Jean Hanson

Many cleaning business owners know the importance of having a website, but many don't know how to optimize it so that the local community can find them online. Here are some tips to consider when optimizing your website for local search.

• Research keywords to make sure you are targeting phrases that people search for every day. Are people searching for "cleaning services in Des Moines Iowa", "janitorial services in Des Moines Iowa", "commercial cleaning services in Des Moines Iowa"? Once you discover what people are searching for, use those keyword phrases in your title, description and website text.
  
  
• Check out your competition. If you want to rank higher than your competition, do what they're doing - only better. Also find out what incoming links they have to their site. For example, in Yahoo do a search for "link:http://www.mysite.com".
  
  
• Optimize your web pages for location searches (refer to example above, where the search contains the city and state). Then use the phrase high up in the text on the web page, or a slight variation of it.
  
  
• Create an account on Yahoo Local and Google Maps to make sure you're listed on the map when your prospects do a search for a cleaning company in their town.
  
  
• If you have a business office, put your physical location and phone number on every page of your website. If you work at home, you might want to leave the street address off and just use the city and state.
  
  
• Get local businesses and associations to link to your site. If you belong to the Chamber of Commerce, be sure to get a listing on their website.
  
  
• Write a blog, which is hosted on your website. Search engines like to visit websites with changing content. If you write a blog and update it regularly, the search engines will come back to see what you're writing about and index those posts.

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Jean Hanson helps owners of small cleaning companies build a more profitable and successful cleaning business through her online community at TheJanitorialStore.com. Read inspirational cleaning success stories at http://www.cleaning-success.com, and sign up for weekly cleaning tips at http://www.TheJanitorialStore.com.