Local SEO should be part of every business’s digital marketing strategy. Generating quality content and building your brand reputation online are just as essential locally as they are nationally.
An important considerations include website content, Google My Business listings, citations, and customer reviews. By providing relevant details about your business and encouraging customers to provide reviews about it will only help your ranking!
Google My Business
Google My Business (GMB) is a free online listing tool that offers businesses complete control over their visibility on Google Search and Maps. While often underutilized as a resource for local SEO, when used effectively it can help companies stand out in local markets against larger rivals with stronger online presences.
GMB allows businesses to display their product catalog directly on their profiles, helping to increase conversions and foster brand loyalty. Businesses should take care when listing regulated items like tobacco, gambling services, medical devices, financial services, alcohol or unapproved supplements since Google will penalize listings which violate this policy.
Optimizing your Google My Business (GMB) profile involves choosing appropriate primary and secondary categories for your business, uploading high-quality photos, enabling instant messaging capabilities, and monitoring their GMB dashboard for insights such as how many phone calls were made or requests were made for directions made directly to them.
Optimize Your Website
High-quality content on your website is crucial for local SEO, and optimizing page titles and header tags is another way to maximize local search results.
Utilizing local keywords in your website content demonstrates to search engines that your business operates within a particular geographical region, while making it easier for potential customers to locate you online.
After optimizing your website, it’s essential to get listed in local directories and citations. In addition to that, make sure your information is consistent across all online platforms so there are no duplicate listings; conducting an in-depth online audit for your business may reveal errors, discrepancies and duplicate listings – once identified correct them to improve local SEO performance.
Optimize Your GMB Listing
Your GMB profile, also known as Google My Business, is an integral component of local SEO. It allows visitors to your business to easily locate information such as opening hours, photos, customer reviews and booking options for appointments or deliveries.
Optimizing your profile so that it complements the content on your website and is frequently updated is key to maintaining strong search engine rankings. Inconsistent updates or spelling variations between platforms could have adverse impacts, for example spelling out an entire street name while abbreviating it in GMB could create discrepancies and cause search engine algorithms to punish your page rank accordingly.
Your product and service categories have an impactful effect on search ranking; make sure they align with keyword research. By including photos or labels describing what you provide, and adding service areas targeting searches from specific regions, your listings’ relevance increases greatly and you can even geotag photos for greater local discovery.
Collect Reviews
Reviews are one of the key local SEO ranking factors, not only because they boost search rankings but also help build customer trust – in fact, a survey by Bright Local revealed that 97% of shoppers read online reviews prior to making purchase decisions!
Reviews and ratings are among the many key criteria Google considers when assessing your business for inclusion in their Maps pack or organic local search results. Therefore, it’s essential that happy customers leave reviews on Google or other online review platforms like Yelp; to encourage this activity consider offering discounts, raffles or other incentives as incentives to encourage them to share their experience.
Moz reports that having an optimized Google Business Profile and online reviews is one of the key components of local SEO ranking factors. Be sure that your business NAP (name, address and phone number) are consistent across directories as well as any misspellings or duplicate listings; additionally include local keywords in page titles and meta descriptions for optimal local search optimization results.
