It is well past the dawn of a new day and if you have been hiding under a rock to avoid the monumental shift in how target audiences find your business, come on out, it will be okay, embrace the new normal of local search. Now, more than ever, local SEO (search engine optimization) matters and given the changing algorithms, data collection structures and listing vendors, it’s one strategy that small businesses can ill-afford to disregard. We would like to add a few bonus points to our monthly focus on boosting your online visibility and a previous post on the topic to maximize your search marketing momentum.
Scott Langdon composed an excellent article that includes eight suggestions to improve businesses’ local search position. In How Local SEO Works and Why It Matters for Small Businesses, the article presents, in non-techie speak, the whys and hows to make search a priority. Here are a few highlights.
Local search is a way for search engines to offer the most relevant results to users, which are calculated according to location data. After all, if you’re looking for a flower shop, you’re going to want to find one nearby, right?
It’s also a great tool for small businesses because the competition is smaller — you’re only competing for position with other businesses in the same location. The better visibility you have on a SERP (search engine results page), the more likely that someone will click and convert.
Here are eight tried and tested tips to help improve your businesses’ local search position right away:
1. Claim your business. Creating a local page is as easy as visiting Google’s dedicated site and signing in. You will be prompted to type in the name of your business, but be aware that your business may already exist in local search — even if you weren’t the one who added it. What you’ll need to do, then, is claim it.
2. Categorize your pages. Pay special attention to how you categorize your business. During the process of creating or claiming your page, you will be asked to select a primary category, which is the most important category you will choose.
3. Be consistent. Make sure that your business is listed consistently across the web. This means that your name, address and phone number (often called NAP data) need to be the same when it comes to your local accounts, directory listings and any other mentions of your business.
If your business has been listed somewhere on the web unknowingly, you’ll need to track down that listing and claim it so that you can edit all of the information to be consistent (or contact whoever is in charge to get the information changed.) Something as simple as a hyphen or a missing suite number can change everything. You can find unclaimed listings by doing a search or using tools like Yext or Localeze.
For the remaining five tips, read the original article at Entreprenuer.com.
Listen to Chris Gregory, a certified SEO Master, SEO Mentor, All Business.com expert and guest on The Marketing Mojo Show, explain what is, perhaps, the most important small businesses search tactic in this LGK Marketing Memo audio clip.
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What tools do you use to optimize your local SEO? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section of this post or vote in our latest poll.
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