A Complete Guide to Local SEO

How to Attract Local Customers: A Complete Guide to Local SEO

Most people don’t know that there are really two types of search: global search and local search. You use Google (or your favorite search engine) for them both, the search engine just uses different algorithms to show you what it thinks you want.

Global search is related to everyone on the internet. These are the pages that come up when you search for “the best type of dog” or “headphone reviews”. If you’re looking to rank here, check out these 75 tips.

Local search is when you’re looking for things within a specific geographical area. This would include searches like “restaurants in Chicago” or “furnace repair in Albany”. If you own a local business and trying to attract local customers, you’ll need to do some things that will help your local SEO.

Here’s how to tackle your local SEO.

Google My Business Page

This is the most important part of the process. Every business has a Google My Business page, and you need to claim yours. This was previously called Google Places.

When you google a local business, Google uses these listings to display the local results on map next to your search results. You need to claim this to get the best and most accurate exposure. If you don’t, your hours could be wrong, website not listed, or you may not be there at all.

To claim your Google My Business Listing you just need to visit Google My Business and follow the steps.

• Fill out all the fields when you claim your listing. Google will use all this information in its search results, so the more you give them, the more accurate the results will be.
• Update your hours so they’re correct. Google will now flat out tell people whether you’re open or closed when they google you. If your hours are wrong, you could be missing out on business because people think you’re closed.
• Add photos and videos. This will allow people to see inside your business and really get a feel for what it’s like. It can be the extra nudge people need to stop in.
• List Your Business Consistently

If you list your business name, address and phone number in various places, try to always list them consistently. This is called your NAP (name, address, and phone).

When search engine experts look at how local business is ranked, one of the most important factors was consistency in NAP. This may sound like a no-brainer, but several marketing companies (phone book directories, local advertisers) will give you a tracking phone number to show you how well their ad works. Having a separate phone number for each ad will penalize you in search.

If your business is listed in several online directories or local websites, just ensure your NAP is consistent across all them. Simply emailing the owner of the page to list it the way you want should work. Most of them will have no problem.

Local Link Building

Building local links within your community will greatly help your local SEO rank. It will give you that much desired local page authority that Google values highly. It will help push your website to the top of the list.

It’s not always easy to build local links, though. There are plenty of valuable links that money can’t buy, and you’ll need to work at getting them.

Here are a few ways to build local links:

• Contests. Run local contests. People love free stuff and will link to your pages to share the information.
• Best of Nomination. Most local communities have some kind of top business people, or “best of” contest put on by a local newspaper or website. Get your business in on the voting. It’s all about the backlinks, but winning is a nice perk.
• Get in the News. Any type of story you can get on the news websites that links back to you is golden. Do something newsworthy. Create controversy. Help the poor. Do something amazing. Anything you can do to get stories about your business will help.
• Host Community Event. Not only will this help your business in general, the backlinks you’ll get from posting it online and in meetup classifieds will help.
• Sponsor Local Clubs. Most local clubs and sports teams have a website. They’ll almost certainly list you on it if you sponsor them. It also builds community goodwill.
• Work with Other Businesses. Working with the competition may be tough, but trying to partner up with most other businesses will work well. Create a page on your site that recommends other local businesses and ask them to do the same.

Local links won’t just help you in search, you’ll also get traffic from these links. There’s no harm in getting more and more people to your company’s blog. Most local SEO strategies will help you in more than one way, and this is a prime example.

Local Keywords

When you’re writing the copy for your website, try to keep the keywords centered around your town or city. You’ll want google to be very clear about where you’re located, as most people search for local things by including the city name.

There are a few important places you’ll want to make sure you include the name of the city you’re in along with your main keyword:

• Title of the site. This is done via the title tag.
• Your domain and URL.
• H1 Tags on your homepage.

Don’t do keyword stuffing on your website. This tactic doesn’t work as well as it used to. Most people will turn away from pages that read like they were written by robots.

Local Reviews

Reviews matter. You’ll want to solicit them as often as you can.

