Local SEO Best Practices: Three Simple Tips

Are you a local business owner? Local business owners make up a majority of our readership. For that reason (and others), we tend to focus a great deal of content on local SEO. In this post, you'll find a host of tips and invaluable links for local SEO and local online marketing content. If you have any questions, please contact us. 

In the summer of 2019, Search Engine Land's Greg Sterling reported on the results of two significant studies on local SEO--what Sterling refers to as "local marketing." Sterling's term is relevant to most local businesses' goal: To succeed online today, local businesses must create holistic marketing campaigns that utilize all possible venues.

Considering the ease of using online venues, it's surprising that many local businesses fail at the basics. As Sterling notes, both of these studies revealed that "many multi-location brands and local marketers are not following basic local and SEO best practices."

It's no wonder, then, that brands who do take advantage of the basics outperform the competition: "The study found that the top performers had sales growth 3x the average...Category leaders had 2x sales growth."

So how do these brands do it? What are local SEO best practices"?

Local SEO Best Practices

Claim/Verify Online Business Listings

By far, the easiest part of creating a local presence online is claiming/verifying all available online business listings, including listings on Google My Business, Facebook, Yelp, and Yellow Pages. Surprisingly, not all businesses claim their listings. As Sterling notes:

"One might have expected nearly 100 percent of locations for these brands to be claimed/verified across Google, Facebook, and Yelp. [One study] found, however, that on average, 78% of locations were claimed. Google had the highest percentage (85%), while Facebook had 74% and Yelp had 75%."

Of course, these statistics represent a competitive advantage for local businesses. When you claim/verify your online business listings, you exercise greater control over your online presence--as well as your reputation (see below). You control the images and information on any given site and assure that all information is relevant, correct, and positive.

Of the businesses who do claim their listings, these studies found that Facebook "featured the most local engagement, by far: Nearly 75% of franchise locations were posting content on Facebook."

This emphasis on Facebook represents another great opportunity: Too many businesses ignore a veritable gold mine for SEO: Google My Business.

To learn more about how we help Bucks County, PA area businesses grow their business by optimizing Google My Business, check out our Brand Reputation Management page. 

Use Your Listings for Online Reputation Management (ORM)

Of course, once you claim your listings, you can optimize them by using them. Too many business owners claim their listings and then let them lay dormant. That's a bad idea.

As we noted above, most people understand the functionality of Facebook, but many people are surprised to learn what you can do with Google My Business. For more about creating "posts" or "special offers" on your Google My Business account, check out Google's advice:

Read: "Make Great Business Posts"

You can also use your listings as a tool for interacting with customers--especially by responding to reviews, both positive and negative. This is perhaps one of the best ways to improve your online reputation.

The two local studies found relatively low response rates for reviews: On Facebook, only 48% of locations responded to consumer reviews; on Google, only 36%; and on Yelp, surprisingly, only 16%.

This represents another competitive advantage for brands who do decide to respond. As Sterling notes:

"Multiple studies show that consumers expect a response to their reviews (especially negative/critical reviews) within 24 hours and often much more quickly. This was a major area of weakness and potential improvement for these brands."

For more on managing your ORM, check out a few posts from our blog:

Read: "Do You Need ORM?"

Read: "Effectively Manage Online Reputation and Customer Reviews"

Take Advantage of Barnacle SEO

Using these online properties is leveraging the massive SEO capabilities of major sites like Facebook and Google. This sort of SEO was termed "Barnacle SEO" by Moz:

"When ranking for incredibly competitive keywords just isn't a possibility, you can make like a barnacle on a ship, attaching yourself to the big sites that are."

In this way, you can optimize your online properties on these sites in much the same way you optimize your local website. Think about ranking factors for each specific venue and how you can optimize these factors for better results. As Sterling notes:

"The study also found that better GMB reviews correlated with higher rankings on Google, which makes sense since reviews are a local ranking factor."

But don't forget to utilize any online property that can give you visibility. For example, don't ignore Yelp: "Yelp appears in the top five search results for 92% of Google web queries that consist of a city and business category."

As Sterling notes: Beyond its status as a consumer destination, it's an essential site for "barnacle SEO." 

Google-Based Online Reputation Management with SEO Sparta

Are you taking advantage of online marketing tools, like Google My Business? By taking advantage of the newest online marketing strategy, ORM, you can attract more customers to your local shop.

Alex Stepman, of SEO Sparta, offers a Google-Based Online Reputation Management, which helps brands "leverage the influence of the key player in ORM."

To learn more about how you can boost your ORM and SEO with Google My Business, call SEO Sparta today: 215-900-9398.

Photo Source: "SEO Basics: What is Local SEO"

If you are interested in transforming your website into a money-making tool or are interested in exploring opportunities to outperform your competition, we encourage you to contact SEO SPARTA.

We combine traditional marketing methods and organic SEO--emphasizing natural website optimization--to design thoughtful, inspiring, and effective marketing campaigns.

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