At that post the business has to make a growth decision… either stay small and cater to the locals via localized search terms and physical store front, or lose presence on SERP for local search terms and take a change getting into the larger market.

For physical goods, perhaps this is addressed by SEO for non-localized keywords (Sweet Fudge), but for services, like senior portrait photography where the photographer isn’t willing to travel outside a certain area, this step for catering to a larger audience (Suttons Bay Photographer now Northern Michigan Photographer) becomes a bit more complicated. If the client is going purely for organic clicks, perhaps a Google Local optimized site can cater to localized searches while keyword inclusions can cater to the broader audience.

Just my two cents about localized SEO strategies.

Small businesses need to realize that if they can jump on the SEO band-wagon they have a better chance at competing with their competition.

There are a lot of organizations out there that can help these businesses get on track. (I’ve linked to the website with my name)

Hey thanks for responding. I think the great thing about SEO is that a physical location doesn’t really matter to promote the business. It’s all about the location on the SERP and all you need is a creative product and a solid website. If you know your SEO stuff, you can be right there, duking it out with the big boys.