There are three major places that you should be looking to get reviews: Google business page, Facebook page, and Yelp. These are the three most common places reviews will be looked at. If you’re ranking well with good reviews, you’ll find it helps you attract business, and hopefully, they’ll leave a good review as well.

Ask your past/current customer base if they wouldn’t mind leaving a review. Most of the time if they’ve had a good experience they won’t mind. Especially if these are people who keep coming back.

You can also ask any current shoppers to leave a review. Simply putting a nice thank you note onto their invoice that asks them to leave a review if they enjoyed themselves. Not everyone will, but the ones you do get should be fairly positive. After all, they liked you enough to make a purchase.

Social Media

The value of social media is well known at this point. Using it in local business has many benefits. The most obvious, it allows you connect directly with a local audience.

Where it also can help is by connecting you to local influencers. These are the popular social media and blogging people in your community. A link back from them can do wonders for your local SEO. Don’t spam influencers, but include them in anything cool you’re doing. See if you can form partnerships where you can work together.

Social media will work together with most of the strategies above. You can use it to solicit reviews, get the word out about contests, create that newsworthy story and work on local links.

Local SEO requires a bit more work in the real world than global search does. As impersonal as the computer can be, those real world relationships can make a big difference in your local SEO.

If you’re well established, using the best practices above will only help you dominate even more.
More info on my Google+

Read More

Google My Business vs Google Plus. What’s the difference?

This guide will help you understand not only how these two are different, but how you can use them to your advantage.

Google has far more products and services now than anyone could have predicted in its search engine infancy. But with so many options available, it may start to become unclear what each one is for, or at the very least, how the services differ from one another. Between Google Plus and Google my Business, marketers may not realize that the services differ in value depending on the company that uses them.

“With Google+, you can share links, videos, pictures, and other content with people who share your interests. And you can see what other people have shared in your stream. You can always choose who you share with.” – Description found on Google+ Help.

The search giant's social network is increasingly integrated with the entire Google ecosystem, from search to Maps to YouTube. Engaging with Google+ isn't just a way to share updates and deals with your customers; it's also the best way to ensure they find your business in the first place.

Getting on Google+ will help Google's Web crawlers index your site, leading to higher placement during a Web search. It will also ensure that customers get the right information when they search for your business on Google.

But getting started on Google+ can be confusing, especially if your brand is already juggling a Facebook page, Twitter account and profiles on other social networks . Read on to learn how to make the most of Google+ to promote and grow your business.

What is Google+ Local?

Google+ Business, Google+ Local, Google Places — these are all platforms launched by Google in the past few years to help customers find local businesses. The tech giant hasn't made it easy for business owners to distinguish between each platform.

So, before we get to the nitty-gritty of using Google+ for promotion, a little explanation is needed.

Google+ launched in 2011 as a social media platform for individual users, with personal profiles that function just like Facebook profiles. Later, Google launched Google+ Business, which let businesses and brands get their own Google+ profile — just like Facebook Pages for businesses.

Google+ Business users can share status updates, photos, videos and more, just as business owners can do on their brand's Facebook page.

Around the same time, Google launched another service called Google Places, which consists of pages displaying your business's location, contact information and consumer reviews. If you want your business to be listed in Google's Web search results and to show up on Google Maps, sign up for Google Places.

Here's where it gets complicated.

Google Places still exists in name, but it was integrated with Google+ Business this fall under a new name: Google+ Local.

You can still sign up for Google Places. Doing so (and verifying that you are actually the owner) will still allow you to create a basic local listing for your business. When users search for local businesses on Google or Google Maps, they can still navigate to your business's Places page, which now appears as a basic Google+ page — even if you never signed up for Google+.

But signing up for Google+ Business can have big benefits. Doing so will activate social functionality on your business's profile, allowing you to share updates, deals, photos and videos. It's also the only way to customize your profile with personal touches, like a custom banner image.

