Local SEO – 7 ways to be at the top in 2019

If you are an SEO analyst or an SEO enthusiast, you must have also noticed the changes in SEO over the past few years. Local SEO is constantly changing and marketers have to be versatile. They have to communicate and convince their clients on the strategies and metrics which are getting more and more complex. (Good luck with that!) Let’s explore a few basic local SEO ‘stuff’ to help your business to rank higher in SERPs.

1. Title and Meta Description tags are super important

It is extremely important to keep your title tag and description tags at the optimal length. Google displays only the first 50- 60 characters for the title tag. Keep it less than 60 characters for proper display. The meta description character limit is 50 – 160 characters.  So, create the best descriptions within the 160 character limit.

2. Google My Business and Knowledge Panel

Google My Business(GMB) page is something that local business should focus on for great exposure and it’s free! Google has a verification process in GMB which is very essential for your business physical address. Optimize your GMB with details such as logos, products, services, business hours, etc.  Also, create Google Knowledge panels which have information about your company or your brand and appears on the right in the desktop search results.

3. Online Directories and NAP

With consumers searching for products online, businesses miss opportunities when they aren’t listed in the online directories. Get your business listed on local search directories (Google, Bing, etc.), review directories (Yelp) and generic, industry-based and local directories. It is super-duper essential to have your NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) updated and has to be consistent everywhere.

4. Online Reviews

Online reviews can break or make a business. 84% of consumers trust online reviews as personal views. There are tools to proactively get reviews. Platforms like Hootsuite helps follow and get alerts for your brand mentions. Respond to both positive and negative mentions. Positive reviews increase brand visibility.

5. Local Structured Data Markup

Structured data markup or ‘schema markup’ is added to the website’s code to provide search engines more information about your products, services, and reviews. Google wants you to add the schema to help it’s bots to identify your content and make the site rank higher.

6. Local Content

The content you create should not just be about the products or services you provide, but it should also focus on content that is useful and local. Write content that is relevant to your customers and business.

7. Link Building

Building high profile links will get you noticed by the search engines. Most of the marketers lose out on the competition due to the lack of link-building strategy. The ability of a domain to rank in social search increases the authority of a domain.

The above mentioned steps will give you a head start on your competition. Finding it hard to implement SEO tactics? We can help. Call us.