Unless you’re goal is to sell your wares worldwide, localized content, or content that it is specific to your geography, has never been more important to search engine optimization (SEO) success. In case you haven’t notices search engines like Google and Bing have made localization a huge part of their ranking algorithms.

Whenever you execute a search on sites like Google or Bing, the results you get are significantly influenced by your physical location.  This happens even when your search terms don’t specify a location.  That’s because search engines track the IP address used to access the web and incorporate that in their search algorithm.  This way the search engine results will be more relevant to the products and services you are looking for.

To improve upon this automated geographic ranking feature, it’s very important to create content and inbound links that send the right signals to the search engines.  It tells them your site is relevant for users in specific geographies.

The key is to provide true value to your end users by including relevant information that is specific to your potential customers based on their location.  If you can do this, there will be two benefits: you will improve your conversion rate by giving searchers information related to their search AND location, and the search engines will rank your site higher for local searches based on your geographically specific content.

Once you have content that is pertinent to the regions you’re targeting, the next step is to construct inbound links from local sites to the pages on your site that have the local content.  There are several local sites that will aid you in constructing these links, but here are a few of the more popular ones:

• Yahoo Local
• Google Places
• Local Business Directories
• Local Blogger Sites
• Informational Sites About Your Region (Chamber of Commerce)

Local directories are often an easy way to start establishing this type of inbound link structure. However, some of these directory sites won’t list sub-pages, or require you to have a physical address in the city or region you’re submitting to, or limit you to one listing per business.  Your local internet marketing firm will help you pick the right sites for building your inbound link structure.

The bottom line is that you need to create the appearance of being a local expert in your field.  This can best be accomplished by keeping your content fresh with informational, local content and by building an inbound link structure with high PR, relevant local sites.