The 17 Best SEO Tips to Increase Presence on Local Search

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Local search optimization is a great way to reach your customers in your region. And if you have not optimized your site for local search then you are missing out a lot of potential traffic to your business.

Most people don’t think about local businesses until they need them. And in this day and age, when people need something in their area they go online to look for it. In fact, statistics show that local online search is up 58 percent from previous years.

Chances are if people are looking for what you offer, they’re looking for it online, so if you are not online it is likely that they will choose another vendor. Here are some best seo tips that will help you to increase the presence of your business on local search or you can hire small business seo services vendor to do the same for you.

1) Business Location Address
Your business can not rank for the local search for that location if the address of your business location is not mentioned on your contact us page or on the location landing page.

2) Verify Google+ Local Page
Google will ask you to verify your Google+ Local page to make sure the business information they have is correct. The verification can be done by postcard, phone, instant verification, and bulk verification (for 10+ locations)

Once you’ve verified your local business details such as contact number, photos, description, and business hours then your business is eligible to show on Google Maps and other Google properties

Your local business meets Google guidelines before you add your business to maintain high-quality information on Google.

3) Phone Number
Use a local phone number associated

4) Business Hours in Crawlable format
The business open hours should be in a text format so that Google can easily crawl it and it should match the business hours on your Google My Business page.

5) Embed a Map
Embedding Google map on your website is a great way to help visitors to find your location and also Google bot gets more accurate information regarding your business location.

6) Include Location in Title
Within the 70 characters of title length, the primary keyword and location should be included to make it more locally optimized.

7) Include Location and Phone Number in Meta Description
Google might choose a snippet of text from your website instead, but it never hurts to have an optimized meta description. Make sure it includes your primary keywords, areas your business serves and phone number, if possible, within 165 characters.

8) Create Location-Specific Pages

If you have more than one location for your business and there is only one website then just create a separate page to each physical location so that if anyone searching for your business in a particular area should be directed to the exact landing page.

9) Responsive/Mobile Friendly website
With a recent Google mobile-friendly ranking algorithm update Google scans each page on the site, checking for load times, responsive design elements, and mobile best practice. Check your site using Mobile-Friedly test tool, and make it responsive if it is not.

10) Get Listed in Business Directories
There are a number of business directories you can get citations in, giving you solid links that can improve your ranking and make it easy for searchers to find your local business. Get citations on Yelp, Superpages, Citysearch, Truelocal, Express Update, Citysquares, infoUSA, and more.

11) Email Address with Domain Name
To ensure Google that you as a business owner have the primary control of your business, the best practice is to have an email address with the domain name. And if someone else owns your Google My Business page you can transfer it to yourself with the help of Google’s Transfer Ownership guide.

12) Reviews on Google+Local Page
According to Google’s review guidelines, you can remind your customers to leave feedback. You should have at least 10 reviews with 4 stars or higher aggregate. If not, work on it to get from your satisfied and existing clients.

13) Getting Local Reviews
Once you’ve claimed your business profiles on local search directories, the most important thing you can do to boost your visibility is getting reviews. Having a positive rating can help you elevate your business in search results, especially on sites that allow visitors to sort businesses by the number of positive ratings.After claiming your business on local search directories, get reviews to increase the visibility of your business in search results, especially on the websites that allow visitors to sort businesses by the number of positive ratings.

14) Include keywords on social
Keywords are often the most confusing thing about SEO —  even for seasoned SEO strategists. While being listed in many places makes sense from a numbers perspective, keywords are a bit more qualitative than quantitative.

A good rule of thumb about which keywords to choose (and use frequently across social sites and content, which we’ll get to next) are simply detailed descriptors of your business.

15) Posting Regular Content
Using keywords on social media will boost your ranking on social, but if you aren’t regularly posting content, you’re losing a lot of potential traffic.

16) Register with Bing for Places
Bing Places for Business is free, easy to complete and another way to verify your business information online. Do not forget to link to your Bing profile from your Google+ Business page.

17) Create a Business Page on Facebook
Besides providing other information you also need to ensure that the address and telephone number are filled correctly. Once you are done go and edit your Google+ Business page and link to your FB business page.

Implement the above tips to grow your business for local search queries or you can me as an SEO freelancer to rank your business in Google Maps

Related: SEO India

About Navneet Singh

Navneet Singh is a young enthusiast who Loves Internet Marketing and is always eager to share useful and authentic content on SEO, link building, social media marketing, content marketing, and conversion rate optimization to help others. A Software Engineer By Chance and Working as a CEO in SEO Experts Company India, one of the Top Rated SEO Agencies in India. A Basket Ball Player and a Budding Entrepreneur.

Navneet Singh

Navneet Singh is a young enthusiast who Loves Internet Marketing and is always eager to share useful and authentic content on SEO, link building, social media marketing, content marketing, and conversion rate optimization to help others. A Software Engineer By Chance and Working as a CEO in SEO Experts Company India, one of the Top Rated SEO Agencies in India. A Basket Ball Player and a Budding Entrepreneur.