Local SEO is something all small businesses should consider. It is a crucial aspect of SEO services that allows you to improve your online presence locally. With local SEO, you can improve your business’s local rankings to attract more customers nearby and improve your web visibility.
LEARN MORE: Local SEO: Why is it Essential For Your Business?
Like organic SEO, several ranking factors affect your local rankings. But when it comes to local SEO services, the combination of ranking factors and signals is much more complicated. You have to optimise your website for both Google’s local pack and organic rankings. Not to mention, local SEO can be a highly competitive field, especially if many other nearby competitors are trying to achieve the very same goals as you.
For the most part, Google determines your local ranking based on prominence, relevance, and distance.
For example, your business has a high chance of appearing on a Google user’s search results if your business’s name, phone number, address, and URL are accurate to their web search query. Also, the closer your business’s physical location is to the Google user, the higher the likelihood of your website ranking high on their search results.
To improve your local rankings, you have to optimise your website for crucial local SEO ranking factors that will impact your online presence. In that case, check out these top ranking factors that affect local SEO.
4 RANKING FACTORS THAT AFFECT LOCAL SEO
1. GOOGLE MY BUSINESS (GMB)
Having a GMB profile is a game-changer for your business. GMB is one of the leading local SEO ranking factors that can help you attract more customers. Most people who find your business will most likely check your GMB profile first since it must contain a lot of valuable information, including your business address and contact details.
LEARN MORE: Google My Business: What Is It And Why Do You Need It?
To optimise your website for this specific local SEO ranking factor, you first need to claim a GMB listing. Doing so is simple: create or sign in to your Google account, then enter your business address. Afterwards, you can choose how your business shall appear on Google Maps. Lastly, select a business category, enter a phone number and website URL, then review your information before requesting a verification.
For more tips on how to claim a GMB listing, visit this website.
Once you have finally established your GMB profile, you can significantly increase your local rankings. Just remember to optimise your GMB profile regularly by updating your information, adding photos, and encouraging customers to leave honest reviews of your business on your GMB listing.
2. CUSTOMER REVIEWS
Customer reviews play a vital role in your local rankings. Google uses positive online reviews to rank your business locally, so encourage your customers to give you an honest opinion and rating as much as possible.
Meanwhile, negative reviews will unsurprisingly harm your local rankings. But that does not mean you should provide customers with incentives to publish a positive review and rating. Instead, whenever customers have complaints about your products or services, you should listen to them and focus on improving. That way, you can satisfy your customers’ needs and earn more positive reviews in the long run.
Eventually, Google will recognise that your business has a ton of positive reviews and ratings. As a result, your web visibility will significantly improve, along with your SEO rankings as well. The best part is that Google will display the rating of your business on your GMB profile for everyone to see.
3. LINKS
Links are ranking factors for SEO services in general, not only local SEO. You can boost your local SEO rankings if other sites link to yours. Therefore, these links help in driving traffic to your website, thus increasing your rankings and authority.
Links from external websites to yours are called inbound links. On the other hand, links from your website to others are outbound links. The latter has less of an impact on your rankings, but they can still influence your organic search presence.
Nonetheless, it is best to focus on building inbound links for local SEO. An excellent way to do this is by creating quality content that will prompt readers or viewers to share on other websites. You can create content in the form of blog posts, press releases, whitepapers, videos, and infographics.
Promote your content via social media and emails to reach more people. Try engaging with industry experts and bloggers who might be interested in sharing your content. If you succeed in earning their trust, you could increase the number of inbound links to your website, which should positively influence your local SEO rankings.
4. CITATIONS
NAP (name, address, and phone number) citations are vital for local SEO. They are the equivalent of Yellow Pages, where people can discover your business and acquire essential information, including your content details and address. Most people use these NAP citations as a credible source of information when finding products and services on search engines.
Google uses NAP citations to confirm if your business information is correct. Because of this, you must ensure that all of your NAP citations are consistent.
Whenever you are updating your business information on various platforms, such as your social media page, GMB profile, and website, enter the correct details to maintain consistency with your citations. Doing so should reaffirm your reputation as a credible and trustworthy business.
CONCLUSION
Hopefully, these local SEO tips will help you improve your online presence locally. Focus on local SEO to build your credibility and reach more customers in the long term.
If you’re looking for the best SEO agency in Singapore, contact OOm at 6391-0930.
