As the fastest growing vertical in search, many people are now starting to recognize the value of local search engine optimization can have on their site traffic. Also known as regional search, it's basically geo-targeting your audience when they search.

Local search works best for the service provider, or a retailer that has numerous locations. While the search volume won't be as great as a non-regional phrase, the person who reaches your site will be a more targeted visit and most likely ready to convert.

Another happy accident in local search is that for sites that are well optimized may also pick up rankings in mobile search.  

So, here's what you need to do in order to rank for local seo:

• Be sure to have your location(s) full address
• If you have a regional number, list that as well since some people start with an area code
• Be sure to include driving directions to your location
• Use a mapping service to display your location
• Have pictures of your locations and name them with your street address
• Make sure your site appears in any regional directory that might be online
• If you can afford it, get listed in your local yellow pages
• Place the regions you want to rank for in your page titles
• Get text links that contain the regional phrase

Most of these techniques are are not only common sense, but also good web design. If you're in business, you want people to be able to find you, right?