If you are here, we are assuming you already understand why your business needs to spend effort on Local SEO. Let us summarize the top 5 reasons ( you can also check out our post to learn more about them ) :
46% of all Google searches are looking for local information. (Source: GoGulf)
72% of consumers who did a local search visited a store within five miles (Source: Impactplus)
75% of users never scroll past the first page of the search results (Source - HubSpot)
First five organic results account for 67.60% of all the clicks (Source: Zero Limit Web)
The average click-through rate (CTR) for the first position on a Google search query is 19.30% and the click-through rate for the second position is almost half at 10.57%. (Source: Internet Marketing Ninjas)
So you are ready to step up your game in local SEO to increase traffic to your local business. Here are the 5 actionable steps you can take today to improve your local SEO rankings:
1. Create a Google My Business (GMB) listing
If your business has a physical location or brick and motor store and wants to rank high on google on local searches for your business, the first thing you need to do is register yourself in Google My Business (GMB).
What is Google My Business (GMB):
"Google My Business is a free tool that allows you to promote your Business Profile and business website on Google Search and Maps.
With your Google My Business account, you can see and connect with your customers, post updates to your Business Profile, and see how customers are interacting with your business on Google"
How does Google My Business (GMB) help me reach more customers?
"Google My Business gives you the power to attract and engage customers when they search for your business on Google.
Your Business Profile gives you a presence on Google Search and Maps, allowing you to respond to Reviews, post photos of products or special offers, and add/edit your business details.
Your Google business website lets you present your business professionally online, showcasing your photos and business details in a beautiful way.
Insights shows you how you can optimize your customer engagement for better results, and you can encourage more engagement by interacting with your customers from the Customers tab."
Source: Local Search Rankings Factors Survey 2020
Here are the things you need to do to register your business in Google My Business (GMB):
Register your business using this link here
Verify your business. You have to enter your physical location address when you register. Google will send you a verification code via a postcard in the mail to your address. Enter the verification code under Google My Business account to complete the registration
Update all the critical information e.g like address, photos, store hours, business category, etc.
Ask your customers to leave a review of your products/services.
2. Keep your name and place information consistent
Besides creating Google My Business (GMB) listing, you should also list your business to other popular directories that people use to find local businesses. Here is a list of a few of them:
As you create listings with different business directories, you must keep your name and place (NAP) information consistent.
Google algorithms are not yet sophisticated enough to distinguish between St vs Street. So if your business is at 100 Main St, make sure you list your address as 100 Main St in every listing directory.
Since, Google allows users to suggest changes to business information, keep an active eye on your listing information so that it does not get changed accidentally by someone other than you.
If a suggestion has been requested, you want to catch it earliest possible.
3. Target and optimize your website with local keywords
You completed listing your business with all the popular directories and made sure that all the directories have consistent business information. The next important step is to optimize your business website with the right keywords.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a vast topic itself, here are some basic steps you can take to improve your on-page SEO:
Headings
Body is updated with keywords that represent your business and people will be searching for. If you have an "Italian restaurant in North End of Boston", make sure content on your website mentions that
Title tags
Footer. If your footer has NAM information about your business, make sure it matches all the business listings
Link to reviews from different social media channels
4. Optimize your website for mobile
30% of all Mobile searches are location-related. People are often looking for local businesses when searching for mobile.
Hence, your website needs to be mobile-friendly and optimized for performance. A quick rule of thumb - your website needs to load on mobile devices within 2 secs and the content displayed once it loads should have all the critical information about your business without scrolling.
You can do a quick SEO audit of your website and most of the audit report should tell you about your website's performance on different devices.
You also need to optimize the content on mobile for ease of navigation for your customers.
e.g. if you have a Dog Day Care store and "booking an appointment" navigation takes multiple clicks and scrolling, chances of getting bookings through a mobile device will be very slim.
5. Manage your reviews
Once you have the above 4 steps taken care of, the next important step is to manage your Google reviews.
5-star reviews are invaluably good for your business's reputation and authority. Google's algorithm likes positive reviews for returning search results. On the flip side, negative reviews impacts how Google displays your listing and site pages in search.
According to different studies by leading SEO companies like Moz, Google likes responding to negative reviews with the goal of resolving them.
It shows that you are actively listening to your customers, managing disputes and actively working on better the experience of your customers.
So keep an eye on each and every review like a hawk and do your best to manage them to improve your customer experience of your business.
Have you tried the above Local SEO top 5 actionable steps? Share with us how did it help your business?
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