Why Is Local SEO Important?
If your business serves a particular location and its surrounding areas, making sure your website is optimized locally is crucial. If you are in a location and expect people to be able to find you on Google for that location, you should be optimizing your web pages for your local area and make sure that it`s ranking good on both desktop and mobile version of Google because 94% of smartphone users search for local information from their phone. And most of them will take action -- like call, visit or purchase from a business.
I believe that most of you are already know that local visibility of your business and website is important for your business to grow. In this article we will inform you what you should do to get higher ranking on Google and other search engines like Bing and Yahoo.
You need to let Google and other search engines know where your business is located without keyword stuffing and writing ridiculously robotic text which are against to search engine rules. Try and get your key location into your title tags, meta descriptions, within the content of your pages and in the footer section of your website in a natural way.
You should add your business name, address and phone number to all of the reputable online business directories, portals and social channels. When you list your business on local directories, you should make sure you are providing accurate and exact same information for all directories with your full business details plus a description of your business.
Once after you established local visibility you need to have a good quantity of good quality reviews on your Google Places page, you will be seen as a trusted business and there is more chance of you being ranked favorably for local search terms. So don't forget to ask all of your happy customers to review your product or service on your Google Places page by sending them newsletter along with your Google Local Business page url. Don't forget to include a link to your business listing at your website. As we all know that happy customers always bring you more business and we all know that nobody is perfect. If you get any bad reviews, don't forget to reply them. This shows that you care about them and people who visits your page will see the story on your side.
Now we know your website is optimized for your key phrases and location, give it a month and then check back with Google to see how your site is performing. Just remember, with local SEO, Google will normally list those businesses that are closest to the search term and location being entered. So for example, if you are an criminal attorney with the key search term "criminal attorney in Atlanta" but you're actually based in Roswell, Google will normally list those who are closest to Atlanta before you. But with Google's new feature, you can optimize to target more than one location if you are in service industry. So if we gather all this information;
- On-site local optimization -- naturally using your key location in various places on your website such as your content, footer, title tags and meta descriptions
- Off-site local optimization -- consistently and accurately listing your business on local directories and portals, especially Google Places
- Reviews -- gather as many reviews from customers as you can on your Google Places listing
- Make sure your Google Business page is completed 100% without any errors.
- Make sure you added pictures and product or services you offer to Google Plus page as a post.
- Stay dedicated! Treat your website as if it were a plant, water it with new content constantly and feed it once in a while with updates and blogs.
- Last but not leastl, share. Show your expertise by sharing helpful content relating to your products and services in as many places as possible, this could be via Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, guest blogs and social bookmarking sites such as Reddit.
