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What do you need to know about Local SEO?

1. What is Local SEO?

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) refers to all techniques involved in optimizing the rankings of a website in the organic search engine results. Local SEO provides additional information about the location of a business. This method allows a business to be more visible in the search engine results.

In order to be displayed in the local results you need to add the city or specific area of the city where your business is, to your website’s keywords (services/products). For example, when internet users search for “Pizzeria London” your business will be listed in Local Search Results.

In Google, these results will be visible on the preview of Google Maps and in the listing below where you can see details such as Google Reviews, business category, address, phone number, opening/closing hours, a website link as well as a link providing directions to the business location.

2. Why should you optimize your website for Local SEO?

Local SEO is relevant for many businesses but not necessarily applicable for all websites. For example, Local SEO would be more relevant for a restaurant than it would be for an e-commerce website with no physical location.  Local SEO provides your customers with easily accessible, relevant information about your business which in turn will drive more customers to your location. Optimizing your site for Local SEO is an easy, more effective way to be present in the first results of Google and for your business to have more visibility online. Furthermore, the call-to-action buttons such as ‘Call’ or ‘Directions’ allows your customers to reach you easily without going directly to your site and searching for your business information.

Some facts about Local SEO to consider:

–       70% of all online activity is related to local searches (Source: Google)

–       97% of consumers use the internet to research local products and services (Source: BIA/Kelsey)

–       78% of mobiles searches for local businesses result in a purchase (Source: Local Search Association Conference)

–       People state, that the first reason to do a local search is to find the exact address of a known business (Source: comScore)

3.     How to optimize your website for Local SEO

The first step involved in optimizing your website for Local SEO is to register your business on Google My Business.  It is important to fill out all relevant information needed to ensure the most complete profile of your business.  Furthermore, it is extremely useful to have positive reviews from your customers online. Oftentimes, many customers will read through the review area before deciding if they want to interact with a business.  It is also important to address any negative reviews so your customers can see that you are concerned about their satisfaction.  These reviews, whether positive or negative, have an impact on your position and visibility online.  For example, if your business is in tourism and your main competitors are not present online in Google My Business, your business has a great advantage for being found online, as well as in the search engine rankings.

It is also very important to be present in other local directions such as Yelp, YellowPages, Bing Places, Foursquare, Hotfrog, TripAdvisor, etc. as these platforms provide your business with more online visibility.  They also provide the opportunity for more customer reviews and other helpful information your customers may need about your business.

When registering your business with these online directories it is very important to be as accurate as possible regarding information such as opening/closing times, address, email, phone number, etc. as well as choosing your business category carefully. Choosing the wrong business category in these business directories can result in your customers being unable to find your business.  It is also important to add a visual aspect to your business by uploading current photos to your account, which also helps increase your ranking in online directories.

Lastly, besides business directories you can also improve your Local SEO on your website by including local keywords on your website and improving your contact page.  This can be done by including meta data and integrating a map on your site with your business location on it.

Want to know more? Contact us!


Source: This coach’s kitchen article of interest is brought to you by rankingCoach™

Create the kind of content Google loves to rank

There are many aspects to improving your website’s visibility online. The relative importance of these factors is something that is constantly changing with Google’s periodic updates, which are designed to present its users with the best possible results for each search they make. At present, one of the most important factors when it comes to Google’s ranking decisions is the content of your website, and how this matches the request the user is making of the search engine.

Creating quality content is both a science and an art. There are some set guidelines you can follow to ensure your website is meeting all the requirements, but it is also important that your keywords are naturally and fluently implemented in your content, so that the reader wants to continue finding out more about your website. The technical side of content is easy to outline and teach – ensuring your content is of a high quality is something you may need to spend more time to achieve.

The Science – Structuring content successfully

There are several structural factors that you can rely on to help create Google friendly content. Your text should be split into headlines and sub headlines (h1, h2 and h3) so that Google’s bots can quickly skim read what your website is about. Visitors to your site are more likely to engage with content that is clearly laid out and easy to understand the premise of quickly and succinctly, without trawling through pages and pages of unbroken text. Your content should be the right length for each section – headlines should be between 50 and 60 characters long, meta description should be between 150 and 160 characters to ensure it is displayed correctly in Google results and social media shares.

The Art – Creating quality texts

It is important that your reader feels engaged with your site, and the text is the central means of capturing their attention. Without quality text, readers will quickly hit the ‘back’ button, and Google will notice this and start to rank your website lower in results. Keep content an appropriate length, with catchy headlines and interesting text. Consider adding in rhetorical questions to keep your reader engaged, and take care to use an appropriate tone and voice when addressing your audience. What you are selling can have a significant impact on this – the tone used by a hairdresser (“Are you ready for a new you? Our aim is for you to walk out of our studio feeling fabulous!”) will be very different to that of a lawyer’s office (“We will provide reliable, professional legal counsel at an affordable rate.”). You also need to think about your keywords when creating your content, these should be cleverly and discreetly incorporated, so that the reader knows exactly what you are offering. Simply listing keywords is not a viable alternative, or way of ‘tricking’ Google. Content must make sense, be readable and engaging, and relevant to the services or products you are offering.

Other factors

There are a couple of other tips and tricks for creating high quality content. You should add internal and external links throughout your article or site text – that is, links that link to content on other sites, and links that link to other pages of your own website (so called ‘deeplinks’). Optimise images by ensuring the file names are relevant and the right size, and add a text and title for the image. By following these guidelines for creating quality, structured and readable content, you will be soaring up Google’s rankings in no time!

Want to know more? Contact us!


Source: This coach’s kitchen article of interest is brought to you by rankingCoach™