How To Optimise Your Local SEO Campaign

Tips To Improve Your Local Business Presence In Google

SEO tips to get your business ranking higher in Google’s local pack. Optimise on-page factors and build links and citations from websites in your local area.

Following the Google Pigeon rollout of 2014, many companies are recognising the importance of optimising their websites for local SEO in order to achieve better positions in Google’s ‘local pack’ of nearby businesses, which are listed on the search results pages.

Whilst the Google algorithms change on a regular basis, here are some current ways in which to optimise your web pages for local business SEO.

Google My Business

It is imperative that all local companies have a ‘Google My Business’ page. This is a completely free way to promote your business across Google search pages, maps and Google +. Google My Business enables you to connect directly with your local customers and assists you in building a loyal customer base. One of the features of Google My Business allows the promotion of customer reviews and ratings which can then be shared across the web.

Local On-Page Factors

If you’re optimising your website for local SEO, the first place to focus your attention on is your on-page factors. Try to place a combination of your keywords plus your local area name in the title tag, H1 tag, landing page URL, landing page content and the ALT tag of any images. If you belong to a large city, then it would be wiser to choose your local neighbourhood such as ‘Bromley’, rather than simply ‘London’.

You can also embed a Google map which includes a drop-pin business marker into your landing page for further brownie points with the search giant.

Local Link-Building

General SEO requires backlinks from high-authority websites in order to benefit from their good page rank and link juice. However, with local SEO, site owners must focus on building local backlinks from other websites in their area. This means that webmasters should spend time submitting their website to local directories, chatting on area forums and getting listed in online versions of regional newspapers.

Chatting on social media and putting up a Facebook page is also an excellent way of promoting your website to an area-specific niche market. You can use Twitter Chat hashtags to join relevant area conversations and make others aware of your site and its products and services.

Depending on the nature of your business, you might consider sponsoring a local event so that you might receive mentions on the organiser’s website, as well as the social media promotions of the occasion.

Core SEO Factors

As well as focussing your efforts on local SEO, it is essential that site owners don’t forget about the basics of core SEO ranking factors. Make sure that your site speed is adequate and that your site is compatible for mobile searches. Google also places enormous weight on the existence of high quality content on a website. You must provide an experience that provides value to your visitors in order to rank well with Google. Provide useful information on a regular basis for your audience in the form of articles, blog posts or downloadable content and you should notice an improvement in both your core and local SEO rankings.

It really is worth putting the effort in to making changes gain the benefits of increased local SEO traffic this year. However, if this is a task that you don’t have the time or expertise to commit to, then consider utilising the services of a dedicated SEO company who can assist you with your local optimisation campaigns in 2016.