Most of the small business owners already know the importance of local rankings. Especially if you have a physical location, you need local SEO to improve your rankings thus bring more potential customers to your website, which are highly targeted in your area.
Related Posts:
Five Ways to Build Links For Local SEO
Five Killer Tips For Local SEO
What is the difference from local SEO and National/ Worldwide SEO?
Most of the rules for local SEO are same as for the national, but there are some of the methods which can boost your rankings just for the local area.
Two most important are: local listing and citations. You need to claim a local profile on Google which will help you to rank higher for local search results.
There is also one more strategy to rank high in search results - reviews on your Google places page. Encourage your visitors and customers to leave a review on your Google places page, because this is the one of the most important ranking factors for local search.
There is a great tool for locating the best citation sources for your area. It is called "WhiteSpark local citation finder tool".
The most important ranking factors for local SEO are:
1. Having a business profile on Google places
2. Reviews- quantity and quality
3. Local listings- presence on other local directories such as yelp or yellow pages.
4. Foursquare and other local social media websites for business listings.
5. Domain authority of the website for your citations and backlinks.
According to my case study about local ranking factors, five or more reviews on Google get very high improvement in rank. Don't forget to put a picture of your company (at least one picture) at your Google places page, because this also affects the ranking. Then, verify your listing. It is also a strong factor.
Did you know that rankings dropped by 0.5 for every mile away from your listed address? Count on that when you create your Google Places page. Find a proper category and sub-category associations in listings.
What is NAP?
NAP stands for "Name, Address, Phone". Include your name, address and phone number in your listings.
Sneaky tactic: Mobile Local SEO
I am sure most of you know how much mobile internet is potential. Therefore, you need to optimize your website for mobile devices. Did you know that more than 50% of the searches in America are local searches? Google and other search engines are making updates to their mobile platforms in order to enhance the results. You can easily take advantage over your competitors because, according to my research, very small number of business owners have mobile version of website optimized for the local search.
Find local and even regional directories such as local chamber of commerce or even local organizations related to your business niche.
These would be the most important ranking factors for your local SEO in 2013. You can take advantage of your competitors and increase your local rankings very fast. If you have more tips about how to improve local SEO, please share with us in the comment section.
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Yes mobile optimization is very important today. Almost necessary. You can see when ever you go to your local bar or pub that most people are using mobiles for surfing and searching while drinking their daily dose of coffee. Many things, problems and needs pop up during socializing. It would be unwise not to use these opportunities.
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When I got in trouble a few years ago I was looking for a lawyer by searching Google. I was surprised by the lawyers that are ranked on the top for Google in my area. I ended up choosing a lawyer locally by just visiting offices. It was surprising the lawyer I went with didn’t even have any information on the internet. It shows how much business this great lawyer could be losing by simply not having his information posted online.
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Thanks man,i never heard about this tactic before.After i read this article i found out that i did not have my website optimized for mobile viewers and i changed it immediately.
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Google Places is definitely the place to be for local SEO but i won’t count out national or worldwide SEO for any business. I totally agree with kikikannibal that depending on the niche, some businesses will never show up and I don’t know if its something deliberately done by Google or if its just a SEO problem with the websites but it sure do happens.
If I have to guess I would say that its probably a SEO problem with the website. I would love to know if anyone here has any information that can help me understand why it happens.
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wow this is very a comprehensive post, good job Dennis.
My father has been very reluctant to use the internet on our roofing business but this blog helped a lot and now he is even nagging me to hurry up with our website.
well I have only myself to blame, i’m joking of course because it took me a year to convince him.
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Google Places seems to work differently for different areas, where I live most niches don’t come up on Google places even if there are businesses listed in them. What I have found is the larger niches, such as property and rent a car, seem to work fine, however with the smaller niches Google slips hotels into the categories, perhaps this is to help them come up. Thanks for sharing these factors.