Almost every business practices SEO; however, small and local businesses must rely on SEO to build a complete online presence and increase their exposure. The rules of SEO keep changing, and every business needs to grow along with the new trends and strategies. Here are proven tips and tricks to kick-start your local SEO marketing in 2018.
Search engines change the way they deliver content to us. A search engine’s role is to provide relevant content and results to every query based on search history, browsing behavior, location, and other patterns. This eventually means that local search results are more critical than ever.
If your business reaches the top of the results for a relevant keyword and location, you’ll generate more visitors and leads and make sales from your website. Local business competition is higher than ever, and you must be at the top of the search engine to capture the leads.
Online Directories To Improve Local Search
Most users trust the local search results when finding local businesses. Creating strong content for business directories is the best way to increase your search engine rankings. Every small business should list its business in business directories. “Business name, address, and phone number” are the vital information that should be present. The NAP should be consistent in every directory. You’ll need to check the spelling and other information before publishing them.
CitySearch, Merchant Circle, and Yelp are some directors you can use to publish the company information.
Reviews And Ratings From Customers
Reviews are essential for every business. Most customers are active on every social media platform, and it’s not difficult to get more reviews. You must encourage users to review and rate the product and respond to their reviews right away. You need to stay connected with customers by listening to their feedback and answering their queries.
Reviews are the online word-of-mouth marketing technique that brings more visitors to your website. Monitoring the Facebook Page and Google Business Page is essential. Most customers look for your Facebook Page or Google My Business listing to know the address or contact details, so you must pay more attention. Many tools would help you manage all the social media accounts on one dashboard. HootSuite is one of the valuable tools that help you manage almost every social media account.
A 100 percent user-generated customer review can bring a lot of business. Google trusts your page based on the reviews, so it’s important to enable your reviews and ratings in the SERPs.
Use Local Structured Data/Schema Markup
Business owners must add/include the Schema markup to the website code. This allows the search engines to get more details about your business website. This schema markup can be added to the website through HTML Microdata. If businesses set this data correctly, they have a better chance of getting higher ranks on search engines. Google Structured Data Testing Tool will help you test the installation of the markup on your website.
There will be a rise in voice searches in 2018, so this Schema markup can help you optimize them. Virtual assistants like Google Assistant, Cortana, Alexa, and Siri will help you find local businesses through voice searches.
Do Not Forget The Basics
- Page title
- Meta Description
- URL of the page
- H1, H2, H3 tags
- Image Alt Text
Title tags and meta descriptions are the best HTML elements for SERP content. Google has improved the width of the search results, which means you have more space to write longer titles and meta descriptions. This gives you the advantage of describing the business straightforwardly. In the sea of competition, you must ensure the meta description and title are unique and the keyword is placed correctly.
Writing content that concentrates on the local business is also an added advantage. Please ensure you optimize your local search engine with the latest updates and trends, and be sure your business is ready to face the Local SEO challenges in 2018.