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Everything you need to know about Local SEO | Inspire Web Development

by  David Dwyer on  08/08/2016

If you have a shop and want customers to find it you need Local SEO

If you have a shop and want customers to find you and walk through your door, you need to be thinking about Localised SEO.  With the inexorable rise of mobile searches, you can’t afford to lag behind your competitors.

More than 50% of searches are made on mobile devices these days, and around 1/3 of those searches are made by people looking for local businesses.  Of that 1/3, around half the searchers go on to visit a shop and about 70% are looking for a phone number.  All these fractions are getting a bit confusing, so let’s try some numbers.

The actual figures are huge, but for simplicity’s sake let’s keep them small.  Say 2 million searches are made at a time: 1 million of them will be on mobiles.  Of that 1 million, roughly 330,000 people are looking for local businesses and some 165,000 people go on to visit a shop and, potentially, buy something, but 231,000 would be looking for a phone number to call.

165,000 customers is not to be sniffed at – and the real numbers are way higher.  This is not something you, as the owner of a shop, club, restaurant or other premises, can afford to miss out on.

 

So how do you improve your Local SEO? 

First things first: make sure your website is mobile-friendly and that you’re listed NAP (Name, Address, Phone) is correct AND VERIFIED on Google My Business.  If you’re not listed you can bet your competitors will be, and it’ll be their premises, not yours, that show up on Google Maps when your potential customers search. 

Get your business listed on as many other local directories as possible, too, such as Chamber of Commerce and trade group sites.  The more sites you’re on, as long as they’re relevant (thematic is, the more trust you’ll create.

Make sure all your contact details are shown and your opening hours are easy to find, and give a description of your business that will attract customers.  Use the same details on every site where you appear – and make sure they’re all updated if anything changes.  If there’s an opportunity to add photos or a profile of you and/or your business, do it: make your business as human-sounding and friendly as possible.

 

Building trust

Local SEO | Inspire IT Services | Perth

 

The other thing that really helps Local SEO rankings is to use testimonials from happy clients, so get your business listed on at least one ratings site.  The terminology can be difficult to follow so Google Local and Google+ Local are now both known as Google My Business. Beyond those though Facebook, Bing, Thomson Local, Touch Local, Central Index, and many more. 

Have links to the relevant ratings sites on your website and use the positive comments and testimonials on there too.  Deal with any complaints quickly and make sure your customer service is top-notch.

None of this is particularly hard but it does help if you know the ropes, so if you need any help with your Local SEO strategies, just get in touch with us.  We’d be happy to help you rise up Google’s local ranks.

If your listing is not reaching they heights you want we can also go beyond this type of work as we carry out additional Local SEO work for many clients all designed to promote your Google My Business + NAP listing.

Google My Business, Inspire Web Development, Inspire Web Services, Local SEO, Search Engine Optimisation, Search Engine Optimisation (Web Copy), Web Design
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