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Geo targeting (or geographical targeting) is the term used to describe the ways in which a website can be found in a local market.

It is important when you have a more traditional brick and mortar business to be visible and accessible in your local town or city and the best way to do this is to make sure that your site is front and center in the local online listings.

When you advertise online, you have a worldwide audience and sometimes that is what you want.

But what if you really need to be seen in one region only?  This is when you need geo targeting to help your advertisements be seen by visitors that are nearest to you and will benefit the most.

You may be the best dentist around, but it’s not going to do you much good to concentrate on getting visitors to your website from France!

You need to be sure that potential patients right in your city are able to find you online so that they can book an appointment with you.

There are several ways to geo target your website, but you also want to make sure that you are listed on sites like Google Places, Google Maps and Yahoo! Local.  These are important places where you can build your profile and ensure that local customers can find you fast.

Google Places allows you to fill in all of the pertinent information that your customers and clients are looking for, and even allows you to see the traffic you are receiving from local searches.  This way, you know what activities or keywords are getting you the most traffic so that you can capitalize on that information.

If you are a more traditional brick and mortar store or business, then you really need to make sure that Google Maps has your location properly listed.  You may need to tweak your listing so that your place of business is properly shown and the directions are accurate.  Google Maps does a great job of listing you, but sometimes the mapping software needs a little help with quadrants or abbreviations.

Yahoo! Local also has integration between a Yellow page style listing and map with directions available. Yahoo! Local also has a city guide and directory for easy navigation and is one of the most searched local listings online.  You will also find that these listing have ratings and allow customers to leave a review of their interaction with your business.

With more consumers checking online before they make decisions about their purchases, it is in your best interest to make sure that they can find you.  Geo Targeting allows you to get the local exposure that you need.

We can help with this!