Local SEO is becoming more important with each passing year for companies looking to succeed in their local markets.
Over the years, SEO has taken over as one of the most important elements of digital marketing. For the majority of modern businesses around the world, search engine optimization is their most valuable tool and the most effective way to gain online exposure, visibility, and build brand authority. However, as much as general (global) SEO is important, you should know that dominating the local search results is becoming paramount to success.
If you want to grow your local presence and win over the local customer group, then you need to consistently appear at the top spot of every relevant search result. This is why SEO reporting for businesses is so important, but also why you need to shift your focus to local SEO optimization. Today, we are tackling this challenge head on and giving you the quick and effective tips to improve your local SEO right now.
Claim your business on GMB
The first things you need to do is to create a Google My Business account or claim your business on the platform. Google My Business is a platform that allows you to gain a presence on Google Maps and boost your visibility in local search, as Google is nowadays heavily prioritizing local businesses with a GMB account.
Why? Because one of Google’s top priorities is to provide the best possible results to customers, meaning that your business needs to be trustworthy, legitimate, and that all technical information is present on your profile.
With all of that in mind, make sure to:
- Create a GMB account.
- Fill out all the fields.
- Provide as much useful information as possible about your company.
- Include your work hours, location, your payment methods, the type of products or services you offer, whether or not you’re pet friendly, and the like.
- Include plenty of images as well as your company logo.
- Inspire people to leave reviews and respond to all testimonials.
- Publish posts and announcements regularly using your GMB dashboard.
Get more reviews and boost your ranking
Speaking of reviews, inspiring and incentivizing the online audience and your customers to post reviews about your business is one of the best ways to get on to the local map. Google heavily prioritizes local businesses with excellent reviews in an attempt to boost the user’s experience and satisfaction. With that in mind, it’s important that you consistently get positive reviews on your website, Google, and third-party review sites like Yelp.
There are many ways you can inspire people to share their stories and opinions about your brand, and gamification is a great way to incentivize them to leave a positive review. Of course, not all reviews are going to be in your favor, so you have to make sure to respond to each one and turn the negative ones into success stories if you can. Be sure to handle reviews publicly or privately depending on the sensitivity of the topic, and strive to resolve every issue so that the local audience can see that you put your customers first.
Stay on top of the algorithm changes
Search engine optimization is a long-term investment. It’s a way to consistently improve your online standing over time to build brand authority, visibility, and earn the trust of the digital world. As a long-term marketing method, it demands that you stay on top of the latest trends and changes to the Google algorithm. This is particularly important if you’re operating in a highly-competitive market where every small change can make a big impact.
In Australia, for example, every experienced digital marketing agency in Sydney and other competitive markets will focus heavily on continuous monitoring and optimization, tracking every little change in the algorithm to ensure consistent results. You should implement this mindset into your own SEO strategy and stay on top of the local search trends so that you can optimize your local SEO on a moment’s notice. This is the only way to ensure consistent growth and success.
Optimize your site for voice search
While we’re on the subject of popular search trends, it’s important to note that voice search has been on the rise in recent years. In 2021 and the years to come, optimizing your website and your content for voice search will be paramount for online success and visibility in the SERPs.
Without a doubt, voice search is one of the most useful SEO tools you have at your disposal, because people are increasingly searching for businesses, products, and services by asking questions rather than typing keywords into the search box. Be sure to answer these questions to appeal to the modern voice searcher and thus get on Google’s good side.
Capitalize on the mobile demographic
Finally, keep in mind that customers are increasingly using their mobile devices to search for products and services, and browse the web in general. This is why Google prioritizes websites that use AMPs (accelerated mobile pages) to optimize for mobile devices and a seamless browsing experience. If you want to rank higher in local search, then you have to facilitate mobile browsing for your local customers, so make sure to optimize your online presence for this growing demographic.
Wrapping up
Local SEO is becoming more important with each passing year for companies looking to succeed in their local markets. Use these tips to quickly improve your local SEO and bring more customers to your online and physical doorsteps.
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