Local SEO is a practice that is becoming increasingly important for businesses across the world. If you target local customers, you want to make sure you appear high up in the search engine results pages for searches related to your business and location.
Unfortunately, many businesses still make big mistakes with their local SEO that prevent them from getting the high rankings they need. Here are some of the major mistakes you might be making, along with how to fix them.
Not Getting a Profile on Google My Business
Google My Business is a free service provided by Google that allows businesses to create an official presence in Search and Maps. A profile should be considered absolutely essential for any local business that wants to get found online.
It’s easy to get your profile. Just sign up, fill out all the details, and you’re done.
Then you can optimize it by completing all the details and adding photos. When you start to work on your local SEO, your profile and location now has a chance of showing up in the first results, known as the 3-Pack.
Failing to Ensure Your NAP Is Consistent
NAP stands from Name, Address, and Phone Number, and you should include this information on your website and in your Google My Business profile. But you will also use this on other websites like on business directories.
One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is to have different NAPs on different websites because this can affect your ranking.
So make sure you go to every website where your NAP is used, and check that all the details are correct. It’s an easy step to take, but it can make a big difference.
Not Getting Enough Positive Reviews
Customer reviews are more important than ever for businesses. Not only will your target audience want to read reviews before using your service, but reviews can also help to improve your SEO.
Start getting reviews by asking your customers to leave a review for your business on a third-party review site. Don’t bribe them for positive reviews, but simply let them know that you appreciate the feedback. The more reviews you get, especially positive reviews, will help to improve your reputation, and it is important for local SEO.
You might even want to use an online review monitoring service to keep on top of all of your reviews and make the most out of them.
Not Getting Enough Citations
Citations are also important for local SEO. These are where your NAP is mentioned on a website, usually a directory. This is not the same thing as a backlink because often the citations will not link back to your website.
Citations are important for ranking in local search, and citations that are relevant to your industry are even more important. It can take time to build up your citations, so start now and build more over time to improve your rankings.
Failing to Publish High-Quality Content
One of the big problems with local SEO optimization is when businesses do not publish high-quality content on a regular basis. Content is the foundation of good SEO, and of you only produce content sporadically, or your content is not particularly valuable, this can hurt your local SEO.
Try to get into the habit of publishing a weekly blog, you can use this to share your knowledge and provide tips and advice. You can also add in local references and talk about local events and businesses to rank higher for your local keywords.
Not Having a Strong Social Media Presence
Finally, make sure you have a presence on social media and stay active. Post your latest blog posts, join in with conversations with your customers, share interesting news you come across.
A large and engaged social following is great for getting your content shared, and social activity is an important ranking signal for Google. It all starts with creating high-quality content, which you will find easier to promote on social media.
Sort Out Your Local SEO Mistakes
These are some of the most common and problematic local SEO mistakes that businesses make all the time, preventing them from getting the visibility in the search engines that they want. Don’t be one of them, and if you are making any of these mistakes, take steps today to sort them out.
Fortunately, they are all easy to resolve, so get your local SEO in order today and start benefiting from better search results.
