Tag: Local SEO
The Basics on Google Local Algorithm
Being at the top of Google search results page has been one of the goals of various businesses ever since the advent of the search engine giant. Landing the top ranking spot can help draw traffic to your page and increase the effectiveness of your website. Many have tried to breakdown the factors that affect Google ranking and a study in 2016 has made an analysis of the various factors that Google use in its rankings. The study determined which of the different factors correlate either positively or negatively with local rankings in the Google search results page. This study is very helpful in guiding businesses when prioritizing for their local SEO plans. Read also: Google Maps Marketing: Guides On How To Boost Brand Advantage The Factors that Affect Google Rankings 1. Website The use of keywords and the number of words on a page actually have a huge impact on the rankings. Location pages with a lot of information written have a tendency to fare better than those with less content. Put quality information on your website on different broad topics to help draw traffic towards your site. Crafting a quality small business website design is crucial from the start and best to hire a professional. 2. Links Backlinks affect your local rankings. In fact, it has the most positive correlation with good rankings. The infamous Toolbar PageRank is no longer a current tool but there are many other tools similar to the toolbar that can gauge the quality of a site. The study has shown that sites with older links are doing better than the newer ones. 3. Google My Business Having good reviews and verified information about your business, as well as photos of your location and products, all contributed to stronger rankings. It can be due to the reliable information that these sites have attracted more interaction with the searchers. Therefore, make sure that in every channel you have, you put in their the basic information about your business. Lastly, revamp your Google My Business pages because it also helps immensely in supplying information. 4. Citations One of the surprising findings of the study is that citations did not seem to correlate with positive local rankings. However, the researchers have pointed out that citations do help if the business or website is at its foundation stage. But once the groundwork has been laid down and all the citations have been made, further citing will not make any difference. 5. Surprises The study had a huge surprise when the researchers found out that the “City & State” information in the Google My Business page does not have any correlation with positive ranking. Therefore, geotargeting should not be all the craze. Keywords, however, do help. Going Forward With Google & amp; The Search Engines Knowing what are the factors when Google ranks pages and which factor to prioritize will help you be more efficient and effective. In sum, if you are a new player in the business, lay down your citations as fast and as effectively as you can and then move on to getting backlinks, especially in competitive markets. Having your business have a solid SEO mechanism will help you entice a larger audience, promote your products effectively, and open your business to new opportunities. Read also: Avoid These 5 Mistakes Before Starting An SEO
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Improve Your Local SEO via Content Marketing
In 2016, a local business in Lethbridge, Alberta, won the viral lottery when a raving Facebook post drew in customers in flocks. Whitby's Fish and Chips shop was struggling for months due to poor location and expensive marketing. Owner John McMillan, who had been unable to pay himself a salary, shared his plight with a first-time customer Colin Ross. The meeting changed Whitbie’s destiny. Ross posted a Facebook review promoting the shop and urging the close-knit Canadian community to help out McMillan by trying the sumptuous items on Whitbie’s menu. The post went viral and sent people lining up from opening to well past closing time. According to a local news report, about 400 people visited the shop the day after Ross’s post, and 500 more lined up the next day. The power of digital marketing The viral post about Whitbie’s is a dream come true for any business. Not only did it provide the local shop exposure in local and international news outlets, but most importantly, it brought in real customers. Whitbie’s social media success is one of the products of digital marketing. Digital marketing is simply the promotion of products and services via digital technologies such as the Internet, mobile phones, and display advertising. One of the most popular digital marketing tools is social media where roughly a third of the global population actively interact. