How To Improve Local Search Rankings
As a small business, it’s likely that your marketing plan entails a variety of tactics. As you consider the best marketing tactics to use for your business, it’s important to spend the necessary resources on the methods that have the best chance of delivering a positive return on investment (ROI).
This means paying close attention to your local SEO rankings. Taking this one step further, boosting your rankings will go a long way in increasing targeted, organic traffic.
But here’s the million dollar question: how do you improve your local SEO rankings when so many other companies are trying to do the same thing?
There’s no “magic formula” for reaching the top of the search engines, but there are some things you can do to improve your chance of success. Start with the following;
Optimize Your Website for Local SEO
There is a lot that goes into this, including the following:
- Choose keywords based on your industry and target location
- Use geo-targeted keywords in your page titles, content, H2 tags, etc
- Take advantage of Google My Business (more on this below)
It all starts with your website. If this isn’t optimized for local SEO, you’ll be fighting an uphill battle.
Setup, Verify, and Complete Your Google My Business Profile
Go back in time 10 years and you didn’t have to think about any of this. However, in today’s day and age, it’s an absolute must.
There are many benefits of taking this step, including these outlined by Google.
To get the most out of your Google My Business listing, make sure that:
- Your business listing is claimed and verified
- You have no duplicate listings
- Your business is listed in the right category
- Your company name, address, website address and phone number is correct
- You have a company description of 100 words or more with a link back to your website exists
- You have included other links to your company’s social media pages (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.)
- You have uploaded a cover image and logo image
- Your Customer reviews are being responded to.
- Your Google+ Business Page has fresh content (with photos, post updates and videos).
While setting up and verifying your profile is the easy part, including the necessary information can be a bit more time consuming. Even so, make sure your profile is 100 percent complete before moving on.
Clean Up Your NAP Citations Around the Web
A NAP citation – also known as Name, Address, Phone – is crucial to improving your local SEO rankings. Not to mention the fact that this is a must if you want people to be able to contact and find you.
Your job is simple: scour the web searching for all the NAP citations associated with your business. From there, if any details are out of order, such as a wrong address or phone number, make an immediate correction.
Create and Execute a Reputation Management Strategy
Your company is only as good as its online reputation. If you’ve fallen behind in this area, there’s no time to waste.
A reputation management strategy is of utmost importance, as this ensures that you are seen as a legitimate provider within your space.
One of the best things you can do is collect positive feedback from your customers, such as via Google and Yelp reviews. From there, you can use this information to your advantage.
Note: even the best companies come in contact with disgruntled customers from time to time. Make sure you create a strategy with the idea that you’ll have to deal with these people every now and again.
Create and Publish Local Content on Your Website
Creating a high quality website is a great start, but that’s only half the battle. Sooner rather than later, you should begin to add local content to your website.
For example, here are a few topic ideas that a San Antonio roofing company could experiment with:
- Tips for Choosing a San Antonio Roofing Company You can Trust
- What to do if you Live in San Antonio and Your Roof is Leaking
- How to Compare San Antonio Roofing Contractors to Find the Right One
As you can see, all of these topics target the San Antonio audience.
Get a Google 360 Virtual Business Tour
To start, creating a Google 360 Virtual Business Tour is a great way to outdo your competition. Since most companies don’t have one of these, you can quickly get a leg up.
In fact, Google even says that 360 Virtual Tours increase interest in business listings by 130%.
Although you have to hire a Google trusted photographer or agency to create the tour, this is well worth the money. Not only do you end up with a professional tour, but this can also have a positive impact on your local SEO rankings as it gives your website a higher level of trust.
Conclusion
The six tips above can help improve your local SEO rankings. By following these one at a time, you will soon find yourself on the right path. Over time, it’s your hopes that your website rises to the top of the search engines for all your local keywords.