Google recommends that you sign up for Google Places first to create a basic local listing for your business. Once the listing is up, you can easily activate Google+ social features in your account settings.

“Google My Business connects you directly with customers, whether they’re looking for you on Search, Maps or Google+” – Description found on the Official Google my Business Page

Brent Carnduff described it as “as the interface between you and Google local search activity.” In short, Google my Business is your online dashboard for your business. It shows you different channels that define your business on Google.

The first thing you’ll notice after setting up your company on Google my Business is Google’s location feature. Usually, when you look up a business on their search engine, you’ll see a range of information in a neat card on the right-hand side. As you can see, it includes the business name, photos, a map, reviews, contact details, and operating hours. This gives visitors more information, and assures them on the reputability of the business.

All of this can be managed in Google my Business. You can choose which details to share, and which photos visitors will see. Once you create a location, Google will send you a verification postcard in 4 days to confirm that the location is real. Once you input the code from that postcard, Google will list your location on their search engine.
In addition, Google My Business gives you key data with Insights and Reviews. Insights shows how many views, clicks, and followers your website may get, while reviews show a deeper form of engagement, the written testimonials of real customers accompanied with a star rating.

Lastly, Google my Business gives you the option of accessing your business’s Google Plus and Analytics account. Here you can manage your presence on Google’s social network, and yield important data on who your visitors are, and how they interact with your website.

Why you should care

Studies have shown that nearly all consumers use the Web to search for local businesses. Overall, 20 percent of Web searches have local intent, and that number jumps to 40 percent for mobile searches, according to Google.

If you want your business to be in the mix, you have to take action. The more you engage with Google's Web ecosystem, the more visibility your business will have in two different types of Google searches. A standard Google Web search will be more likely to position your business close to the top of the search results if you are actively engaged. Google+ Local pages are automatically shown when Google knows a search has local intent. Consumers can also seek out businesses by searching within Google+ itself. A local search on Google's social network will return only Google+ Local pages, so your page doesn't have to compete with traditional websites and ads that appear in a regular Web search.

The process Google uses to rank pages in a Web search is complex and beyond the scope of this article. But know that the more complete and appealing your business's Google+ page is, the more relevant it will appear to Google, and the higher it will likely rank.

It's easy to see why it's so important for small businesses to get on Google+, but what about social engagement?

Sharing updates, photos and videos can also improve your business's search status. The more information you share, the faster your content is likely to be indexed by Google.

If you're hesitant to engage, consider this: Every Internet user with a basic account for Gmail, YouTube or any other Google Web service already has a Google+ page. Even if most people prefer Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, Google's social network is huge and growing.

As Google+ becomes the de facto home for business on Google, your business's profile is quickly becoming the landing page that will determine whether a potential customer becomes a real one. If your page is updated frequently with news, deals, appealing photographs and positive reviews, it's almost guaranteed to drive sales.

And users are much more likely to "follow" (or subscribe to) a frequently updated page, so they will be alerted to your updates every time they visit Google.com.

Frequent updates will also encourage users to share your content, which could land your latest post on the What's Hot tab, now accessible from every Google+ profile. If your business is featured in What's Hot, it could drive more followers and more sales.

What’s the difference?

Due to the various changes both Google Plus and Google my Business have undergone, it’s perfectly normal to be confused with the purpose of each one. What is the difference between them, and what purpose does each one serve?

Dashboard v. Social

Try to look at it this way: think of your business as a fancy dinner or a birthday party. Google my Business is everything to do with how people find your party and how they get there. Google+ is about the actual party itself, and what kind of things people talk about when they’re there. Google my Business is a dashboard- it allows you to see different kinds of information that relates to how your business is found on Google. Google+ is a social network, that allows you to more closely connect with your visitors online.

Plus as Part of Business

In other words, Google+ is just one aspect of Google my Business, which contains a number of other features. While Google+ is its own thing, Google my Business allows you to link your accounts together, furthering the point that Business acts as a dashboard for your business online.

More info on my Google+

Read More