I recently wrote about 7 Reasons Why Your Business Should Invest in SEO, which generated a fair amount of views and shares. I thought I would do a followup article to address a specific side of Search Engine Optimization; Local Local SEO.
Why?
I think the better question is, why not?
But I digress.
As a small business owner and marketer, you need to let Google Google know where you are located and what you have to offer so you’re not only showing up on Google search engine results pages (SERPs) more frequently, but you’re showing up in front of the eyes of a very relevant audience.
Unfortunately, local SEO is somewhat of a confusing topic and always has been. It’s tough to know where to even begin. You have to ask yourself: What are some must-have SEO strategies when it comes to local SEO?
I talked with Scott Langdon, managing partner of the nationally recognized SEO Company HigherVisibility, who explained that local search doesn’t have to be complicated, and you just need to have a well-rounded local strategy. If you’re unsure how local search works in general, I recommend checking out Josh Steimle’s Forbes post Simple SEO Tip For Small Businesses: Local Citations to get an idea.
Image Source: Google Images
Once you know how it works, it’s time to create a strategy. Below are some of the most popular and most important according to Langdon:
1. Create Local Places Pages.
Of course, the first step is making sure that you have a local business page for all three major search engines (meaning you’ll have three different listings and dashboards to manage). You can visit here for Bing and here for Yahoo Yahoo to get started. You can visit here to get started with Google. All you will need to do is fill out your business information such as location, phone number, hours, etc. and then you’ll be all set with an account.
2. Optimize and Properly Categorize Your Page.
First, optimizing your local pages means uploading a good amount of quality photos (discussed later in this article), detailing your hours of operation, and listing the services offered.
Second, categorizing your business correctly is actually one of the most crucial steps to optimizing for local search. Several local search engines offer you the ability to place your business into 2-5 categories to help them understand what your business does. According to Moz Local, (formerly GetListed.org) search engines will “not display a business that is not categorized, or even worse, mis-categorized for a particular set of keywords.â€
3. Accurate Business Citations.
You need to make sure all of your information is filled out and you have consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone) data for your company across all listings. It is possible that your business is already listed somewhere by someone else, but don’t panic! All you need to do is claim this listing, often referred to also as a citation.
Article source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveolenski/2014/04/03/6-local-seo-strategies-for-small-businesses/