5 Things You Can Do to Improve Your Local SEO Rank

Local SEO is quite different from typical SEO endeavors. To be successful in local SEO, you have to emphasize several geo-oriented factors but also work on ‘traditional’ SEO factors with your location(s) in mind.

Here are 5 critical SEO strategies that will boost your local SEO rank if you implement them properly:

1. Register your location on Google My Business

Local registration on Google My Business is crucial if you have a brick-and-mortar store. This local SEO service is free, and research shows that half the people that find your page there will visit the location the same day.

To access it, you must register and create a full profile (address, phone number, URL, description, hours of operation, and images). You will also need to pick one or more service categories that best represent your business. Your entry will appear on the map after it has been verified by postcard or phone.

If you don’t already have one, set up a landing page to guide your potential customers to. It should include local info about the serviced location and the NAP in the footer (name, address, phone number.) These details need to coincide with the ones in the Google My Business listing.

Ensure that your listing leads to a responsive webpage, as many local queries are performed on mobile devices.

Last but not least, reviews are vital to your position in the local list of results. You can ask for them after checkout or set up email capture on your site and contact customers to get online feedback. Whatever you do, you need those reviews.

We have created a unique, easy-to-use system that allows you to streamline this process and get you reviews on multiple sites. Sign up now and get the first month free at getbrightreviews.com 

2. Structured citations

Include your site on business directories such as Yelp, Thumbtack, Yellow Pages, etc. If you are taking over the business, you can check where it’s listed using the Moz Local tool.

Moz also offers a service that will post your business in 5 main aggregators that Google uses when displaying local search results. They have a small fee, but it’s recurring, at $9 per month. Bright Local offers 1600 directory listings, but it’s a lot pricier at $3 per listing.

Yext is another big player in this market, with 82 listings at $499/yr. With Yext, however, keep in mind that they will delete your entries if you don’t pay up. If you are not budgeting for an automated service, you can input all the data yourself, check out this link of all the sites Yext uses. Just remember that you will have to make manual changes whenever you change your address, phone number, etc.

3. Local link building

Link building at a local level is tricky but doable. You need to focus mostly on local influencers and how to reach them. That means trying to reach local newspapers, perhaps getting featured on “Business Spotlight” lists, and having links from other local businesses. They may not have the authority larger sites have, but those links will carry more weight in local search results.

The pages you are trying to rank should contain mentions of your location. You need also to interlink related pages on your own website and have all those pages link to your main money page. That is what’s called siloing your content.

In this case, the local landing page for your business would receive links from other pages on your site that also mention your location. Blogging about valuable local information will help here. Try some of these ideas:

• Checklists
• Buyers Guides for your type of products
• Local News in your field
• Articles about seasonal or important upcoming events
• Posts about mentions of your company, such as accolades, awards, sponsorships, etc.

4. Taking advantage of offline and off-Google local opportunities

Give local publications something to talk about if you want them to cover your business. Get involved in local events, organize food drives, sponsor Meetups, interact with other business owners in specialty workshops, hold a workshop yourself, etc.

Off-Google opportunities refer to social networking. Your social network reviews and involvement in local groups are crucial here. Facebook groups are great for spotting opportunities, but Google Plus also features communities where you can advertise your business.

Interact with potential clients in groups and make a point of having a social persona. Responding to messages and offering valuable information can establish you as an expert in your field.

If you can’t find relevant local groups, start one yourself, but remember that you have to budget time for every social network you’re in. It’s better to be present on one network than absent on five.

5. When you have multiple locations

When you’re dealing with a number of locations, create separate web pages for each city you represent. Remember that after Google’s 2015 doorway update, your site will be penalized for not having unique contact on each page. If that happens, your domain will be bumped out of search results, and all your other page rankings will suffer.

Having two pages will also allow you to have Google My Business listing in both towns. Make sure your NAP data is accurately represented on each of those pages. Be sure also to register structured citations for every location whenever possible.

Keeping the above-mentioned steps in mind, you can perform link-building for each location. Since the audience is different, your citations should be different and appropriately represent your local target audience.

These five critical local SEO strategies will help your business rank better on search engines, but you need to diversify. Keep up with the constant changes in SEO and find more ways to improve your business’s online presence. Implementing them regularly but also correctly goes a long way.