Achieving good visibility in the local pack is of increasing importance to local businesses, especially those who find themselves unable to compete with big-ticket rivals in the main search results. If you’ve recently been charged with boosting your brand’s local search rankings, read on for 10 tips to take action right now. We also have more advanced local SEO tips here for you after you’ve completed this list.
Tip 1: Optimize Google My Business
No local SEO tips piece could begin without first advocating for Google My Business (GMB) optimization. It shouldn’t really come as a surprise to learn that Google wants to encourage use of its Google My Business platform but, according to our analysis of the trends seen in Moz’s Local Ranking Factors survey, GMB signals have become more important than ever over the last five years.
A quick glance back through previous surveys shows a notable jump in the importance of GMB signals between 2017 and 2018 – a shift that coincided with the launch of a variety of new tools across the platform.
If your business hasn’t yet claimed its free Google My Business profile, do this now. Our step-by-step guide to getting started talks you through the whole process, from setting up a new Google account to completing essential profile information such as business category and contact email.
With the basics done, you can begin to optimize your profile. Keywords are an obvious place to start – you’ll need to add keywords that are important to your business to your profile, just as you would on your website.
Tip 2: Build local links back to your website
Building good quality links from good quality local websites is critical for local pack visibility. Links are a well-known SEO ranking factor and their importance isn’t diminished when moving from traditional organic SEO to local SEO. In fact, our research shows that 100% of local SEO experts think link building is an effective way to boost local rankings, with local news, community and industry sites being the best sources of inbound links.
As you might expect, community is at the heart of local link building. Seeking out volunteering positions and searching for ways to give back to your community provide tons of link-building potential for local SEO.
Many of the link-building tactics you may already be familiar with can be adapted for local link acquisition. Creating locally-relevant content is a good placed to start, as is reaching out to local newspapers and media outlets with newsworthy updates from your business.
Tip 1: Optimize Google My Business
No local SEO tips piece could begin without first advocating for Google My Business (GMB) optimization. It shouldn’t really come as a surprise to learn that Google wants to encourage use of its Google My Business platform but, according to our analysis of the trends seen in Moz’s Local Ranking Factors survey, GMB signals have become more important than ever over the last five years.
A quick glance back through previous surveys shows a notable jump in the importance of GMB signals between 2017 and 2018 – a shift that coincided with the launch of a variety of new tools across the platform.
If your business hasn’t yet claimed its free Google My Business profile, do this now. Our step-by-step guide to getting started talks you through the whole process, from setting up a new Google account to completing essential profile information such as business category and contact email.
With the basics done, you can begin to optimize your profile. Keywords are an obvious place to start – you’ll need to add keywords that are important to your business to your profile, just as you would on your website.
Tip 2: Build local links back to your website
Building good quality links from good quality local websites is critical for local pack visibility. Links are a well-known SEO ranking factor and their importance isn’t diminished when moving from traditional organic SEO to local SEO. In fact, our research shows that 100% of local SEO experts think link building is an effective way to boost local rankings, with local news, community and industry sites being the best sources of inbound links.
As you might expect, community is at the heart of local link building. Seeking out volunteering positions and searching for ways to give back to your community provide tons of link-building potential for local SEO.
Many of the link-building tactics you may already be familiar with can be adapted for local link acquisition. Creating locally-relevant content is a good placed to start, as is reaching out to local newspapers and media outlets with newsworthy updates from your business.
Tip 3: Build (and manage) customer reviews
The latest Moz Local Search Ranking Factors study puts customer reviews high up on its list of the top 50 most powerful local ranking factors. The volume of reviews you have, how often new reviews are posted, how many positive versus negative reviews you have, and how many reviews you have mentioning keywords or using images are all taken into consideration.
As with most of our local SEO tips, taking time to establish a review generation and management process has wider benefits beyond simply boosting your local search rankings. Reviews are used as a decision-making aid by the majority of consumers, meaning they can directly impact on your bottom line, too.
Google is a popular review platform in its own right and generates more new reviews than its closest rival Facebook by a large margin. It makes sense to boost your business’ visibility in its immediate geographical area and focus on generating Google My Business reviews from unbiased local customers, especially if resources are limited.
Tip 4: Build accurate citations
Building citations is one of those things that sounds a lot more complicated than it actually is. A citation simply means your business information (name, address, phone number) is displayed online. Typically, you’ll find these on directory sites, on social media profiles, and in content such as event listings or local newspaper stories online.
Citations are often included with beginner local SEO tips because they are easy to implement and are a top 5 local pack ranking factor according to Moz. They’re considered ‘table stakes’ for local search. If you don’t get citations, you don’t get a seat at the table.
Google and lots of other websites use citations as a source of business information, so it’s important that you have sufficient citations to be found and that those citations are both consistent and accurate. Out-of-date or incorrect details can send confusing signals, both to search engines looking to verify your data for local pack purposes and to consumers wishing to find your business with a view to contacting or visiting you.
The latest Moz Local Search Ranking Factors study puts customer reviews high up on its list of the top 50 most powerful local ranking factors. The volume of reviews you have, how often new reviews are posted, how many positive versus negative reviews you have, and how many reviews you have mentioning keywords or using images are all taken into consideration.
As with most of our local SEO tips, taking time to establish a review generation and management process has wider benefits beyond simply boosting your local search rankings. Reviews are used as a decision-making aid by the majority of consumers, meaning they can directly impact on your bottom line, too.
Google is a popular review platform in its own right and generates more new reviews than its closest rival Facebook by a large margin. It makes sense to boost your business’ visibility in its immediate geographical area and focus on generating Google My Business reviews from unbiased local customers, especially if resources are limited.
Tip 4: Build accurate citations
Building citations is one of those things that sounds a lot more complicated than it actually is. A citation simply means your business information (name, address, phone number) is displayed online. Typically, you’ll find these on directory sites, on social media profiles, and in content such as event listings or local newspaper stories online.
Citations are often included with beginner local SEO tips because they are easy to implement and are a top 5 local pack ranking factor according to Moz. They’re considered ‘table stakes’ for local search. If you don’t get citations, you don’t get a seat at the table.
Google and lots of other websites use citations as a source of business information, so it’s important that you have sufficient citations to be found and that those citations are both consistent and accurate. Out-of-date or incorrect details can send confusing signals, both to search engines looking to verify your data for local pack purposes and to consumers wishing to find your business with a view to contacting or visiting you.
Read Full Article Here: 10 Local SEO Tips to Improve Rankings
