• Practical eCommerce , Monday, June 30, 2008 1:30 PM

"For the majority of small and mid-size, locally-focused businesses, your target market is more defined than everyone living everywhere," says Lisa Wehr. "With local search strategies for both pay-per-click advertising (PPC) and natural search engine optimization, you can refine your search marketing program, cut costs and grow your business."

For paid search, go local with regionally defined and geotargeted keywords. Geotargeting helps to restrict your ads to a smaller audience and delivers more qualified leads, while regionally-defined terms can give you wider exposure, yet still allow you to hone in on your target market.

Meanwhile, for SEO, make sure your site has accurate listings on the slew of IYPs and local search sites, from Superpages.com, to Citysearch, to Google Maps. Each one resonates with a different local audience, and their listings also show up within the core search engine results, maximizing your Web site's exposure.

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