But, one of the single most important things that you can do to tap into a really important audience group is to optimize your business for local listings. If your business has a physical address, no matter the industry, you need to make sure you’re tapping into the power of local listings.
Why Local Listing SEO is so Powerful
Essentially, when you search for a business type on Google, the search engine automatically presents local options to you first. This is especially true if a city, town, or keyword such as “near me” is used in the search query.
The opportunity here is massive. Four out of five consumers use Google to find local options for various businesses and services. So, if you’re not fine-tuning your online presence to be seen at the top of those searches, you’re missing out.
How to Optimize Your Business for Google Local Listings
There are a few steps that are important to take to optimize your business for local listings. We’ve outlined a few below.
1. Set up an account with Google My Business. More on that in our next section - it’s that important!
2. Make sure your name, address, and phone number are included as HTML text on your website (so search engines can read them!). Don’t include a photo with your address on it. It must be text! Usually, businesses put this info in their footers or headers.
3. Create content geared toward locals. Generic, informational content is great, too, but to improve local SEO, you’ll want to create content about your area.
4. Make sure your website is optimized for mobile use. This is a general SEO tip, but is super important for local listings. Most users first search for local listings while out on their smartphones. Think of when you’ve searched for a coffee shop while out and about!
5. Make sure your info is correct on all other digital listing services (think: Yelp).
6. Follow all of our original SEO strategies. Some of these include site infrastructure, meta descriptions, URL slugs, tags, and keywords.
Your Single Most Important Tool: Google My Business
The single most important tool you can use to rank higher for local search results is to create and optimize your page in Google My Business (GMB).
GMB is free for any business to use. All you have to do is create an account and fill in your business information as you want it to appear on Google.
From there, you’ll want to create posts within your business page, and encourage customers to share reviews of their experiences. This tells Google that your business is legitimate AND that you authentically engage with your customers - two factors that Google likes to reward.
Another great perk of GMB is that you’ll have analytics automatically delivered to your inbox so you can see what your customers are engaging with on your profile and how they’re typically finding your page.
Once you’ve set this page up within GMB, your business can appear in search in places like:
- Google SERPs
- Google Maps suggestions
- Google Local Pack (the three listings that automatically appear when someone searches for a business type in a specific area i.e. “hair salons in San Diego”
Optimizing for local listings is a relatively simple step you can take to reap great rewards. Most consumers like the thought of interacting with local companies, so tapping into your local customer base is a no-brainer.
For help with local SEO and content geared toward your local customer base, reach out to us at Deal Digital. We can help you become the go-to business for your area.