Connect to us:
info@onlineownership.com | 01536 269 657 | 07789 901268
Connect to us:
info@onlineownership.com | 01536 269 657 | 07789 901268
The aim of optimising your website is to provide clear information to Google’s algorithms about where you are located, the services you offer in order for them to assign your website a position within the search results for a particular search query.
If the thought of optimising your website fills you with horror, then go back to your developer to get the following steps implemented on site.
**Note: If you do not have a website, don’t panic. Your Google my Business page has a website option for you and they work quite well.
You have spent time on optimising your Google My Business page, you now need to connect the dots between your Website and your Business Listing.
I recommend adding your address to the websites footer.
This serves to reinforce your location across the site, its also handy for customers to see exactly where you are located, so provide a link option for them.
If you have multiple locations, then I would have your Head Office address listed and a link to your location page, where users can find all your locations.
Embed your map on your contact us page, good for users to see exactly where you are located, and remember we are joining the dots for Googlebot.
Embed a map:
Now that you have your businesses address on site, we can reinforce this data to Google via local business structured data.
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "http://schema.org",
"@type": "LocalBusiness",
"image": "Image URL",
"priceRange" : "Price Range",
"address": {
"@type": "PostalAddress",
"streetAddress": "First Line Address",
"addressLocality": "Town",
"addressRegion": "State ",
"postalCode":"Post Code"
},
"description": "Brief Description of Business",
"name": "Name of Business",
"openingHours": "Mo-Fr 09:00-17:00",
"telephone": "0800 000 000",
"email": "info@yourdomain",
"url": "https://www.yourdomain.co.uk",
"hasMap": "Short link direct from your GMB listing",
"sameAs" : [
"Social media channel",
“Social media channel”
]
}
}
</script>
City or Town and County in your home pages <title>
An example of this would be:
<title>Business Name – Emergency Plumbers in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire</title>
<title>Business Name – Expert Eye Care in Kettering, Northamptonshire</title>
By including your Core Business Service and Location in your page title, you are letting both users and search engines know what you provide and the location in which you provide it.
Your page should also include this within your H1, H2 tags on page.
<h1>Welcome to ABC Emergency Plumbers in Wellingborough</h1>
<h2>Plumbing Services across Northamptonshire</h2>
A business citation is basically a business profile on a website other then your own website. A citation will consist of the Name, Address and Contact details of the business and more often then not a link to your website. Depending on the site or business directory, they may also offer a business description, images, products, social media profiles.
Business citations can also appear on supplier websites, trade organisations and chamber of commerce websites. It is worth noting that you only really want to be creating these in relevant and authoritative sites, these will provide the better online signals to Googlebot.
The single most important thing to keep in mind when submitting your business details to a business directory, is to keep your details accurate: Name, Address and Phone Number (NAP)
There are a few main aggregators in the UK:
Some of these aggregators do have paid options which I would not use, rather spend any additional budget on Google Ads or perhaps paid social, but I have encountered a “premium” listing that provides any meaningful leads or customers.
After submitting your business to the main aggregators you can then look for more local and niche relevant sources. You can do this by searching online with “Northampton business directory” or “plumbers business directory”.
Another great source of local relevant links is with partnerships with businesses in the area, whether these be suppliers for your business, or other businesses, all you have to do is ask. There are also local charities, sponsorship’s and don’t forget the local press.
There is no point having a user land on a product and service page, not finding the information they need and leaving. Your service and products pages should contain all the necessary information required for the user to make an informed purchasing decision.
One tip to get you looking at your site content in the right way, is by asking yourself, “if a customer came into the business and all you could say to that customer is what is presented on your page” would you make the sale?
An easy way to provide additional specific information is to provide FAQs on relevant pages. You can easily build on these by creating a spreadsheet with pages for each service, then every time a customer calls or ask a Question add it to the spreadsheet together with the answer. These can be updated on a monthly basis or as they appear.
A blog or news section on your site is a natural platform for you to engage with potential customers but also a way to target specific search queries. By understanding what your customers are looking for you can provide this information to their specific query.
So how do you know what users are searching for, how do you tap into this?
You can expand on your FAQs that you are building with either more in depth articles or video content. You can use Google Search Console to see users are searching for, based on content already provided on site. Filter queries with how, what, when, where.
There are quite a few content resources available online, but you can start thinking about your business content from:
Ranking in local 3 pack is algorithmically determined by Google and when there are unknown variables there are assumptions made by Local SEO’s based on what Google says and results they see, which leads to the inevitable local SEO myths being picked up and followed.
There are a lot of myths, debates and misinformation when it comes to search engine optimisation in general, and even more confusion about niche areas, in particular local SEO. Since proper link building is so crucial, here are some top link building tips for increasing your local SEO.
So how does a business separate the wheat from the chaff. Naturally I would say come to Online Ownership but there are tons of great SEO consultants out there, but equally bad ones that can cause untold damage if let loose on your business.
Ranking in Google is dependent on what: Google feels that a user is looking for, not how many times you have stuffed a phrase onto a page. In an age where Google returns results based upon a persons query and his location, local businesses have a real opportunity to position their businesses locally.
Need a hand with your local SEO, Online Ownership provides a local SEO service designed around your business.