SEO Guides, Tips & More!

Many marketers are familiar with the term local SEO or at least the concept that what comes up in a search engine results in based (in part) on location. It makes sense especially if someone is using their computer or mobile to search for an auto repair shop or bakery that Google provide results that are local and not in another state. Even professional service firms such as accounting, law and engineering firms, which service a specific geography need to contemplate their local presence. When someone Google searches Denver CPA Firm or Fresno law firm, it’s important that your website and related information appear in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) features. The challenge is where to begin? Marketers and business owners often only have a small piece of the roadmap to success. To help those interested in learning more, we have provided a few tips and helpful resources to get you focused.

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO is an effective way to market your business online. It helps businesses promote their products and services to local customers at the exact time they’re looking for them. Through a variety of strategies, local SEO helps get your site ranked on search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo. It also puts your business on the map with online directories like Yelp, Superpages, Foursquare, Yellowbook, etc. Consumers use local search every day to find the best local businesses in their area. Using the key tactics below along with a leveraging the expertise of a seasoned SEO partner will help increase the opportunity to increase search engine exposure.

How to Improve Local SEO Results

• Localize Your Website – An important factor in improving your local SEO is to do just that – ‘localize’ your website. This means including your city, county or region name naturally throughout your site. For businesses with multiple locations, this can include creating separate web pages for individual locations as well as implementing other local content strategies, such as getting involved with local/community events and featuring articles and information about them on your site.
• Citation Building – Another excellent tactic is to ensure your website is featured on citation sites and online business directories. Not only will this help consumers find your business, but featuring your company’s name, address and phone number on citation sites and extra information on business directories will help improve your search rankings locally.
• Claim Your Google My Business (GMB) Listing – Claiming your GMB listing is a key step in localizing your business and making sure that it’s displayed on important Google services, such as Local Search, Maps and Google+ pages. GMB and its Microsoft equivalent – Bing Places for Business – should always be the first online directories you take ownership of.
• Manage Ratings and Reviews – One of the best ways to demonstrate to search engines that your website is trusted and useful is through genuine, honest reviews. This requires the marketing team or the business owner to respond to good and bad reviews. Don’t make the mistake of ignoring bad reviews as Google uses review feedback as a local ranking signal. Additionally, using ratings and reviews is a great way to showcase the quality of your services. Important factors for local search rankings include the number of reviews received, the overall quality of the reviews as well as the authority of the review sites.

Guidance from Google

If you are an inquisitive person, then I highly suggest reviewing the Google Guidelines for Representing your Business Online. It provides several useful insights that will help you understand what Google is looking for and how to sculpt and shape your local SEO strategy for maximum effectiveness.

Contact Us

Like most things with SEO and digital marketing (and life) practice makes perfect. However, reviewing these tips is a great place to get started. If you are interested in learning more about local SEO or would like a local SEO audit, then FlashPoint Marketing can help! For additional information call click here to contact us or drop a line at 954-621-8080. We can help you solve the mystery.