Growing and building a successful business locally online requires more than traditional marketing and advertising campaigns. Understanding the benefits of online marketing and the use of local SEO is imperative to expanding a business regardless of the industry you are working in or the target demographic you want to reach.
 

 

The Power of Local SEO for Online Business

We optimised a local business site recently following all the recommendations listed below resulting in improved traffic and local search query rankings between Nov 2014 and Feb 2015.

This only requires your time, careful attention and passion.
 

 

Accurate Business Listings and Citations

Locating the right directories and understanding how to submit your company’s information is a must before moving forward. Using the setup of “NAP”, or “Name, Address, Phone Number” is a way to ensure your business information is listed in a way in which search engines are able to easily identify the source and its URL. Local citations are an important factor for search engines in deciding how important your site is locally and where to position it within localised search results.

Do Not: Pick random business listings
Do: Pick relevant, local centric business listings
 

 

Read More On: Local SEO Citations

 

Relevancy Matters in Local SEO

Always be sure to upload and promote your website to relevant sources only, avoid spamming systems and having your website’s  URL  blocked from popular search engines including Google, Yahoo! and Bing. Ensure you upload and share your website’s link only to relevant online sources with similar businesses and companies.

 

Local Link Building

Link building locally to improve your local SEO and increase your online presence. No matter how many changes that Google has made to how it ranks sites, the core still revolves around links. This is why link building is always important. The main thing to remember is that you want your links to be natural. Building links naturally can include:

• Finding local niche indexes
• Creating local partnerships
• Hosting a contest or giveaway
• Leveraging any of the existing relationships that you have built up in your community
• Offering discounts or scholarships

 

 

Read: Link Building Tips for Local SEO

 

Create Unique and Useful Content

Any time you want a business to become more successful online it is imperative to create and publish unique and useful pieces of content for customers. Regardless of the type of business you are running it is always important to be considered as a place of resources, especially for those who are genuinely interested in the industry you are representing. Providing useful and unique content for readers is a way to keep potential consumers and your followers coming back for more.

The more unique and original your content is to readers, the easier it becomes to gain trust and loyalty from those who want to know more about your expertise and the products or services you have available.

It is also possible to build traction with a newsletter following of hundreds or thousands of subscribers, increasing web traffic and validity of your site altogether.
 

 

Searchable Page Titles

Publishing content without proper and searchable title tags is another way to lose visits when promoting an online or local business. HOME –  in search results will do nothing to attract a visit.

Your Pages <title>Title</title> is the First thing that a potential customer sees.
 

 

Avoid Spamming Keywords in your Content

Keyword Density is: 46.28% …. Now Slap Yourself !

Avoid spamming keywords or worrying about keyword density, write for your customers and visitors, keywords and their synonyms will come naturally. Use keywords naturally and with proper syntax.

 

Use Branded Social Media Profiles and Pages

One of the most important factors in boosting local SEO today involves putting social media to use for businesses and brands in any field and industry. Branded social media pages gives you access to hundreds of thousands of users simultaneously by putting the right keywords, phrases and hashtags to use with any and all updates you publish.

Creating branded business accounts for your company on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest is a way to showcase your work, products and even new content you want to share directly from your blog or newsletter. Whenever you are creating a new branded page for your business use proper imagery and design to ensure the overall visual appeal of your company, especially if you are looking to generate new leads and sales with your posts and updates.
 

 

Social media is also a way to build a solid following, keeping visitors coming back for more content, information and details of new products and releases you provide as a company. The more actively engaged your followers become with your posts.

 

Don’t be afraid to Ask for Reviews

Asking customers and clients for reviews and online testimonials can help to boost your sites local authority, credibility and reputation of your business.

The 7 pack is when you see 7 Google Map listings for a search in the search results page. Asking customers to review you online when they stop in to your store, or add it to your follow up email.

 

 

Read:  Direct Link to your Google Business Review Page

Markup your business details, for a local business this starts with your business details : schema.org/LocalBusiness. As a local business I would recommend adding your business details to the footer of your site, this allows a customer to see your details instantly, it also promotes your locality across all your sites pages.

 

<div class=" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/FurnitureStore ">
<span class="address-title" itemprop="name">CHARLIE'S PINE & OAK </span>

<div itemprop="address" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/PostalAddress">
<span itemprop="streetAddress">73 ST JOHNS, ENDERBY</span>
<span itemprop="addressLocality">Leicester,</span>
<span itemprop="addressRegion">Leicestershire</span>
<span itemprop="postalCode">LE19 2BS</span>
</div>

<div class="phone-number">
Phone: <span itemprop="telephone">01162 751 586</span>
</div>
</div>

 

 

Local SEO for Business Recap

There was a lot of different information covered in this article, so this is a little recap of the information. These are the steps that you need to take to improve your local SEO:

• Create a Google+ local page ( My Business Page ), fill it out accurately and get it verified.
• Pay attention to your website’s SEO factors. Make sure they are optimized.
• Build up NAP listings when and wherever possible.
• Build useful and relevant links.
• Talk to all of your customers about writing reviews

 
Online Ownership specialises in local SEO, its what we do. Want to investigate this further, give us a no obligation call.