If you have a brick and mortar or you serve a specific geographic region, you will want to prioritize ranking high on Local Search. Ranking high on local searches (searches where people specify “near me” or searches where Google assumes proximity is important like searches for food, stores, gyms, car rentals, etc.) is a matter of being in the right place at the right time with the right strategy. Being close to the searcher is not enough; Google must know you’re close to the searcher and believe your business meets the searcher’s needs. Here are some ways to make sure your business comes up when people are ready to use it the most:
- Make sure your Google Business Profile is completely and accurately filled out. Look at every section from the perspective of a local customer. Make sure people can find everything they need to know (location, hours, product or service details) to decide whether and when to stop by in person or contact you. Make sure you’re using relevant keywords and tailoring your information to your ideal customers. Steer clear of keyword stuffing or any other violations of Google’s rules/terms of service, as they will penalize you.
- Add local content to your website. You should always provide useful, relevant content; that’s the number one rule of organic search strategy. But if you want to rank high in local search, you should be creating content with your local audience in mind. Presumably, you have a good handle on who you’re trying to reach; target your content specifically to those people. Do a keyword analysis on your local competition to discover what keywords are ranking and what content is missing. Fill the content gaps while making sure you include the important things your competition is including. Make sure your hours, location, and contact information are prominently displayed on your website. If you have more than one location, build a landing page for each one.
- Be aware of your reviews. Three kinds of reviews matter: reviews you solicit and place on your own website, reviews people leave on your Google Business Profile, and reviews people leave on third party sites like Yelp. Google takes a lot of things into account when determining what kind of reviews matter most, but you should aim for having recent reviews from several different people in at least two of those three places. Quality is more important than quantity; if you have two people leaving you dozens of reviews, your score can be negatively affected. Unfortunately, other people leaving spammy or fake bad reviews can lower your score as much as genuine bad reviews, so get the good reviews when you can. When customers or clients are happy with your work, you should ask them directly to leave reviews. Make it easy for them by providing a QR code or a form to fill out. If you make it hard for them, they will not do it. It probably goes without say, but it’s important to strive for delivering excellent customer service all the time. For more information on combating fake/spam reviews, see next week’s post.
- Add local thinking to your link building strategy. If you’ve been working on your organic search for a while, you already know the importance of link building. For local search, you need to work with other businesses and organizations near you to make sure the search engines see you as an integral part of your local community. Add links for professional organizations, Chambers of Commerce, and other local groups you’re part of (ask to be linked to on their websites as well). Partner with or volunteer at local nonprofits and link to one another’s sites (often, this is part of the recognition nonprofit organizations offer for event sponsorship). Engage in traditional PR and send press releases to local news outlets with links to your website. Write a guest post on another local business’s blog with a link to your site. Get yourself listed in local guides with NAP citations (name, address, phone number). On an related note, pay attention to your internal linking. Make sure your links aren’t broken and your site’s architecture makes sense. Use descriptive anchor text (example: “click here to learn about Local Search” rather than just “Click here.”
- Finally, keep up your regular SEO activities, but be mindful of local considerations while doing it. Google is never going to prioritize a site that doesn’t have relevant, useful content or a site with terrible architecture, no tags, and broken links. Their job is to deliver what the person searching wants to see, so your primary responsibility is to be what your customer wants to see.
Substance and Style 