How to improve your local SEO in seven steps

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Introduction

There are quite simply loads of guides that explain local seo in an over complicated way. This only serves to confuse business owners, and to sometimes put them off investing in SEO altogether.

However here at this digital marketing agency we do things differently. We are different at this agency because we don’t bore our clients socks off by using complicated marketing jargon.

No, we do things differently. We explain things clearly, this way our clients know what they are getting for their money, and this we way we have been able to retain clients for many years.

So, here’s our simple guide on how to improve your businesses SEO in seven easy steps.

 

#1 Obtain your Google My Business account

First things first obtain your businesses Google My Business account. This is easy to do, that’s because Google will walk you through the process.

Then all you have to do is wait for Google to mail you a postcard that has a verification pin. Once you have your pin, you simply type this in, once you’ve logged into your account, and there you have it, you will have a Google My Business account.

But don’t stop there, as any good seo company will tell you, you should add as much information as you can to your Google My Business account.

 

So, for example, you should add:

·        Your businesses name, address and phone number

·        Your businesses opening hours

·        A description about your business

·        Show customers pictures of your business, for example the shop front

·        You must keep your Google My Business account updated, so when you change your address you should update your business details

 

 

#2 Obtain genuine reviews on Google My Business

You should obtain genuine reviews from your customers. So, for example, say you’re a plumber, and a customer states that you have done a great job, well why not ask them to leave you a review on your Google My Business account?

This can help to improve your businesses SEO. Yet, with that said, do not write the business reviews yourself.

That’s to say don’t add fake business reviews. The reason being is Google’s algorithm will know, and then your business will not show up for searches that are relevant for your business.

For example, if you run a dental practice, and you notice all the other dentists are coming up with great reviews, well you may be tempted to write a bunch of fake reviews about your business.

However, Google’s algorithm is really clever, it will be able to spot that the reviews are fake, so when anyone is searching for a local dentist, your business will never show in the Google My Business listings.

#3 Use structured data, such as Schema

You may need the help of an seo agency for this one. Yet, its well worth adding Schema to your website.

Your seo agency may use schema to mark-up your businesses name, address and its phone number.

This will make it much easier for Googlebot to know businesses NAP information, and to then check this against your business’s citations.

 

 #4 Add quality content marketing

As any white hat seo business will tell you, its important to add good quality content marketing to your website on a regular basis.

And if you are aiming to improve where your business ranks locally, your seo agency should be looking to add content marketing that’s relevant to your business and the area.

For example, perhaps you run a solicitor’s practice, you may therefore wish to blog about a local business award you have just won.

Or perhaps your solicitors’ practice is raising money for a local charity or going to do a presentation somewhere within your city. This provides your business with a great opportunity to talk about how the event went, and what your business was offering.

For example, perhaps your law practice specialises in the area of divorce, in which case you may have offered your advice to a newspaper that was writing an article about divorce. This will also allow you the opportunity to talk about the advice you offered to that local newspaper.

Remember that all SEO work should be white hat, so if you are unsure how to implement white hat seo, you should talk to a respected seo business.

 

#5 Technical SEO

Your business may well be a start-up business, if it is you most probably have recently got your website back from a website design agency.

However, all too often a website design company just focuses on just that, the design of the website, and often the basic seo details are lacking.

So, your seo business should therefore optimise your website, by implementing white hat seo in the following areas:

 

·        Meta titles and meta descriptions

·        Alt tags

·        Ensuring that pages on your website has a sufficient word count, and are not “content thin”

·        Ensuring that there is no duplication issues

·        H1 to H6 tags

·        And loads of other SEO factors should be considered

 

#6 (NAP) Business citations

Your business should obtain business citations, this NAP information should match your website.

NAP stands for the name, address and phone number of your business.

 #7 Make sure that you refresh your knowledge on regular basis

Some people learn about seo, then let their knowledge stagnate. This is no good, as seo is always changing.

The reason for this is that Google is always improving its algorithm, so you should keep your seo knowledge up to date.

There are loads of free resources where you can learn seo, however only learn from a respected business, such as MOZ.