Local SEO is important for all types of businesses. This is including, but certainly not limited to, small businesses as well as businesses operating on a national, and even international level.If your local SEO is fully optimised, it will lead to more website traffic, leads and sales conversions of local customers. This is because local SEO is a focused strategy, targeting local customers. This allows smaller businesses to compete against larger businesses from a foot traffic level.
Below are our top 3 ways you can optimise your local SEO:
Make sure you have a Google My Business (GMB) Listing
Having an optimised GMB listing is essential for ranking higher not only just on Google Maps but also to gain visibility on Google Search results too. There are a few ways to ensure that your GMB profile is optimised to the fullest such as:
Verify ownership of the business
Provide accurate and up-to-date information
Include your logo, hours of operation, acceptable payment methods, the product or service you sell, and plenty of images
Encourage your customers to review your business online
Respond sincerely to customer reviews
Publish posts (announcing products, events, and special offers) to your Business Profile using the Google My Business dashboard.
2. Reviews, reviews, reviews
I can’t stress the importance of reviews enough. Reviews can create brand loyalty, as well as persuade new customers to buy from your business.Whether you receive negative or positive reviews, ensure that you respond to them. In order to create a sense of trust and care for your customers and potential customers too.
Voice search is steadily becoming a more popular way of searching online. This meas that you must ensure that your local SEO is optimised for natural language and a more conversational tone.The best way to do this is to use more long-tail keywords in your content, rather than short-tail keywords which are more useful for typed searching.Answers should also incorporate quick and helpful sentences, with information readily available, rather than long-winded explanations.