Growing Your Business with Local SEO: What You Need to Know

If you’re looking to target the area in which your business is located, then you’ll know just how important it is to be ranked in the local section of the search engine results page. This is how nearby clients will find you, and a solid presence is extremely valuable. Here are some of the things you should know about international and local SEO:

1.    Not All Services Trigger Local Results

There are some services and industries that, when combined with a location, will not trigger the seven local search results at the top of the page. These businesses will require more traditional methods of SEO, and are arguably easier to rank for. If your keywords do produce local results, then it is in directories andco-citations that you should focus your efforts. It’s always a good idea to know which method you need to use.

2.    Google Prefers Central Locations

Businesses located closer to the centre of an important geographical location will carry a little more weight when it comes to calculating the rankings. Clearly there’s nothing you can do about this bias, other than pursue a stronger SEO campaign. If you’re on the borders of a city, in a competitive niche, ranking will be difficult, and you’ll need to put more work in to be successful.

3.    The NAP is Important

Your Name, Address and Phone is a piece of information critical part to local SEO. The more instances this piece of information there are in relevant directories, the higher you’ll rank in the mobile and local search results. Competitor analysis is important here; if you can place your details in more places, then you’ll be on your way to beating them. It’s very important that your details appear in the same way in each instance, or Google may interpret them as multiple businesses. Of course, distributing your NAP isn’t the only thing of importance.

4.    Reputation is Vital

Featuring in many directories is only half the battle. Google also wants to see that the companies ranking highly are going to be of good use to users, which means that both links and reviews are taken into account as well as listings. Having a quality backlink profile is therefore very important, and giving your customers excellent service should always be a priority. Make sure it’s easy for your customers to leave reviews.