No sane person will do a party without sending out invitations. That this is exactly what happens when you overlook local SEO. On the other hand, if you utilize local SEO to invite your customers to interact with your business, then everyone can begin to enjoy one another.
The CEO and creator of NowDesigns, Tom Davis is a SEO and digital marketing savant located in Dallas and very recently revealed his perspectives with me regarding the subject of local SEO.
Five Things Many People Overlook in Local SEO
Local vs. Organic SEO
When people go online to look for businesses such as a dentist, a restaurant, or garden arena, they usually input local features like the name of a city. Davis clarified that “Google takes cognizance of the fact that some search entries for services and food have a local nature and automatically offers location-specific options to searchers.”
Therefore, firms that possess high local SEO rankings are presented to users, making local SEO very necessary. Organic SEO on the other hand is applicable in instances when the search entry is not location specific. In this case, a firm’s site is ranked against every other of similar nature across the nation and in some cases, worldwide. Therefore, for firms that acquire a major portion of their income from local customers, they ought to invest in local SEO.
Google My Business
Tom Davis further suggests using Google My Business as a tool for local SEO campaign. It is a pro bono listing service and its manner of application and usage will affect a firm’s local SEO ranking.
This tool functions as a hub of master information, which manages all of a firm’s Google needs, ranging from Search, Maps and Google+. The process in started by creating an account and consequently verifying it due to the fact that an owner-verified account will get higher ranking than accounts that are not verified. Proceed to completing profile while adding your NAP, that is, name, address and telephone digits.
Other relevant information to be included is:
Hours of business operation
Website address
Images that have appropriate keywords.
Business classification
The Reason Local SEO is going to become more important
The information has to be precise and correct so that people can locate a firm and reserve local SEO ratings. Correctness and preciseness of information may appear simple, but typographical errors could happen and is never allowed in SEO.
Local SEO rankings
Davis further added that “Many variables affect a firm’s local SEO ranking, therefore there is the need to identify them and grasp how to improve on them to maintain high ranking.” Through the utilization of information acquired from many sources, Davis told me that he realized that the top SEO local ranking variables in the year 2019 include:
Links- which are necessary for organic and local SEO
Website SEO Ranking Signals that involves keywords and length of content
Google My Business Signals that also involves photos, reviews and a profile that is owner-verified.
Therefore, the more a firm’s organic SEO, the more improved its local SEO ranking becomes and the more effective component its links. So, in the words of Davis, “If you desire your Google My Business page to be highly ranked in search engines, you require investment in SEO for your website and also possess a strategy that is focused on creating links for your website.” He further explained that “in the absence of an SEO strategy, your Google My Business page will get poor ranking, thereby putting your firm at a disadvantage in terms of competition.
Local Search Engines
At the verification and proven accuracy of your Google My Business profile, you can develop profiles on other local search engine platforms like:
Yahoo Local
Yelp
Bing Places
Local Pages.com
Foursquare
Make a selection of sites that are the most popular with your main market audience and those that best fit your business. Some of them like the Urban Spoon pay more attention to restaurants, while some others are wider in scope. Just get the right fit and create profiles, ensuring that your information is correct and similar across all sites where you have crated profiles. For instance, your business may possess multiple phone numbers, so it is best to select only one and utilize just the selected number across all the listings. In addition, ensure that your working hours do no have discrepancies to prevent instances of annoyed customers.
Social Media and Local SEO
Reviews and shared links as well as the appropriate utilization of social media constitute part of your local SEO ranking and can help increase the numbers. Davis stated that having worked in this area of specialization for years, experience has revealed that an effective social media campaign ought to involve platforms that are mostly utilized by a firm’s target market. Thus, a firm’s options should involve some of the platforms listed below:
Tumblr
At the completion of profile creation, a firm’s audience should be engaged after personalization of the firm. Then, you can share detailed information regarding your products, services, promotion and sales and also share tales about the establishment of the firm and the manner in which it surmounted a recent challenge. Sponsor a local team or charity and share information about it. And ensure to share links to your account.
Similarly, Davis stated that firms should provide response to customers’ reviews and statements that are either negative or positive as ignoring an online customer’s complaint or enquiry will incite negative comments and change a challenge or wrong communication into an image-denting situation. Hence, in the words of Davis, responses should be upbeat, and apologies should be provided where necessary, while blames should never be apportioned to any customer.
Do not desist from asking for reviews, as it is an important element of your local SEO ranking, so never hesitate to tell satisfied customer to share their encounter.
The reason every Entrepreneur should pay attention to Local SEO
Bottom Line
If you depend on local business to determine revenue, you should possess an active local SEO campaign. Begin with Google My Business and build from there in ensuring that your firm is visible to your audience or prospective customers in your community.