When you are looking to rank better on geo targeted search terms you should be thinking about a couple of different things in terms of links. Firstly, be sure that you have claimed your business location with all of the local search engines and directories including but not limited to:

Yahoo Local
Google Maps
Yelp.com
localeze.com
merchantcircle.com

When your business only makes sense to cater to the local customer (dentist, dermatologist, exterminator, etc) you should not only be concerned with live links with keyword rich anchor text but also with something called citation. A citation may not have a live link associated with it at all. The citation may merely mention the business, the telephone number or address and may or may not comment about the site at all. The citation serves to verify the address and telephone number of the business. The search engines are interested in verifying this information in as many places as possible to ensure that the local results they are returning are accurate. A citation may look like this:

I have been going to Allied Dentists and visiting Dr. Geoff Martin for years now. If you are looking for a great experience at the dentist visit their location at:
135 Broadway
Cleveland, OH 44102

Notice that there is no live link heading back to Allied Dentists website but the search engines will use this nonetheless to verify the address that they have in their databases.

Do: Be sure that your getting both traditional links and citations for your locally dependent website.

Don’t: Just concentrate on links that would get you high rankings in the standard search algorithm.

Place refers to the distribution channel by which a customer can acquire your product or service. It could be your brick and mortar store, a catalog, or a virtual store on the internet. Small businesses with physical locations will need to sit up and take notice of the trends in local search and mobile technology. Consumers are increasingly demanding information wherever and whenever they want it. Mobile technology will factor in heavily in the Local Search arena. Will your business appear on the tiny LCD screens of mobile handsets?

Imagine This:

A woman is driving home from work in Cleveland, Ohio speaking to her husband on her cell phone.

“I am too tired to cook dinner tonight, let’s just order a pizza.”

“Sounds good to me, I will pick one up on the way home.”

The man proceeds to log onto Yahoo.com with his handset and do a query:

pizza cleveland oh

“Ah, Tony’s Pizza is right on the way… that was easy!.” He says marveling at the speed at which he arrived at the information.

On most handsets you can select the phone number you see on the screen and choose to call from your mobile device. Incredible. Although Tony’s Pizza is probably not picking up a lot of business from this yet, this will become a major source of new and repeat business for them. Just ask any marketing professor, the easier you make it to do business with your company, the better the experience.

So the question is, how did Tony’s Pizza appear on that man’s mobile phone? That, my friends is what this entire blog is about.

Do: Take notice of the trends in local search, mobile handsets will be one of the ways that customers will find your business.

Don’t: Stick your head in the sand and allow your competitors to take business away from you.