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Local SEO
Local SEO Strategy: How to Outrank Your Competitors
Get started by collecting reviews through major review platforms:
Yelp
Facebook
Trip Advisor
FourSquare
High-Quality Backlinks from Authoritative Websites
High-quality backlinks from authoritative sites can give you an enormous boost in rankings. They’ll give you an increase in referral traffic while building your reputation with Google. Just liked with the user reviews, getting backlinks is more evidence for Google to view your website as a credible business. Put on your PR hat and try to get media attention through local news and publications, or by sponsoring an event or partnering up with local businesses in a similar industry to get other websites to link back to yours.
Encourage Online User Reviews
Reach out to your hardcore fans and encourage them to leave reviews for your business. Google wants to suggest the best options based on user testimonials. The more positive reviews you have, the more “social proof” you have to offer search engines, making them more likely to suggest your business on the first results page. Never post fake reviews, though. It’s not worth the hassle of getting penalized.
If you get a negative review, which is bound to happen at some point, make sure you stay on top of “review management.” The negative review is not going to disappear if you just ignore it. Address the negative review head-on and acknowledge or solve the customer’s issue. Remember that your response will be seen by the public, so keep it professional.
Embedded Maps
Embedding a Google Map on your website’s contact page is another simple, yet effective way to help boost your local rankings. Not only does this give your potential customers a visual idea of where your business is located, but it also tells Google to pull clues from both your content and the map, making it more likely that your website will rank high in organic search results and on Google+ Local.
Mobile Optimization and AMP
Mobile optimization plays a huge role in local SEO. Most people search for a local business or local service while they’re on the go using a mobile device. Hopefully, your website is already mobile-friendly, or “responsive,” so your potential customers can get information about your business quickly and easily. If you’re not sure if your website is optimized for mobile, use Google’s free Mobile-Friendly Test.
Google has also indicated page load speed times as a very important ranking factor. If your site loads slowly, your ranking will drop. Google is pushing for AMP (accelerated mobile pages), which enables websites to load quickly. This is essential for improving readability and user experience, both of which have a major influence on Google’s algorithm.
Schema and Local Structured Data Markup for Local Businesses
Schema markup is a code you add to your HTML that helps search engines display more accurate results for users on search listings. This will increase your website’s click-through rate and improve your rankings in search engine result pages. Here’s a free Local Business Schema Generator. To make sure there aren’t any errors in your Schema code, use Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool.
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