#1 – Have An Address In The Target Location
It might sound silly, but make sure you have an address in the location you want to target. I often get asked how to rank in the local pack for a location that the business doesn’t exist in and the simple answer is you can’t.
You still have the opportunity to rank in the localised organic results, but you won’t rank in the local map pack.
#2: Get Listed On Google My Business
Google My Business (GMB) is where you can tell Google, and the world, about your business. GMB is also a key ranking factor and is super easy to optimise. Just get your page created (if one does not already exist) and get it verified. Once verified, you then want to fill the page out with as much information as possible. Simply head to the ‘Info’ tab in the GMB dashboard and fill out all of the fields.
Really try to think what your prospective customers would like to see here: photos, business information, and posts are key to making your profile engaging for your prospective customers. The platform also supports messaging, reviews, and Q&As so be aware that this is part of your digital shop window and the more useful information you add here the better.
And don’t forget to keep this information fresh and up-to-date – if your business hours change then update them so your customers know!
#3: Create, Clean Up & Optimise Citations
Citation optimisation is an area that has seen big changes over the last few years. Historically, citation optimisation alone could generate big results. As is typical with SEO, there was often a “more is better” mentality which is certainly not the case – too many can make management difficult and consistency problematic.
Step 1 – Audit any existing citations out on the web to make sure they are correct. NAP (Name, Address & Phone Number) is super important to keep consistent for Local SEO. If there are still citations out on the web that have your old address etc, Google can easily get confused and will impact the confidence it has in your business. So the first step is to get all the existing listings accurate.
Step 2 – The next stage is to create listings in any relevant business or location directories (if they don’t exist already). Again, make sure you keep all information consistent and optimise the listings as best as possible by including things like images, opening hours, business description etc. These differ based on location and industry but any directories or portals that rank on the first page of Google for your keywords are a good starting point.
#4: Improve Your On-Page Optimisation
With Local SEO, we can rank in the map pack results typically directly below the ads and in the organic results generally below the map results. In an ideal world, we want a listing in both of these locations. Throw a search advert into the mix and you can be on the first page three times to maximise exposure!
Key factors here are to optimise your page titles, meta descriptions, and body copy – these are the basics but this is what gets results in Local SEO (and is all too often overlooked).
Read Full Article Here: 7 Local SEO Tips That Will Get Your Business to the Top of Local Search Results
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