Introduction to Local SEO

Publicerades den - Senast redigerad

 

Local SEO is the process of optimizing your site so that it ranks highly on local SERPs. Your site will then have a higher chance of appearing on the first results page when Internet users utilize keywords and locations associated with your business.

Search engines do place a lot of emphasis on local SEO. This is done to help Internet users obtain the most relevant answers to the questions that they submit to search engines. For that reason, implementing proper local SEO techniques on your pages will help your target market find your site.

The Major Condition for Local SEO

Before you optimize your site for local searches, you should ensure that your business has a physical location. Your physical location and unique address will be very instrumental in making your business site more visible to search engines.

How to Implement Local SEO

1.     Claim a place on Google

Your first order of business when implementing local SEO strategies is to claim your place on Google. Millions of people use Google Places to identify local establishments that they want to visit and buy from. You really do not want to be left behind on this one.

Make sure that that you fill in all the required details on your Google local profile including your business phone number, physical address, and name. The information that you give should be consistent throughout, even when you list on other similar platforms. That way, search engines will have an easier time ranking your business site consistently.

2.     Claim a place on other platforms

Once you have established a physical business location and gotten listed on Google, you also need to open accounts on other search engines like Bing, Facebook, and even Apple. The more platforms in which you are registered can improve your visibility to a wider target audience.

3.     Incorporate your address where necessary

If search engines are to identify your business as relevant to a particular location, you need to help them out. That is why you must incorporate your unique address where necessary, on your site and offsite as well.

Your website's home page should contain your address. In fact, you should consider incorporating your business name and physical address on either the header or footer of every webpage associated with your site.

Do make sure that all your title tags, Meta descriptions, and even website content incorporate your business location (State, City, and Town). Creating a KML file within your site is also a good thing.

4.     Get Cited

Get citations from friends and clients if you want your business to rank highly on local SERPs. These consist of mentions on other sites, which include your business name, phone number, and address.

You must make sure that you use the same format on the major search engine platforms and the citations. Consistency is important in this regard.

5.     Let others market for you

It never hurts to have people give you free marketing with positive reviews. Search engines love that! For that reason, you should encourage your clients to give reviews of your business on your Google Places page as well as pages on other listing platforms.

 

You do not need a lot of money to rank highly during local searches. All you have to do is be smart and use all the online tools at your disposal.

Upplagt 15 maj, 2015

Ellie

Content Marketing Writer

I have been a freelance writer since 2011 and writing is my passion. I take pride in creating informative yet clear content that readers will appreciate and learn from. My work always speaks for itself. I have written SEO and general content articles by the hundreds. Some of the articles that I have written about revolve around topics such as budgeting, saving, investments, freelancing, SEO, aff...

Nästa artikel

Traveler Takes Business Venture Overseas