10 Steps a Local Business Can Take Today to Improve Search Rankings

10 Steps a Local Business Can Take Today to Improve Search Rankings

Reader Comments (25)

  1. *Optimize your social profiles*

    This is the area I am working on right now.

    I am focused on building a Facebook and Pinterest presence to help garner social proofing for my website.

    • Hey Katherine-

      I am a senior at UGA currently working at Picobarn, a digital marketing firm which focuses on strategies and solutions across platforms such as social media and online search. I would love to talk to you about what you are working on and what your website is about. Feel free to contact me via LinkedIn or reply here. I look forward to your response.

      Sincerely,

      Jordan Harris

    • That’s great Katherine!

      Fortunately, you can also take advantage of Pinterest Place Pins now. Use them to increase your exposure on Pinterest.

      As for Facebook, make sure that your Facebook page is listed as a local business and claim any pages or Facebook Place pages that may be out there for your business.

      That is something that not everyone is taking advantage of.

  2. Thanks for the mention Eugen! It’s very important to have a map listing on your site to improve walk in traffic. But it may as well impact your local rankings, given the fact that Google Maps now has a 69% market share:

    https://trends.builtwith.com/mapping

    No one can tell, but I bet Google is using this information as one of their 200 ranking factors.

    • You are most welcome, Philip. I always recommend the tools I use most.

      As for the map listing, I couldn’t agree more.

      It’s crucial to get your business listed on Google Maps and also include a map to your place on the contact page.

      This always helps.

  3. Nicely written post Eugen.

    In all honesty I’ve never really been a huge SEO fan. Well, at least not until I started blogging for a living. Before that I had a dabble, but just like you mentioned in your post – it seems way to complicated for me at that time.

    Now however, I target specific niche related, long-tail keywords in my blog post titles and in the body if possible. If not, I don’t sweat it because I prefer to write for my readers anyways. I think only a fool would write purely for the search engines, I’m sure you’ll agree?

    And with consistent effort I’m seeing a steady stream of organic traffic to my blog already, after just 6 months of publishing content.

    So let’s just say I’ve been sold, lol! Everything I write nowadays is written with SEO in mind.

    Thanks again for the awesome post. Have a lovely day. 🙂

    Kerry

    • Thanks Kerry!

      To be honest, I agree with Sean Jackson when he says that the term “SEO” has become spammy and OC/DC (https://copyblogger.com/ocdc/) sounds really promising.

      And I always did my best to do what you mentioned: write for those who read the content and not for search engines, so I agree with you.

      In essence, you don’t have to go overboard to achieve great results.

      If you provide quality content and make sure that your website is accessible to search engines to crawl it then you’ve done 90% of the job.

      Plus, it’s better to invest more in creating great relationships with your peers that in shady techniques to game the system. A good network will always have better results.

  4. Eugen,

    Great post and thank you for adding to the local SEO conversation. It’s a topic that deserves attention.

    I also advise my “local” clients to create content that is peripheral, but related, to their business and the community they live in.

    For example, I run a website for In The Sack, a new Dallas carry out and delivery service. One of our recent posts was on a very popular spring activity in Dallas, visiting the Dallas Arboretum. Which happens to be a great place for a picnic, so there is good information content with a logical tie in. Good for sales, good for SEO. It’s long tail to be sure but very effective if you stick with it. The examples can be found at http://makelovenotmeals.com/blog for anyone who’s interested.

    The point I try to get across to my clients is that a little diversity in the keywords you target can help lift the whole boat (thank you Brian Clark for that analogy).

    It also gives people more of a reason to pay attention to you.

    • Thanks a lot for sharing this, Scott!

      Diversity helps, and by using strategies like the one you mentioned can help people get noticed in industries that may seem dull.

    • Thanks James!

      That’s an awesome way to increase your exposure.

      I am a great believer that a strong network can help you get insane results and social networks like LinkedIn and Meetup can make it easier for you to create those great connections.

  5. Eugen,

    Thanks for the great post. For most local businesses, getting reviews (especially on Google+) is key.

    From the clients that I’ve worked with I’ve noticed local businesses that include validated rich snippets also tend to get more clicks to their site than sites that may be ranking higher than them on the first page.

    I’ve also seen tremendous results from sites that are regularly posting content onto Google + regularly.

    • Thanks for adding to the conversation, Paul.

      I agree with you that Google+ is a key player for local businesses and they should invest the time and resources to create a strong presence on Google+.

  6. Genuine reviews is a tough one to acquire at times I find. Sometimes some of my customers are so eager that – while I’m stoked they are giving a glowing review, they come off to be a little bit spammy and “too good to be true”. It’s ironic, because they are actually real!

    • Personally, I believe that we are smart enough to differentiate a “sponsored” review than a genuine one from the person who is over the sky happy with a specific product/service.

      That is why, I would encourage people to leave reviews immediately after they used a service or product, because only at that point they can leave an unbiassed review.

  7. Thank goodness for this post! I have a meeting with a new client tomorrow, and I basically used this post as a checklist for what I need to discuss with her about not just increasing her ranking on Google but getting her ON Google in the first place.

    Two things I hadn’t consciously thought about – consistency and optimizing social profiles. Thanks for that reminder!

    • Michaela, I am so happy to hear that my article helped you outline your meeting.

      I hope it will also help you win every client you discuss with on local optimization.

  8. I couldn’t agree with these points more, Eugen. Great advice for small business owners who are looking to gain some traction in local search.

  9. Great post Eugen! I have been working on getting my clients local listings consistent. It’s amazing how “ave” v “avenue” can make a difference!

    Thanks again!

    • Thanks for contributing, Kollin! That’s a great addition.

      This proves that in order to get better results, you don’t have to go out and do all the hard & dark stuff.

      Just solve minor problems, one a day and you will get the snowball effect.

  10. I have a quick question: How many citations are enough? After you do Google+, Yelp, Yellow Pages, Yahoo, CitySearch, and about 20 more, you will realize there about 1001 more websites that you could go adding citations to (and those 1001 sites want you to). So.. how many do you think is optimal? Is it more the merrier, or are search engines smarter than that? Where’s @MattCutts when we need him?!

    Great article.

    • Hey Cory, that’s an awesome question.

      Personally, I would stop after “20 more” and focus my efforts on other areas that will get better exposure.

      Moreover, Moz Local just launched this week. Get an account there and let them to the work for you, so you can focus on what you do best.

  11. Hi Eugen,
    I agree with the article totally as we have all seen and heard how Google now works and they focus heavily on social media and some of their own tools and how big your network is. Also most people don’t keep their listings consistent with address phone number and some other details so they have different info all over the web but only 1 location making it hard to rank for a certain area. If you ever change locations you should go back and change your information to keep it consistent with your actual location.
    Thank you for sharing this today!

  12. Your business is going to die, survive, or thrive based on how well you use the net to market yourself. If you don’t know how to use the net read more and find out. If you are good with online marketing then get to work. If you have to then hire someone to do it for you. The Internet will not wait on you, the buyers out there don’t know that you are better than the competition. Let them make a. Wise choice by putting yourself in the game.

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