Of all professional groups, architects and engineering and construction firms spend the least on marketing (3.1 percent), according to a 2008 study by Hinge, a marketing services firm.

 While the building professions are loathe to print brochures, nearly all have websites. And nearly all operate on a local or regional level. Given how easy and inexpensive it is to optimize a website for local search to help prospective clients find you, it's hard to understand why engineers and builders wouldn't take advantage of local search engine optimization.

 As far back as 2004, local search accounted for up to 25 percent of commercial activity on the Web, according to a Kelsey Group study.

Of all professional groups, architects and engineering and construction firms spend the least on marketing (3.1 percent), according to a 2008 study by Hinge, a marketing services firm.

 While the building professions are loathe to print brochures, nearly all have websites. And nearly all operate on a local or regional level. Given how easy and inexpensive it is to optimize a website for local search to help prospective clients find you, it's hard to understand why engineers and builders wouldn't take advantage of local search engine optimization.

 As far back as 2004, local search accounted for up to 25 percent of commercial activity on the Web, according to a Kelsey Group study.

It's not hard to understand why. An architect in Des Moines may have a Web presence, but it's unlikely he'll design many projects in Cleveland. If there are structural problems in a Denver building, an engineer in Pittsburgh isn't what the building's owner needs. The major search engines know this. Various geolocation technologies are baked into their algorithms. So when someone who is planning a renovation in Des Moines searches for "architect," one of the Big Three search engines is likely to figure out where the person is located (IP addresses are one indicator) and shove a local architect's site to the top of the results.

Pretty neat, right?

Well, it works for the architects the search engines know are in Des Moines, and therein lies much of the wisdom when it comes to optimizing for local search: defining locality.

It's not only local service providers, shops and tradesmen who benefit from local search optimization. So do national businesses. You don't just want to visit Wal-Mart, you want to visit the nearest Wal-Mart. You don't order a pizza from Domino's corporate headquarters, but from the franchise in your neighborhood. Local search is important to every business, organization and service with a localized customer base. And what's more local than building?

It's a pity more businesses don't know about and take advantage of local search, which can level the playing field considerably between large national businesses and small local providers.

Given a degree of search savvy and a Web presence, a local engineer could have just as much visibility and clout as one of the top national firms. It's a matter not only of knowing how to play the game, but also of knowing the game exists in the first place.

A down-and-dirty (as well as highly effective) technique to optimize for local search is not to rely on a single "contact" page for local information. A local business can add a footer to every single page of its website that contains its street address, city, state, zip code and local phone number, including area code. It may also be appropriate to include a location in page title tags as well, e.g., Smith, Brown & Jones Architects, Dallas/Forth Worth, Texas.

Locally oriented keywords and phrases are also critical and should take into account the various terms people use to refer to localities, which can be broad as well as specific. Here's a hypothetical example with local keywords highlighted:
Chicago's leading structural engineers serving all regions of the Chicagoland area. Our engineering projects span Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Wicker Park, the South Side, Old Town and the Near North Side of Chicago. We also serve the Chicago suburbs of Evanston, Glencoe and Highland Park. 

No one in the Chicago area ever refers to the region as Northern Illinois. But if they did, you can bet our fictitious engineer would have cobbled the state's name into his keywords as well. He's betting on the fact his customers aren't just searching for a "Chicago engineer" in a town that big, but are winnowing their searches down to a more localized level, such as a neighborhood.

Bear in mind that local is as local does. A New Yorker in zip code 10019 wants to order a pizza. New York is a large, but highly concentrated urban area. Few residents of the city would be willing to travel more than a couple of blocks for a pizza. In Montana or New Mexico, by contrast, a customer may be willing to drive miles for the same pie. Yahoo Local knows this, and sorts results by distance.

When coming up with a local optimization plan, it's critically important to understand what local is for the area in question.
A first step in local search optimization is to ensure that your business is listed with the major search engines and with the Internet Yellow Page (IYP)—the source of much of the local data used by search engines—as well as with other online directories and listing services. Do they have the correct information? Is your listing linked to your website? Businesses with multiple locations in a single metro area can benefit from having separate directory listings for each individual location.

Don't overlook local listings on popular directory services like Citysearch, Superpages, Judy's Book, Yahoo Local and BuilderSpace.com as well as regional websites like Boston.com and Nola.com (both run by major newspapers), ShopLocal, Chambers of Commerce, local trade associations and other business groups.

You can emphasize locality by adding a page of detailed directions for finding your business or office location (this information could also be added to your contact page). Write these out in detail:
Smith & Jones Engineers, serving N.Y., N.J. & Conn., is near the Wakeland County Shopping Mall in the Bellevue neighborhood of Lakehurst, Conn. To find us, drive west on Hometown Drive past the Grangeville Civic Center, then turn left on Elm Street. You'll find us at 425 Oak Street, Suite 201, Lakehurst, Conn., 12345.

Add a link to a map service (Google, Yahoo, MSN, Mapquest, etc.). And when linking to the directions page, "click here for directions" isn't good enough. Instead, use "click here for directions to our Lakehurst offices."

Rebecca Lieb is a digital marketing consultant and author of a best-selling book on search engine optimization.
You can write her directly at rebecca.lieb@gmail.com

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