In this post I will take you through the benefits of one very important part of SEO called local SEO. I will show you how you can implement your own local SEO so that your website will rank and be found where it matters for your business, locally.
Local SEO
Search engine optimisation is defined as the process of generating traffic from the “free”, “organic”, “editorial” or “natural” listings on search engines. It is hugely important in how your website ranks on the internet. With the advance of WordPress it has never been easier to create an online presence for your business. There are a whopping 50,000 WordPress.com websites being launched daily which makes for a crowded online place. When your website has a physical address where you carry out business you can increase your website’s ranking locally by doing the following:
NAP – Name, Address, Phone
This is where you add your name, address and phone to every page on your website as the more Google reads of this the more you reinforce the existence of your website presence. A good place would be to add the NAP to the footer of all your website’s pages. Make sure you consistently add the exact details of your location.
Irish Citation Sites
Local directories are a useful resource for link building and especially for building citations. A citation is an online reference to your business’s name, address and phone number (NAP). Add your website NAP to as many business listings in local directories that you can possibly find. This further reinforces to Google your physical location. The more times you tell Google of the physical whereabouts of your business the more you will be acknowledged for it and ranked accordingly. You need to be adding to anything from 10-40 to really see the results so persistence is key here and it will pay off in the long term.
Google My Business
Google My Business is an online tool that allows managing how a local business appears throughout Google products such as Search or Google Maps. Besides helping to get more visibility, it also has an impact on local SEO, as the business information will be accurate and consistent. Google My Business makes it easy to create and update your Business Profile—so you can stand out, and bring customers in. Take charge of what people see when they search for your business. Google My Business gives you the tools to update your Business Profile, build a website, and engage with your customers from your phone, tablet or computer for free.
Insights: Google offers analytical data about how a business was found, where it was shown, and what information the end-user is seeing.
Reviews: users are going to leave reviews. Some of them will be good, some of them will be bad, and all of them will play a key role in how other customers see a business. Google My Business allows to manage and monitor reviews with a nice dashboard that will make anyone’s day easier.
Visibility: having consistent information throughout Google about a business will improve all marketing efforts as many local listings use Google’s data to feed their listings.
Google My Business has a bigger impact on local SEO and it definitely helps to reach new customers and drive more traffic to a website or in-store visits.