Small businesses can significantly benefit from using Local SEO practices.
Already 85% of consumers rely on the internet to buy a new product or service. Also, 86% of consumers like to read local reviews of a business. With stats like this, embracing Local SEO should be a priority for new companies.
One of the first things you should put in place is Google My Business. You can do this by following these five easy steps:
To start to build your brand and get yourself noticed you can aim to make local links and citations manually. Partner with local publications and newspapers and take part in local events. Also, gain high numerical ratings by reaching out to authority reviewers.
As your small business starts to grow, you can track the results by launching a rank tracking campaign. You can gain further insight by introducing local areas for different devices. You can also track country worldwide for keywords with varying modifiers.
A word of caution though, do not entertain Blog SPAM, Black Hat SEO, or create low-quality content as these can all affect your rankings.
And finally, besides GMB, you can also claim your free listings at Better Business Bureau, Bing, Yahoo, Yelp, YP. Also, don’t forget to ask for reviews and respond to them.
- Firstly, you need to create a Google My Business page.
- Then you can claim your Google My Listing business.
- Next, you need to check your listing to see if it is delivering the right message.
- You can do this by optimizing your listing in some key areas.
- The key areas should be 1) Adding high-quality photos, 2) Adding business information (name, address, phone number, website URL) 3) Post regular updates to the page.
Once your business is ready, you can do further web optimization. You can do this by:
- A mobile responsive website.
- Add schema markup.
- Optimize the content, image, title, and URL with relevant keywords.
- Use top ranking keywords and the location.
Start Building Your Brand and Track The Results
To start to build your brand and get yourself noticed you can aim to make local links and citations manually. Partner with local publications and newspapers and take part in local events. Also, gain high numerical ratings by reaching out to authority reviewers.
As your small business starts to grow, you can track the results by launching a rank tracking campaign. You can gain further insight by introducing local areas for different devices. You can also track country worldwide for keywords with varying modifiers.
A word of caution though, do not entertain Blog SPAM, Black Hat SEO, or create low-quality content as these can all affect your rankings.
Other Local SEO Directories
And finally, besides GMB, you can also claim your free listings at Better Business Bureau, Bing, Yahoo, Yelp, YP. Also, don’t forget to ask for reviews and respond to them.