As regular SEO techniques improve your global ranking, local SEO improves the ranking of your brand in your area, helping those who live close to your location find your business easier

Local SEO represents a series of steps that allow your content to reach online users that live close to your business. As regular SEO techniques improve your global ranking, local SEO improves the ranking of your brand in your area, helping those who live close to your location find your business easier. It is a strategy that every local brand crafts according to the number of locations they operate in, as opposed to global SEO that includes the use of techniques with worldwide metrics in mind. More than 50% of users that perform local business searches end up visiting the local office within a day. A well-implemented local SEO strategy allows users to contact you or get important…

NAP consistency is one of the most significant factors of local SEO, so how should you ensure your NAP listings are correct and optimized?

As a business owner, you should know the challenges that come with local SEO. Moreover, Google turns the spotlight on displaying search results for location-based searches and takes the location information on each business website and through other websites to serve those search results. That’s where NAP (this stands for Name, Address, Phone number) comes into play. According to Moz, NAP consistency is one of the most significant factors of local SEO. [si_guide_block id="35519" title="Download our Individual Member Resource – Managing SEO playbook" description="This guide is for marketing and digital marketing managers who need to manage Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), either through agencies, consultants or company specialists or through their own efforts."/] Unfortunately, many businesses neglect the importance of having consistent NAP information, assuming that search…

Take an hour to create your profile and your business will look much better in search results

It’s startling how many local businesses have failed to claim their Google My Business profile after the free marketing tool has been available for half a decade. Some would say it’s an essential element of your digital marketing strategy – but up to 56% of local retailers have failed to do this bit of SEO housekeeping in a period when we’ve all been busy with the gold rush of social media presence. Another reason for putting it off is that it may seem like a complicated thing to do. For small business owners who do their own SEO, the stats and admin offered by various services are alien to the creative business instincts that drive them to get started in the first place. However, it’s actually very easy to set up a…

Local SEO is the process of optimizing your online presence to bring in the most relevant, local customers

Local SEO is absolutely core to the success of many businesses. While lots now operate online, most businesses need their local customers in order to truly succeed. Local SEO is the process of optimizing your online presence to bring in the most relevant, local customers. It relies on measurable, tangible metrics that result in leads and sales, not vanity metrics and other insights that won’t bring in sales or real value. While it is not just about Google, it’s important to remember the search engine giant’s stance on local SEO: "nearly two-thirds of smartphone users are likely to purchase from companies that customize online information to a user’s location," which is something we simply cannot ignore. Local SEO works through emphasizing core topics…

Local SEO will increase in importance over the next few years, making it tougher for local businesses to make it to the top of search results

The importance of local search will continue to grow with 46% of searches on Google already having local intent. Moreover, almost every local search converts into a sales either online and offline. This means, more and more businesses will try to make it to the top of the local search results, making local SEO tougher than before. Here are some things to consider: By 2020, around 50% of searches will be voice-based so there will be less typing involved. This will give rise to a higher number of long tail keywords and hyperlocal searches. Reviews will play an important role in businesses having more positive reviews ranking higher on the local search results. User engagement will be the…

What links mean for your business and how to get them

When it comes to online marketing for a local business, it may feel like a fruitless task. Doing the SEO, setting up your Google maps pack, making your social media accounts is just the start of it. Once you’ve done that, then surely that’s the end of the road, right? Not quite. Just as you can target people around the world with effective marketing online, you can just as successfully target local business as well. It just requires the right strategy. Part of that strategy is making sure you have an effective on-page SEO , so targeting the right cities, regions or suburbs with individual pages.However, that probably isn’t going to be enough. To truly have a large impact on your SEO, and drive a lot of traffic to your site, you will NEED to improve your link profile.

Links

If you’re not already familiar with…

The voice search revolution is upon us. It’s time to optimize for today and future-proof for tomorrow

Whether or not you were ever skeptical about voice search since its introduction to Google browsers in 2012, you have to admit that it’s now definitely out of its nascent stages. Recent data from NPR and Edison Research shows that 16% of Americans now own a smart speaker. Leaving aside the fact that many people will own a single device together, that’s 40 million Americans with regular access to an in-home voice search device. And on top of that, consider that all modern smartphones come fully equipped with a virtual assistant, be that Siri, Cortana, Alexa, Bixby, or the charmingly named Google Assistant. Pretty much everyone with access to a smartphone is capable of assistant-powered voice search, so while we might be waiting a while for the voice search tipping point (until 2022, …

How to gain visibility on SERPs for local law firms

As the world goes online, professionals like lawyers, accountants, and dentists are discovering that not as many potential clients are walking through the door and more are searching for them online first. Internet reviews and word of mouth count for more now and up to a third of people research lawyers in their local area before getting in touch with one or more firms to discuss their needs. Local SEO helps law firms connect with prospective buyers of their services. Whether that’s through seeing their details in a citation listing, finding them on a map of local lawyers, or via content marketing, lawyers can no longer afford to sit idly by and cross their fingers that new clients will magically appear. Let’s look now at how local SEO can help law firms get…

Search Marketers Are Embracing Online Reviews

Evidence of the growing importance of online review sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, Google, and Facebook is hard to ignore. According to research by ReviewTrackers, 49 percent of consumers always or often check online reviews, and Search Engine Land reports that 72 percent trust reviews as much as they do recommendations from friends and family. Reviews have also shaped search algorithms. And with Google explicitly indicating that reviews play a role in one of its three primary local search factors, an increasing number of marketers and local SEO professionals have been crafting strategic approaches to reviews in hopes of improving local SEO performance.

[si_guide_block id="5750" title="Download our recently updated Premium Member Resource – Successful SEO Guide " description="This guide is one of our most…

Local tactics are the keys to consumer loyalty in a mobile-first world

For bricks-and-mortar businesses, loyalty programs have been a staple for decades, whether in the form of punch cards promising a free item, special sale offerings, or the now ubiquitous loyalty cards that we scan at grocery stores, pet stores, and everywhere in between. Simply put, customers think that loyalty programs are effective at getting them to return. It’s no surprise, then, that as ecommerce rose to prominence, many online businesses also instituted some variation of the loyalty program. A problem arises today, however, when businesses think that the only way to drive customer loyalty is through such programs. But what are the alternatives? Customers are increasingly burdened by a jumble of key rings, codes, and email subscriptions telling them about special offerings and it can be a little overwhelming. There has to be another way. One alternative to the traditional…