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Writing for the online journal “Smallbiztrends.com” reporter Annie Pilon makes a point of stressing the importance of targeted websites for locally based and small business owners. “When local businesses make sure to optimize their web pages, business owners often see a drastic improvement in online viewership and sales.”

Geotarget Local, an SEO (search engine optimization) firm that focuses on helping businesses rank in Google for searches involving their local areas, today announced its new web designs aimed at contractors like plumbers, electricians, and appliance repair experts. Since contractors need to attract business from local residents, they have a unique need for site designs that will help them show up under the terms these people search for.

Google's latest significant update to its search algorithms went live in July of 2014, and many local businesses are seeing significant changes in their rankings. Though the change has been good for some sites, there are other companies that have been dismayed to find that they are no longer ranking well for their key terms of choice. Geotarget Local is ready to get to work on behalf of those who have been negatively impacted by the changes, or who want to seek to benefit from the update.

Search engine optimization, or SEO, has been around almost as long as search engines themselves. This is because a top listing in a search engine can bring tens of thousands of dollars' worth of new business or even more. As the Internet has grown, however, it has become increasingly hard to get seen at all, let alone get top ranks. Fortunately, for many companies, there is no need to compete against an entire nation or even the world for top ranks under the most important search terms. Instead, gaining high ranks for local areas is both easier and better.

Most business owners are at least vaguely aware of the benefits to be gained when their web address lands high on the page of search engine results in response to a potential client's query typed into a search engine. What many companies fail to realize is exactly how high the loss is to their business when they fail to achieve a high search results position, and do not have a decent ranking in Google. To help raise business awareness of the importance of high rankings, Geotarget Local (http://geotargetlocal.com) recently made available on their website not only a video demonstration of the potential loss and/or benefit to ranking well, but also, a diagnostic tool that permits visitors to immediately check the SEO score of their own websites using Geotarget Local's free website audit tool.