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a set of techniques that helps businesses and publishers maximize digital marketing in reaching out to their target audience. Essentially, its main goal is to rank high in search results pages. Google uses 200 signals in ranking webpages including keywords, the freshness of content, and region. It’s the job of a digital marketing agency to apply effective and ethical SEO strategies to sustain a business’ top ranking in major search engines. Local SEO and citation consistency If SEO is macro, local SEO is micro. Local SEO “allows local businesses to promote their services to local customers at exactly the time they’re looking for your type of business.” This set of processes aims to target real customers in a geographical location. Aside from search engines, local SEO uses online directories such as Yelp, Qype, and TouchLocal. The core of local SEO is information. Your citation or NAP (name, address and phone number) must be updated and consistent in all webpages and online directories. Inconsistency can adversely affect your ranking in organic search results. Try searching for your business in search engines. You’ll see which webpages still reflect your previous address or old phones. “The citation consistency of your business across the web helps search engines decide where you are geographically relevant for various local search queries,” wrote Sinclaire Dickinson, content strategist at Wired SEO. Read also: Methods Of Optimizing Local SEO That Is Essential For Small Business The 3-pack challenge Recently, SEO experts received news that would make their jobs a little more challenging. Google updated its search results to show three local businesses instead of seven. The business listings were also redesigned to suit the mobile user interface. According to Google, the update “provides people with more than relevant information, including photos, review, and prices, for searches that have multiple results for a given location.” The challenge lies in how to make into the first three results in the world’s most powerful search engine. Read also: Avoid These 5 Mistakes Before Starting An SEO Content strategies for your business Google’s ranking factors serve as a compass leading the best digital marketing tactics. Ross’ viral Facebook on Whitbie’s Fish and Chips shop has the formula every digital marketer aims to master: a unique content too appealing to influence action. Ross’ own reputation as an influencer within his own circle was also key. Content is one of the most important signals Google use in ranking webpages. In creating an article or video for your business, use Google’s content-related ranking signals as your guide. Your content must not only be original, but it should also provide value and unique insights. This increases demand for journalistic materials supported by data and written by experts. Create useful content for your target audience. Food brands are making 30-second cooking videos sharing how their products can be incorporated in easy-to-make meals. Regularly update your webpages and social media pages as Google takes note of the recency of content updates especially for time-sensitive searches. Read also: Social Media Marketing Role In Technology Don’ts in content marketing Do you need to hire an SEO expert or a digital marketing agency? Google warns that choosing an SEO expert partner is critical for your business as it can either improve your site or risk damage to your site and reputation. “Make sure to research the potential advantages as well as the damage that an irresponsible SEO can do to your site.” Some of the techniques that you or your SEO expert should avoid is producing duplicate materials on the same site, spinning words to create “new” content, and posting misleading information. Google advises to watch out for rogue SEOs that own shadow domains, place links to their other clients on doorway pages, and offer to sell keywords in the address bar. Shadow domains direct users to the website through deceptive redirects. Attaining a number 1 ranking on Google is not guaranteed. If your SEO promises a top spot, it’s likely that it’s a scam. Some content marketing tips from experts Today, consumers would check online reviews, blogs, and other online information before making a purchase. One tip to boost your local SEO is to submit guest posts on local websites. This will expose your business and offerings, and earn you valuable backlinks. Backlinks are ranking factors. You should also make use of relevant local keywords. An SEO expert can help you determine the right keywords that will attract local searchers. Produce content relevant to your local audience. One of the most popular blog posts is how-to’s or “Top 10” lists related to a certain industry. Adding high-quality photos can also help. A viral post can only come once in a lifetime. Instead of aspiring for something that will be shared everywhere, work for content that will place you on top of search engines and attract real customers within your region of operation. Maximize local SEO. Create useful and appealing content. Reach out to people who will bring value to your business.
