As with everything in search local seo too has had major revamps in the past few months.
The search listings are brighter in color. Local map packs have either gone up or down in number.
And eventually Google came out with a statement that for local rankings its reviews that influence it most.
When anyone wants to buy something or try a service say going to a local restaurant for a great Thai chicken curry, they first turn to Google, type of their wants and hope the magic button reveals something nice- which it often does.
If you need to be top on the results, get more footfall to your restaurant or local service and get people to tell others how awesome you are you need to work on local SEO.
It’s when you optimize your site and listing to improve its ranking on Google. 50% of mobile users search for local something on their phones.
With Google collating all kinds of data with people searching for local places on mobile, the search engine giant knows about your preferences, reviews, ratings and dislikes offering custom-tailored experiences.
So here’s how to milk the most out of local seo sites.
Create a GMB listing
The importance of a Google My Business listing cannot be understated.
A GMB account gets your business in front of the target audience- the locals living in a certain geographic region your business is based on.
Depending on the service you offer when someone searches for the same GMB will display address, phone number, hours of operation, photos you’ve uploaded of your business and anything else you’ve entered about your business. It improves your chance of being featured inside the three pack and show up on mobile listings.
Create local business profiles on directory sites
Don’t give chance to a situation where searching for your business leads to next to nothing in terms of results.
Social proof is what gets your business business. You can boost your presence on search engines and give much needed lift to local discovery if you create fleshed out profiles on Yellow Pages, FourSquare, Yelp and other similar sites that are local directories and offer ton of features to add information about your business.
Who knows which platform the user would resort to to search or research your business. And if that’s the case why not beef up profiles on all top-notch sites?
Give them opportunities to find your business by optimizing the profile.
Include local region in the title tag
The title tag could easily be the most important on page SEO factor that a search engine looks into categorizing a site. If you include particular regions say Chicago or Maine you’ll have better chance securing a top spot on the first page than someone who doesn’t do anything like that.
The title tag reflects what your page is about and a local keyword inclusion guarantees local ranking.
Review Knowledge panel
Seriously, bulk it up. Make it updated according to current trends and keep adding or removing information as is necessary.
Don’t just sit there.
Use social signals for local businesses
The long and hard way is sit out until some social shares happen themselves.
The easy way is to use a service like PBN Butler to drip feed natural looking social signals.
Engage with people
Not only people who do business with you but also with people who talk about you or about related businesses on forums and community sites.
Catch the conversation and you’re to make some new friends.
For instance, recently when I looked over information for gardening the first thing I did was head over to forums and ask questions on getting the best seedlings, organic fertilizers and what not.
Guess who could have had their business with me had they responded.
Have a review management system
Most customers are excited about posting reviews if you just ask them.
Scores of surveys arrive at the same conclusion.
And it’s much better than not asking for reviews.
I wouldn’t say to go so far as to ask for reviews in exchange for an incentive but ensure that you have a follow-up system in place.
Allow people to text the business
Most business owners place too high a standard on customers. They’d only want calls and then force a hard sell down customer throats.
That’s a big no-no.
Allow customers to text and chat with you and make sure they’re in their comfort zone before you close the deal.
Answer questions on Local sites
Google has a new feature which allows people to put questions forward to businesses.
Take that in your stride and provide more information.
Even otherwise focusing on a long-tail strategy adding and covering about dozens of keywords is the best foot forward in these times.
A lot of sites I know update and post lengthier content, adding more context examples and information making posts all the more valuable to readers.
Be friendly and warm
Maps should have trackable pointers
It’s easy for someone to reach a location given there are location trackers.
So what do you think of our post on local seo engagement? Optimizing for the particular geography should be top of your mind, followed by attracting as many reviews as possible to get the word out.
With these few handy tips you will be able to dominate local results and drive leads all day long. Interested customers searching for your service will find you at the top of the SERP results page. The strategies will propel your local business to the top of the customers’ choice online and you will be much ahead of anyone else.
Do you have any other tips that worked for your business? Do let us know in the comments below.
