The ultimate aim of every small business is to receive quality leads from the giant search engines and turn to ice-cold prospects into happy customers. When everything is done in a systematic manner, you could expect a call from your prospect customers asking about how you can assist them. However, the big question is how to do that? The answer to this million-dollar question lies in local search engine optimization or commonly known as local SEO. You will be surprised to know that every month around 14 billion local searches are done and this clearly indicates that in 2017 local SEO strategy is the key to move up on the local SERPs. With Google, Yahoo and Bing putting more emphasis on the local searches, it’s high time to create an effective strategy to gain an edge over your local competitors. Today, in this blog post we are going to talk about local search ranking factors and also some popular local SEO tips that you can implement to reach local customers faster. So, let’s take a look.
#1 Local NAP Citations – First Thing First
Before you do anything, the very first thing on which you need to work upon is your website to get the desired results. To rank at the top on local listings, you need to work less on the link building and more on the local NAP citations i.e. name, address and phone number of your business should be same across all local business directories. Always make sure that NAP is identical across the Internet otherwise Google will penalize your business ranking. Google bots can easily figure out even minute format variations (for e.g. “and” vs. “&”) , thereby it’s always considered wise to be consistent across your all local business listings, social channels and your website as well.
#2 Google My Business
If you haven’t claim your Google My Business page, do it today. Since it helps users’ to grab the pivotal information about your business without losing their mind. A [Google My Business] page is very easy to set up. Once you are done with that, it will appear at the top right on the search engine result pages (SERPs).
Details That You Should Include Once You’ve Set Up Google My Business
- Describe your company as best as you can by writing a long and unique description
- Pick the right category for your business
- Upload high-quality pictures as many as possible
- Add a local contact number to your business listing
- Add your business address that is uniform across all your local business directories
- Add opening time and closing time of your business
#3 Get Local Customer Reviews
Believe it or not, but local reviews have a strong impact on the local search engine rankings thereby it’s recommended to get positive local customer reviews. You should ask for reviews from your customers to add credibility to your business because you know Google favours businesses with more positive reviews. Make sure you don’t get engaged in asking only Google reviews, you should also consider other local directories as well such as Yelp, Yellowbook, Whitepages, Foursquare, Kudzu and many more.
Bonus: Common Local SEO Mistakes That You Must Know