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Methods of Optimizing Local SEO That Is Essential For Small Business
SEO is a must for a local business no matter how big or small it might be. In the internet age, visibility matters a lot in marketing your products and services. In addition, consumers are inclined to get the types of businesses they are looking for at the right time and this is where local SEO gains its importance. Whether you are a florist or dentist, an accountant or a plumber, as long as you have a business that has an interest in the local market, local SEO is just meant for you. You are able to create two-way communication with the target consumers that build relationships that leads to improved sales. Why go for local SEO If you are wondering what would happen if you do not have a local SEO then be sure that it won’t be long before you are out of business. Despite all other means of publicity that you adapt to let people know about your business, your efforts are no match to what you can get from local SEO for dentists. The reason is that more and more consumers are now turning to the internet before they buy any product or service. At least 64 percent of consumers search the internet to locate the companies that they look for. So, if you are not there, you are losing out on this enormous opportunity of being seen by others. Read Morea: Avoid These 5 Mistakes Before Starting An SEO Speedy business can happen Being seen easily is just the beginning. Many of the consumers that happen to see you would perhaps generate business leads that you can latch upon. Knowing about their interest in your products or services, you begin to roll out the red carpet for them. What happens next bears enough evidence about the abilities of local SEO in garnering business quickly. About 47 percent of people who generate leads interacted with business owners and got the deals sealed just within an hour. This is the finding of a survey. Read also: Understanding Search Engine Optimization With so much potential to increase sales, it is no surprise that the popularity of local SEO is growing at a very fast pace. In addition, by listing in business directories like Google Places and by placing an advertisement on the platform you are likely to get a much higher ranking in search results outscoring many other localized keyword phrases. The advertisement also links consumers to the business website, company address, and hours of business of the stores, phone number and business reviews that can drive consumers in taking a positive decision. Have a responsive website Having local SEO is of no use if it is not properly optimized for local conditions. Measures have to be taken to ensure that the local emphasis remains in the optimization efforts and the majority of the audience is reached. This means that you need to have a responsive website that is viewed with the same ease on desktops as well as mobile devices. With the widespread use of mobile phones, it is imperative that the majority of searches are triggered by mobile devices. The most encouraging fact about mobile users is that of all the leads generated from mobile devices 82 percent users have got back to the sellers to follow up the leads. This provides a big opportunity for converting leads into sales. Local citations are important Pay attention to citations on directory listings. Citations increase the reliability of your business for search engines. Citations mean the mention of your business name and address on some other web pages that are not part of your website. If your business is listed on an online directory, make sure that the citations are correctly mentioned. The ranking algorithms of search engines like Google and Bing consider citations as a key component. Therefore, the higher the number of citations, better rankings you are likely to get provided other factors of a business are all equal. To add more power to citations, add incoming links to it. Increase customer reviews Customer reviews are critical for better rankings and the SEO campaign should target more and more customers who are willing to review and publish their views about the products and services. The reviews create a positive impact on prospective consumers who become confident about buying the product that has many satisfied users. The majority of consumers depend on reviews to decide about purchasing any particular product or service. The reviews also impact search rankings hence it acquires more importance from the SEO perspective. The reviews are equally important for all kinds of search engines and directories and not Google alone. Social media engagement As part of a local SEO campaign, make extensive use of social media to connect closely with consumers. Present interesting and relevant content on the pages of social networks that would ensure that more and more visitors are attracted to it. Google pays a lot of importance to social media feedback about your website and this can influence search rankings. Use localized keywords Localized keywords are critical for local SEO even though Google can do even without it. The keywords phrases are made more specific for the locality by adding a geographical dimension to it. This is of more help to searchers who are able to narrow down the searches without much effort as they are guided by the keywords. Localized keywords throw up more accurate results that searchers are looking for. This increases the possibilities of being found out very easily in search results. Google has its own ways of detecting the location and even if localized keywords are not used, Google can throw up the results that pertain to the area from where the search is generated. However, it is not always necessary that searchers would prefer to find businesses in their own areas but would also like to go beyond it. This is when geographical locations attached to keywords can work wonders for you. What has been discussed above are only some of the ways that can strengthen your local SEO efforts. There are many more things that can be done. However, these are some of the most elementary steps in optimizing local SEO that should never be missed out. Read More: Why SEO Is Still The Digital Channel With Highest ROI SEO For Dummies The Importance Of SEO Based Digital Marketing Services
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