).

Next, your location is Seattle. Ask RankTracker how else people call it? How about Rain City? Or the most frequent misspelling Seatle? Central District, Seattle? SEA? Thousands of searchers use them as well. Combine the list of pizza related words with those of your location in RankTrackers’ Word Combination tool. Voila: your GEO-targeted keyword list is ready. Now, where to use it?

Localize your onpage SEO

First and foremost, if you are targeting more than one location, create a separate page for each city or district you work with. These separate pages can be optimized for their local keywords much better than a single page for three or more locations. Your business address, phone number, and zip code are to be on every page.

• Make up your business name so that it hold the top local keywords you target (Seattle Pizza House, instead of Pizza House)

• If possible, use the domain name that includes your geographical marker as well – something like seattlepizza.com will be great (By the way, having a local hosting is far better for local search results than an offshore domain hosting)

• Put GEO-targeted keywords into your title tags and meta tags ( "Fast Italian pizza delivery – Seattle, WA")

• Widely use localized keywords and key-phrases in pages’ content

One more tool from SEO PowerSuite toolkit – WebSite Auditor – is quite helpful here. It analyzes all HTML elements of your page, identifying which of them need more local keywords to be stuffed with.

Use local search engines

Lots of people use the Big Three (Google, Yahoo! and Bing) for "general" searches only, while for local ones they turn to local search engines. Target your local search engines (Yandex for Russia, Voila for France), or regional versions of Google, Yahoo! and Bing (like Google.ca for Canada, or Bing.de for Germany), as high rankings in them are usually easier to get, while the flow of customers they bring is more than huge. All SEO PowerSuite tools – and that is why I refer to them as leading software in local market targeting - support 614 search engines. Above all, new search engines are constantly added upon users’ requests. Whatever your location is, this SEO toolkit will take care of your local optimization.

Build local links

Link-building is the keystone of any SEO campaign. The more websites put links to your page, the higher your page is ranked in search engines. To lead the local search results pages you should:

• Build links locally. Make sure your website gets links from the most search engine-trusted websites in your location (Chambers of commerce/local business groups, local news resources, business directories and newspaper sites)

• By all means use your geographical keywords in anchor texts for inbound links (ensure that the websites you exchange links with, for instance, link to your website with some "Seattle Pizza Delivery", not simply "Italian Pizza", or "Best Italian Pizza Restaurant")

SEO PowerSuite’s LinkAssistant helps you find local link exchange partners through GEO-keywords via keyword partner-search mechanism, or by discovering the websites your local competitors cooperate with. Besides, the tool is very convenient in managing the anchor-texts of your links.

Spy on your competitors

That is another basic strategy of SEO, and local SEO as well. See what your competitors do in their SEO with SEO SpyGlass and WebSite Auditor from SEO PowerSuite, or other similar SEO tools (the former two do not only analyze your competitors’ optimization tactics, but lay at your feet a clear-cut report on how you should optimize your own website taking advantage of these tactics). Learn from your competitors and outrank them using their own means.

It’ll also be wise for you to establish partnership with the media covering your industry or local region. Distributing press releases online will be an effective link building tactic and will increase your brand visibility. Geo-target your Pay Per Click campaign if you start one. Get good reviews from your customers, as they also contribute to higher rankings in local search. And most importantly, keep up with SEO changes stream, as day and night new tricks appear for you to stay ahead of your competitors and be the no-question leader of your industry.