Local SEO has become a key area that should be considered in any comprehensive digital strategy due to the continuos growth of mobile usage, customisation and results on the go. Here’s why.
Google & Local SEO
Google has built its own product over the years: Google My Business, as it’s known now. It was previously called Places — essentially the product’s 1.0.
Via Google My Business, business owners provide the search engine with information about physical stores that are available in a certain area. Based on this information, all the main features of the business in question are eventually displayed on Search, Maps and Google +.
The product has been on the market since 2010, but many businesses still undervalue local search optimisation. In fact, owners tend not to follow the basic guidelines, one consequence being that Google recently announced that unverified Google My Business Listings will be shut down tomorrow, 28 July.
Local SEO Ranking Factors
As shown in the chart below, local SEO entails the optimisation of various parameters (such as on-page, reviews & link profile), all of which impact the local search rankings.
5 Steps To Consider
- Ensure your business’s information — address, phone number, for instance — is correct, verified and up to date.
- Apply on-page optimisation to your listing — title, description, landing page mapping, for example. Adopt Schema.org markup during the process.
- Links from local websites which are relevant to your business should be considered.
- Reviews are an important ranking factor/signal — follow them up to provide your clients with the best result for their search.
- Local results are less consistent than traditional searches: keep up monitoring rankings based on different locations and devices.
If you want to discuss this topic with our team, please email us at info@hedgingbeta.com