You opened your brick-and-mortar business! Congratulations! Now you want to rank higher in local search results. Let’s talk about SEO, the process of optimizing your website for local searches.
Why is Local SEO Important
If your online business is your brick and mortar business, there’s good news and bad news for you. The good news is that there are thousands of local businesses competing for the attention of local customers. The bad news is that your location won’t do you any favors when it comes to mobile search engine optimization. We’re not saying that mobile SEO can’t work in brick and mortar locations, but it’s going to take a lot of work to boost your business’s presence online. However, there are numerous benefits for you as a brick and mortar business owner in using SEO to increase your business’s visibility in local search results. Here are just a few of those: The more traffic that comes to your website from local search engine results, the more you can reach your ideal customer base.
How to optimize your website for Local SEO
Local SEO focuses on improving visibility for your brick and mortar business locations. How do you do this? You must focus on the top three things that local SEO agencies recommend. Analyze Your Location Before you implement any SEO campaign, you have to first define where your business is located. You must use Google Map (through Google My Business) to get your location right. This will enable Google to know where your location is. In addition, you must use Google’s Local Guide to get the true picture of your location. For example, if you are selling a product in a mall, go to a page on Google Maps and click on the “Anchor Text” tab. This will show you the Local Guide text you should use to write the Local Guide text for the mall you’re in.
Ranking Your Website Higher in Google Maps
The Google Maps – Local section is one of the most popular sections of the Google search results, ranking after listings of nearby businesses. Therefore, if you want your business to be visible in this section, you need to optimize your website to rank better in the maps. Google Maps is one of the most effective digital marketing tools for small businesses. The Local section serves as a search engine result page for searching nearby businesses, allowing customers to find all kinds of types of local businesses, from movie theaters to repair shops. But, if your business is not listed on the Google Maps, it could be missing out on a lot of potential customers.
Factors that Impact Local SEO Rankings
There are several different factors that impact your ranking in local search results, which is the vast majority of search engine users. However, here are seven top factors that you need to know about to make your business local SEO relevant: Content that ranks on page one of local searches is actually what’s searched for when considering local search. Being ranked top in local search is a validation of your ranking, it’s not about how many clicks you get in your search results page (SERP). If you have a great location or a good experience for your visitor, the search engine could factor that in your ranking too. Search engine spiders need to crawl your website to know about it. It’s important to keep your site up to date with the latest technology, so that you’re crawling well.
Tips for Increasing Your Rankings
SEO isn’t easy. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. The best way to make it work is by following these tips: Create an XML sitemap for your local business listing. A sitemap is a complete list of all the URLs, including your business’s homepage. It’s important to make it available so Google can find it easily. For more details, check out How to Create an XML Sitemap for Your Brick and Mortar Business. Use Google My Business. The benefits of Google My Business are many. The first being that it gives you a means of building your list of customers. For example, in order to have a Google My Business listing, you have to be a retailer or an organization. This is a great way to track the number of visitors you have to your business location.
Conclusion
This is one of the best examples of how you can take a local SME and turn them into a global company overnight.
