Local SEO has become increasingly more important for businesses of all sizes and with relativity small amount investment you can ensure your business achieves more search engine visibility.
Local SEO is much easier to achieve compared to a national or international approach as the keywords are targeted which makes them less competitive. With this mind, AddPeople the digital marketing specialist have listed 4 top tips to help you get started on your local approach.
Make Your Mark on the Map!
Getting listed on Google maps is the first step to local success. The listing is free and will allow people who are searching on Google and Google maps to see the details of your business. Make sure you fill out as much information as possible and include a link to your website as this will hopefully drive relevant traffic. Your Google listing will also allow customer to leave reviews so encourage happy clients to add their positive experience to your listing.
It’s not all about Google
Google is not the only place users search for businesses. AddPeople recommend using other local directories such as yell and yelp as they tend to be popular so it is important to make sure that your business has a presence there too. It has also been proved that been listed in other local directories will help improve your Google places ranking!
Get involved locally
Business need to get involved with their local online community and contribute regularly to local websites and forums. This will show the search engines that your business is relevant to your local area and especially if you can manage to get some back links to your website however be careful not to participate in an spam link networks or communities as this could result in your website been penalised.
Read: How to Buy Backlinks for SEO
Join the mobile revolution…
According to a recent study by Google, 95% of smartphone owners use their device to search for local information. Business owners need to make sure that your website is mobile friendly so that the users can browse with ease and find all necessary information.
It is important to remember that users searching localised terms are much more likely to convert as often they are already in the area of the business they are searching for. Local SEO is vital part of every SEO strategy especially for small business owners as it gives them a chance to gain higher ranking then their international competitors in their local area.
What do you think? How to Success Local SEO? Please share your experience in comments
About guest blogger
This post written by Oliver Shiel who works in the marketing and communications sector for digital marketing specialist, Add People. Follow them on twitter @add_people for more information.
25 replies on “4 Steps to Local SEO Success”
Definitely Mobile revolution is most valid point !!
Hello Okto,
You said something on one of your points which i love; Do not depend on Google alone. There are alot of search directory out there that can give you some good amount of traffic as Google would do. As a blogger or webmaster, we need to diversify.
We truly need to follow the mobile trend by using a responsive theme or a mobile theme because the fact still remains that the mobile users is fast increasing by the day. Thanks for your lovely post, i love reading it. do have your self a good week ahead…
“Diversify” is the key! It is wise to not depend on one source when it comes to blogging business. And yes, the mobile trend is something to pay attention for us professional bloggers
Thanks for stopping by 🙂
I totally agree with getting local & mobile revolution; but bro I believe that its All about Google.. Organic traffic matters soo much; and specially who are part time bloggers, who don’t have much time to get socialized with their blog; they have to completely depend on the organic traffic, which mostly comes from Google! 🙂
Hi Okto,
I agree with you on this post of yours. Relying only on Google will not help you achieve all of your SEO-related goals. Also, making one’s site mobile friendly is actually a very simple thing to do, but I don’t understand why there are still many sites that overlook this little option. Some of my favorite sites I tried accessing via mobile (phone/tablet) have different or missing buttons which are normally available when I use my computer. I know it’s a small thing, but for the ones that are aiming to earn, getting their sites to be mobile friendly is very important.
Many phones and tablets are getting cheaper by the month, so more people can access your site even if they only use their mobile devices. There are a lot of plugins that can be used to make your site mobile friendly, so why not use them?
Hi Emily,
I do agree. Mobile users are growing fast in many part of the world. If we have chance to grab their visit, we should take it
Thanks for stopping by and commenting
Hi Zainil,
Good to see you again!
I think it’s safe bet to apply for white hat SEO technique on our blogs 🙂
Hi Oliver ,
Thanks for sharing the information , many things i find useful to me . I need to research more on Google Maps.
Cheers!
Hi Anurag,
Yes, mobile users are increasing day by day
Hi Shorya,
Thanks to Oliver for this post. It’s something new to me too.
Thanks for commenting and stopping by 🙂
Nice Post Oliver Shiel!
How about mentioning local businesses on your blog and websites and then let them know that you are highlighting them?
Hi Hassan,
Thanks to Oliver for this post. I am not sure mentioning local business will do much on SEO. I think it going to get better result for traffic purpose.
oh wow that’s really wonderful article to learn some unique post thing about Local SEO.
Glad to know you find it useful Christina
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HEY Okto, where is your subscription box !!
I think you should put a nice Subscription box
Hi Anurag,
Thanks for giving feedback. I get stuck with dual language concept thus if you are looking for free useful updates, I encourage you to be one of notordinaryblogger fb page fans. By doing that, you’ll get noticed for the updates with no extra cost
I am going to keep the concept though 🙂
HEY Okto than give me your Fb fan page link…. Also i have to say that FB fan page is nice but subscription box plays a vital role !!…. At the end you are the boss …. you have to choose 🙂
You can find it on middle right side bar
Ya sorry to bother you!! i got it !!
I also found interesting article at http://www.geoseo.net/every-keyword-is-a-campaign-local-seo/ which describes about local seo key phrases and online local marketing.
Hi louisa,
Thanks for adding new source about it 🙂
Louisa,yes, I agree with you that local keyword phrases draw more traffic to your site. I also used geoseo plugin, which gave my website more local keyword related pages
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