You’ve probably heard that SEO is important (and it is), but how much do you know about local SEO? Local SEO is the way that your business is found in your local market. For example, if you are a web design company in Washington, DC (and we are), our goal is to rank highly in the search engine results for our local market. So what does a company need to do to get some local SEO love? Here are 5 ways your business can crush it in local search.
Claim your Google Business Listing
This is the most important step you can take toward improving SEO in your local market. Obtaining a Google Business Listing is free and easy to do. Simply go to the Google My Business page, sign up and fill in your local business information. You’ll receive a physical postcard in the mail 1-2 weeks later with steps to finalize your listing process. If you can optimize enough to show up in the “Golden Three” on Google Maps.. you’re golden!
3Circle Media is in the coveted #1 spot for the term “DC website design.”
Reviews matter – a LOT
Does your business have a Yelp page or another online review site? If not, you need to set these up today. Online reviews are crucial to local SEO and positive reviews also help with customer click-through rate. One caveat though, make sure that your reviews are staggered and don’t show up all at once. Google is onto this game and lumping reviews together at once can actually hurt your search results.
Make sure your Name, Address and Phone (NAP) are consistent in citations
This seems like a nit-picky detail but it really does have an impact on local search results. According to Moz, “citation consistency… is one of the most important local search ranking factors.” What does this mean? Your business name, address and phone number should be consistent across all of the directories you are listed in and also on your website. For example, if any of your business information has changed over the years, you need to make sure and update the information on local directories and on your site.
Buddy up with other local businesses
Backlinks are another key factor when it comes to local search. A backlink is simply a link from another website to your website. Do you have good relationships with other businesses in your space? If so, then it’s great to list them on your website and ask them to reciprocate the link love. A little back linking between business friends can go a long way to helping you both in local search results.
Content, content and more content
As with global SEO, content is a big local SEO ranking factor. As we’ve said numerous time, Google loves fresh content, and content written for your local market to your target customer can give your SEO a huge boost.
3Circle Media offers several local SEO packages to help your business crush it in local search. Contact us for a free quote
