Mobile search has led to a lot of changes in SEO today. None of them are more dramatic than local SEO though.
This all started with Google’s Pigeon update in 2014 which gave local directories greater visibility and local SEO rankings a foothold. Now today mobile search surpasses desktop search and over one-third of these are local related. Competing for your position here is challenging though.
Strategies That Help Increase Organic Visibility and Local SEO Ranking
There are four strategies that you need to consider here. These include:
• Claim all local name, address, and phone number citations and listings in local directories. Make sure these are consistent across all listings.
• Claim your Google My Business Page and Bing Places for Business. Fill in all the relevant information and local keywords in each of these places so people can find you in local searches. This will also help your business show up in Google and Bing Maps.
• Improve your local ratings and reviews by fully optimizing your webpages and completing all the information fields in Google My Business.
• Produce local content so you’ll rank well for long-tail keywords.
• Write up local events, including local news stories, in your blog.
• Create content that’s centered on your business and your industry, but which is also unique to your area. A great way to do this is to create a list of questions centered around your location and then spend some time answering them for your visitors.
• Do your best to generate local media coverage’s interest in your business.
• Make sure your business is active in your community. This will not only get you noticed but it will also help to inspire ideas for local content. Now you can provide an authentic firsthand report about events you host and attend or sponsor.
• Consider writing guest posts for local blogs.
• Give guest lectures at universities and local schools.
• Share user-generated content on social media so it’s not all about your business or brand all the time.
• Optimize your website’s landing pages with local images, descriptions, and online reviews that your visitors will want to see.
Things to Remember When Working on Your Local SEO Ranking
Local SEO rankings are something that small businesses and service industries that primarily market in a set geographic area need to be concerned with today. Focusing on ranking for keywords related to these areas help you narrow your competition so you can reach your target audience. As you do this you’ll want to make sure that you insert your keywords into your title and meta description too. Here you’ll want to use long-tail keywords so you can delineate your site both topically and geographically.
Creating localized content is a great way to capture a niche that most people (outside of local news stations, influencers, travel agents, and realtors) aren’t tackling. You can find these keywords in numerous ways, including:
• Researching your target audience
• Interviewing customers face-to-face
• Conducting extensive audience analysis through Facebook’s Audience Insights
• Measuring search volume for keywords based on insights you’ve received from your face-to-face interviews
• Auditing your current traffic data and website performance
All these things will help you identify your audience’s demographics and psychographics so you can curate local SEO content that appeals to them. You’ll gain insight into how people are reaching your website and what keywords they’re using to find you. This is crucial information for creating content that will help with your ranking in the SERPs.
Local SEO Company can help you tap into this exciting opportunity. We’ll help you go beyond the basics and enjoy a lot of great advantages that are just now opening up today thanks to mobile search.
