Build a Local Brand for Local SEO Results
Good business starts at home, and that’s even more true for advertising locally. For growing businesses looking for some attention from potential customers, it’s extremely important to build a firm foundation of trust and communication with your local audience. This starts with setting yourself up for easy discovery in local searches, including maps and city directories. Follow these tips to make your local business easier to find by customers.
Optimize Your Local Listings
Local Search Engine visibility is dependent on the search engine understanding who you are, what your business does, and where it’s located. This information should appear consistently and accurately on multiple directories, maps, and local websites in order to signal your importance and service offering to search engine crawlers. This means claiming and filling out your Google Business profile on Google Maps, as well as the corresponding accounts on Bing Local and Yahoo! Local. You will want to fill out your profile completely and upload your best photos. Users want to explore the business before paying a visit, so make it easy for them and the search engines will reward you.
Build an Online Business Presence Locally
Once you clarify to these search engines what you do and where to find you, start adding those details to other websites like the Yellow Pages, Better Business Bureau, Citysearch, and Yelp. All of these services function as directories of business info, and your Name, Address, and Phone Number should appear on each, pointing customers (and search engine crawlers) to your website. You can also check with your local newspaper’s website or your city’s Chamber of Commerce website to see if they have their own listed local business directory.
Another very important step in solidifying your business presence online is to place the phone numbers and address of your business on major citation data aggregators like Factual and Localeze. Be absolutely sure, however, that each listing is a perfect match to the one before it. If there are any discrepancies in the spelling or phone numbers, search engines may choose to not include the listing in search results at all, assuming that it’s outdated or somehow underserves the user.
Monitor and Track Business Reviews
You have their attention, and have drawn them in with the familiarity of their city. Now, it’s time to show your customers just what others had to say about your business. One of the bigger signals that Google and other search engines monitor to determine which businesses should rank at the top for specific service-related search terms, is the number of positive reviews the company has received online. Good reviews mean good service, and that’s where companies like Google want to send their users.
Not only can you receive reviews through sites such as Yelp, Facebook, and Google, but you can track and manage this across multiple platforms on sites like Moz Local, Vendasta, and Falcon. Once reviews begin to come in for your business, it’s vital that you respond to each and every one with a professional and courteous reply. Whether it’s positive or negative, by responding to reviews you show your customers and other potential clients that you care about their input and their experiences.
Need Help with Local Search?
Whether your business is strictly local or growing worldwide, it’s important to ensure that the people within your city know where you are and what you offer. Make this information as widely available as possible and you’ll see your local search visibility improve dramatically over time.
Our team of experts is well-practiced at optimizing local business listings for clients. If you have questions or need some assistance in your Local SEO goals, let’s have a chat!
Signal Interactive boasts a team of talented SEO specialists that understand the ins and outs of keyword research, link building, and local search engine optimization. Let us help you dominate the top spots in your industry!
Call us today at 614.360.3938.
