How to improve local SEO for your website

Local SEO is increasingly a vital part of any ecommerce website’s marketing strategy and with good reason – as the main search results are dominated with big name brands and incredible levels of competition, local SEO has started to become a bigger focus. Another reason that local SEO is so important is that it’s closely tied with mobile search results, something that most of us are using more and more often.

With that in mind, let’s have a quick recap of local SEO requirements and ranking factors to help with your new website’s search ranking.

1. Reviews matter

This is something that you’ll hear over and over again in relation to local SEO. Reviews matter. Over and above the fact that over 8 in 10 consumers give as much credence to online reviews as they do personal recommendations, reviews are also a known local SEO ranking factor. The frequency of reviews matters of course, but so do other things such as how quick you are to respond to reviews, how many positive and negatives you accrue, whether those reviews include videos or images, and if they use your keywords and location.

2. Google My Business

If you aren’t yet active on Google My Business, heed our advice – get cracking on it! Claiming your listing and completing your profile are important first steps. You’ll also need to upload videos, respond to reviews promptly and ensure that you use Posts regularly. Several studies have shown that there is a strong correlation between Google My Business use and local search ranking so if you don’t already have this built into your weekly marketing activity, now is the time to address that oversight.

3. Citations

Citations are any mention of your business where your business name is followed by usual location-based information such as your address, opening hours, phone number, website and email. Citations often accrue naturally as you carry out activities such as registering for social media, creating directory listings or even achieving media coverage. You can also help this process along by actively exploring opportunities to build citations on sites that are relevant to your business and your target audience. Be careful to always list your business name, address and other details in the same way with each citation your build for maximum effectiveness.

4. Links

Links are still an important local SEO ranking factor but perhaps aren’t quite as heavily weighted as for traditional SEO. The reason being that local businesses aren’t as likely to have links from major sources and highly respected sites. That said, you should still aim to build good quality links back from relevant sources, to different pages on your site with different anchor text to ensure your local SEO is effective. Local newspapers and event listings are often a good starting point.