25 Apr Five SEO Tips for Improving Your Local Rankings

46% of all Google searches seek local information. This implies that you have to optimize your business for local search to help prospective local clients find you. Read on for five SEO tips to improve your local rankings.

1. Optimize for Google My Business

Google My Business is the most crucial part of your business’s local SEO strategy. This tool enables Google to verify content to ascertain that your business meets user needs. The tool helps you develop free business listings to help you gain visibility on search results and rank on Google maps. Mitch Olchy from SEO Sydney suggests that the biggest benefit that comes from keeping your GMB listing up to date is added trust and another point of contact with prospective customers.

To optimize your company for Google My Business, you should:

• Create and verify your Google My Business account
• Use the Google My Business dashboard to upload content to your business profile
• Respond to customer reviews
• Hire a blogger outreach service

Contact PWD SEO Perth experts to help you optimize your Google My Business to ascertain that your company is set for long-term success.

2. Ensure Your NAP Is Consistent

Your NAP, Name, Address, and Phone number make it easy for search engines and target customers to find you. You should ensure that this information is displayed on your site to allow customers to access the data easily.

You could display your NAP on the footer or header to enable the information to appear on each page. Alternatively, link the information on the Google Map or display it on the contact page or service area pages.

However, ensure that your name, address, and phone number are consistent anywhere prospective customers may find you, or search engines may be using the information for comparison to guarantee accuracy. This enables bots and crawlers to link the dots between your website, Google Business Profile, and local citations through the internet.

3. Collect More Customer Reviews

Receiving positive reviews from happy clients on Facebook, Foursquare, Yelp, and Google optimizes your presence on Google My Business and triggers local clients to purchase from you. According to BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Survey, 85% of consumers trust online reviews and testimonials as much as recommendations from family, friends, and colleagues.

Below are tips for getting more customers to leave reviews:

• Request for reviews in person after closing a sale
• Offer incentives for clients to leave reviews
• Respond to reviews honestly and promptly
• Provide quality products and services that give clients a reason to leave a review

4. Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly

Did you know that 61% of Google searches are conducted via mobile phones? Google also rewards ranking priority to mobile over desktop, so you have to ascertain your website is mobile-responsive. You should ensure that the site loads quickly on mobile phones to improve user experience and avoid losing clients to the competition.

The following are ways of improving your mobile website speed:

• Use Google’s mobile-friendly tool to test your website
• Compress your website images
• Eliminate bad requests and 404 errors
• Reduce the number of add-ons and plugins
• Minimize DNS lookups
• Enable AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)
• Monitor your website speed regularly and make the necessary adjustments

5. Create Local Content

While creating content around general topics may appeal to a larger audience, you should hone your focus and develop content related to your local audience. This will grab the local client’s attention and improve your local ranking.

Be sure to:

• Create blog posts that revolve around the local news, activities, stories, and events
• Develop location-specific website pages with stellar content if you intend to serve clients from different geographical regions
• Create audio and video content about local courses and charities your company supports.

Endnote

A robust local SEO strategy can mean the difference between winning or losing prospective clients to the competition. Implement the above SEO strategies to improve your local rankings, attract more customers and increase your sales volume.