With Google’s significant updates in local search history a few years back, SEO experts had to think of a complete head-to-toe transformation of their strategies and performance indicators. As Google wanted to make its experience more user-friendly, its focus shifted from a highly informative to a more convenient and easier to navigate search result experience.
Such a transformation not just seemed logical but also much-wanted, considering the increasing trend of focusing on user preferences. However, from the point of view of businesses, the dramatic decrease in search results from 7 earlier to 3 now brought in disappointment and greater competition.
With the changes have become permanent, business owners must now seek assured ways of appearing on Google map results. While the ideal way for a local business in your city would be to take expert help from a professional local SEO agency London, we have compiled a list of tips, hacks and suggestions on how to use local SEO to your advantage and rank on Google Maps, people also ask search results.
Tip 1: Have a Physical Address in the Target Location
The first step towards ranking for a location that you want is to have your website optimised locally for that location. Make sure that you offer a physical address in that location, with your premises being located within or as close as possible to that area.
This is because unless you have a physical connection to the area, Google will not reflect your website in its search results. You can add your address to Google manually, and it would start reflecting on the platform within a few hours or days at maximum.
Tip 2: Use Google My Business (GMB) to Your Advantage
Ever since Google made such important updates to its SERP and business optimisation, it has also increased the relevance of GMB for businesses on the web. Any information you add to GMB will have a direct impact on search queries and results across Google Search, Google Maps, and so on, irrespective of what device is being used.
Therefore, you must ensure that your GMB profile is properly optimised for the best local SEO performance. For this, you must fill out all information accurately and completely with the latest information. Make sure this information is consistent throughout your website, social media pages and GMB. Also, ensure that the location mentioned by you on your GMB profile is owner-verified.
The GMB landing page title should reflect the exact city or town you are targeting for local SEO, and the various categories listed must also reflect broader search queries by web users. The GMB website will itself guide you through the various details and information it requires from you for an optimised profile. Just go with the flow and fill in every piece of relevant information asked for.
Tip 3: Ensure that Your Website has a Map to the Location You Want to Rank for
Every website must have relevant contact details for obvious reasons. However, with these details, you should also make sure you provide the precise location of your business. This can be easily done by embedding a code in your webpage.
Some additional information besides the map location would go a long way in establishing greater impact and better local SEO performance. This includes opening and closing hours of your business, driving directions from significant landmarks to your premises, links for direct calling, email and website, as well as links to social media profiles or sharing options.
Tip 4: Make Sure that Different Business Locations Have Different Webpages
It is possible that your business has multiple branches or locations in different towns, cities or even countries. Make sure you create separate web pages for each such location, with each website optimised for the specific location it is targeting in the ways mentioned above.
Tip 5: Use Citations Well
An often-ignored aspect by businesses when establishing an online presence and trying to rank on local SEOs is that of citations. Ideally, your business must be listed in the major global and regional directories, along with the local directories of your target location. Such citations provide a sense of credibility and authority to your business, website as well as its physical premises, helping drive useful traffic to your website.
However, there are a few points to keep in mind here. As you would be targeting multiple citation sources, make sure that the information you provide on them is consistent. This includes everything from address and website details to contact information, images, team, and so on.
Also, the best citations would be ones that come from trusted sources. It is pretty easy to surmise which these are, or you could take help from a professional local SEO agency for the same. Apart from these citations, you could also have your business featured in reputed newspapers, blogs and online magazines for maximum impact.
Especially if you are starting and do not have a high-performing, high-traffic website, getting more and more local listings can improve visibility to a considerable extent. The more locally relevant and industry-specific the listing, the more advantageous it could turn out for you.
Tip 6: Do not Compromise on Content Quality
Even local SEO pays equal stress on the content quality and uniqueness of your website, and not just the physical attributes of location and citations. Factors such as bounce rate, click-through rate and time spent on site are clear indicators of user experience, which comes directly from content quality and structure. Google pays special focus to this aspect.
Therefore, apart from the nitty-gritty of target location optimisation, also make sure that you have maintained an attractive, easy to navigate website and that is comfortable for the user on different kinds of devices.
At the same time, the website content should be highly relevant and informative. The more unique your content is, the better it will be for search engine rankings. Content quality can make or break the impact your website has on users, and thus on local search queries. Therefore, make sure you haven’t ignored this fact.
Wrapping Up
Local SEO has proved to be not just a significant but also a transformative factor when it comes to helping local business owners stand out in the race to visibility and adoption. With Google’s new guidelines permanently in place, it is best to start paying attention to the requisites of local search engine optimisation for the best outcomes.