Over the past year, I’ve blogged several times about Local SEO including looking at top local search queries.

As I said before local search engine optimisation in the UK is still lagging behind the US. Even though Mobile Search is still a big topic, especially with the coming of GPS enabled mobile phones, very little of that has spilled over into the recognition that this means your site needs to be found locally.

However, I see keywords on a daily basis that are locally intended, and the common ones follow quite a definite pattern., which is useful for SEO.

These are the common ways which a local search is formatted

Keyword in Town

Town keyword

Keyword Town

Keyword in County

County keyword

Keyword County

Additionally, people in the UK may search by the first part of the postcode; this is particularly true in larger metropolitan areas, particularly London. So people search for

Keyword NW1

Keyword in NW1

In London, borough names are also popular, and people also search by their general area e.g. “central London”. I’ll be blogging about this in more detail later because it is a topic on its own of interest to SEOs and companies.

In extremis, people use odd search terms if they can’t find what they are looking for, like using the telephone “01983” for the Isle of Wight.

If you are optimising for local traffic, it is important that you target pages to the area in which you are located. Don’t make me guess which area you are in or what area you serve. If local traffic is important make sure your title tags contain the town and county information. Even if you think local is a small part of your business, put the geographical information in your contact page title and description so that you have at least one page that is geo-targeted for SEO.