5 Ways to Kill it with Local Search
Despite the undeniable fact that your business website can be seen all over the world, it matters little if you are a local business who’s not present in Google Local search results. That’s where you bread gets buttered, and you really need to be visible locally.
Since 1 in 3 searches in Google is now local in intent, plus some 70 percent of searchers are for offline services, it’s clear this is of utmost importance to your business. There are a number of ways that you can start to dominate your local search results.
5 Tips for dominating your local search results
- Your Google+ Local Page – A Google+ local page for your business is a quick way to help your local search rankings. Not only does it help in indexing your pages nearly instantly, but it’s a practical aid for anyone looking to find you.
- Claim Your Citations – Citations are simply listings for your business on search engines and within social media. This can be on Facebook, Google, Bing, Yelp, and FourSquare, in addition to many other sites. Claim your listings on these websites for the links and direct traffic they provide.
- Reviews – Reviews are great not only for social proof, but also for boosting your ranking in the Google local search results. Getting reviews to your Google+ local page is one of the biggest things you can do. Ask your customers for reviews and offer them a link to where they can leave it.
- NAP – This is an acronym for name address and phone number, and is a critical piece of your local optimization. Citations including this information are worth more, both in Google’s eyes and in practical terms.
- Mobile – Since three out of four mobile searches result in follow-up actions like a store visit, social share, phone call or word of mouth recommendation, it’s important your site is optimized for mobile, so that you can be where all your customers are any time of the day or night!