Be it man on the street or company with hundreds of offices, local search is important to all. But ever since Google’s Pigeon update rolled out in 2014, local search as we knew it transformed significantly. These changes made local businesses think that ranking on top Google pages now requires rocket science techniques. However, this is not true. The formula to succeed in local SEO has changed but not completely.
Our team of local ranking specialists has gathered points that will help you in evolving local SEO strategy that will bring your business in the forefront of Google search results in 2015.
So, let’s get down to business, and discuss some handy SEO tips & techniques for super local search strategy:
Before you begin experimenting with local SEO techniques, you should have a strategy. And to formulate the right strategy, you must count your strengths and discover hidden weaknesses. Conduct a local SEO audit to discover website issues related to UX, Meta details, content, URL structure, and navigation. Also check if your online business assets like social media profiles, business pages, and listings are optimized correctly or not.
Get your local SEO Audit done for FREE
You must be like, ‘okay, I’ve heard that one before’. But just listing your business on lots of business directories is not part of effective local SEO strategy. The trick is to get your business listed with the most relevant local business listing sites.
Most will say ‘list your business on Google Local, Yelp, Bing Places, or Facebook for Business’. That’s fine but more critical is to list your business with business directories that have strong presence in your geographic area and industry. And that’s exactly what most businesses overlook.
Certainly, your best option here is to run a PPC campaign on Google AdWords. Other options include Bing ads, BuySellAds, and AdRoll. To generate local business mileage from Pay-per-click marketing and advertising, you need to give special attention to keywords. You can begin with targeting three keyword types – brand name, product/service, and location.
Learn how to run paid search campaigns successfully
Blogging feeds the craving that today’s internet savvy generation has for information. Opportunely, it also feeds web crawlers and improves search engine ranking. Blog regularly, remain relevant, and get visibility on search results. But plain blogging is not the best local SEO tip.
Before you begin, make up your mind for the groundwork required. For instance, market research to understand the needs of target audience, building email list, cataloging information, keyword research and paraphrasing the content in compliance with Google norms.
Your target audience is present on social media, and that makes leveraging it crucial for your local SEO plan 2015. With active presence on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Instagram and other popular social media platforms, you will have more channels to engage your audience.
Social media sites have high domain authority, which eventually improves your visibility on the search results. Plus, in contrast to the traditional email marketing, social media marketing is more engaging.
As a website owner, you must have come across suggestions like ‘each and every page on your website should have unique title tags and meta descriptions’. Assuming that part to be covered, the next thing is to optimize title tags and Meta descriptions.
Here again, it comes down to appropriate keyword usage. The approach we recommend is: a) optimize the title tag for both users and search engines, and b) make the Meta description informative for users but don’t forget to add your most important keyword in it.
We accept that local SEO tips mentioned in this section are a bit technical. If terms like Meta details and schema markups make little sense to you, then, take assistance of an expert SEO firm.
Local business and mobile search go hand in hand. Considering the same, Google rolled out its algorithm for mobile search results a few weeks ago. The so-called “Mobilegeddon” update will show only mobile friendly sites on Google’s mobile searches.
So in the post-mobilegeddon era, a responsive website isn’t just an option for local businesses but an obligation. In addition to responsive design, you also need to optimize your website for mobile devices, since mobile-friendliness is also a ranking factor.
Acting upon above listed local SEO tips & strategies isn’t hard but businesses often overlook them. In a way, these techniques are like eating healthy, sleeping properly and exercising regularly – you know you should do it, but adding them to your day routine seems hard. But if you gotta stay healthy (achieve more visibility), you gotta follow through.
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Shalini is the artistic genius of FATbit and her nameplate reads ‘Content Lead’. She helps our team in presenting boring web development and marketing concepts in interesting blog posts. Shalini decided to make a career in conveying ideas through words after doing Post Graduation in Journalism and Mass Communication. If she is not at her system working on detailed blog posts, you will find her brainstorming with team members or fixing a cup of green tea. Shalini can tell you exactly what type of content can get you the eyeballs on social media and how to pitch products to millennial shoppers. In case you are hungry, her bag has an unending supply of cookies. Her superpower is weaving magic with words. You can connect with her over Twitter @ShaliniREAL
Comments (14)
Victoria
FATbit Chef
srisathvika
Aman
FATbit Chef
Robin Khokhar
FATbit Chef
freya
Stacy Stone
FATbit Chef
Ivan Palii
FATbit Chef
Rohit thakur
FATbit Chef
Great article thank you! I started to pay attention to SEO recently, even small things like google local business helps so much! I would love to know more about SEO, and how to optimize my business to be found.
Hello Victoria,
Thanks for appreciating the article. Yes, paying attention to local SEO can do wonders for local businesses.
Links to few useful and interesting articles:
https://www.fatbit.com/fab/reduce-high-exit-rate-bounce-rate-engage-convert/
https://www.fatbit.com/fab/6-crucial-page-seo-tags-rank-high-google-2015/
https://www.fatbit.com/fab/better-rank-online-store-google-seo-case-study/
Keep coming back for more such informational articles on SEO.
If you have queries please GET IN TOUCH
Cheers,
Shalini
Nice article about local seo strategy. strategy is important for every business to lead success. Thanks for sharing.
Great details and tips ,a great help for my upcoming project…. Thanks
Hello Aman,
Thanks for your appreciation. Keep coming back for more such interesting posts to boost your venture.
Cheers
Hi Shalini,
Amazing post, One should follow the above points you have shared to get some good results.
Thanks for sharing.
Hello Robin,
Thanks for appreciating the post.
Cheers
Awesome tips of local seo..
I am really appreciating you such a great information about improving search engine visibility..
Thanks for sharing..!!
I am really impress with you for the selecting of new and unique topic and also well written article on it. Thanks for sharing with us.
Thanks for the appreciation Stacy!
Glad you liked the post.
Keep coming back for more posts on SEO and web world.
Cheers 🙂
Great structured and useful overview, Shalini. Thanks for a lot. I’ve tried some of those strategies. Some add to my wishlist.
And I also want suggest two our internal instruments, which most of our colleagues love to use every day.
– Free on page seo checker – sitecheker.pro
– Free keyword suggestion and research tool – kparser.com
I’ll be happy to know you opinion about that tools.
Thanks Ivan!
Glad to know that it helped. About my opinion on sitecheker and kparser, I may be able to give that after an analysis, both are new to me. But for keyword research, I would suggest Moz’s Keyword Explorer, Google keyword planner, SEMrush. These are the best tools for any SEO company.
Nice Article!!
Thank you!
Regards
Team FATbit.