If you are a small business owner you need to know about Google know where you are located and what you have to offer so you are not only showing up on Google search engine result pages more frequently, but you are showing up in front of the eyes of the relevant audience.
Unfortunately, local SEO is somewhat of a confusing topic and always has been. It’s tough to know where to even begin. You have to ask yourself: What are some must-have SEO strategies when it comes to local SEO? Local search doesn’t have to be complicated, and you just need to have a well-rounded local strategy.
Following are the most popular and effective Strategies all over the World:
Create Local Places Pages
Of course, the first step is making sure that you have a local business page for all three major search engines (meaning you’ll have three different listings and dashboards to manage). You can visit for Bing and for Yahoo to get started. You can visit to get started with Google. All you will need to do is fill out your business information such as location, phone number, hours, etc. and then you’ll be all set with an account.
Optimize and categorize your page properly
Optimizing your local pages means uploading a good amount of quality photos (discussed later in this article), detailing your hours of operation, and listing the services offered.
Second, categorizing your business correctly is actually one of the most crucial steps to optimizing for local search. Several local search engines offer you the ability to place your business into 2-5 categories to help them understand what your business does. According to Moz Local, (formerly GetListed.org) search engines will “not display a business that is not categorized, or even worse, mis-categorized for a particular set of keywords.”
Accurate Business Citations
You need to make sure all of your information is filled out and you have consistent NAP (Name, Address, and Phone) data for your company across all listings. It is possible that your business is already listed somewhere by someone else, but don’t panic! All you need to do is claim this listing, often referred to also as a citation.
You can claim a citation by first looking to see if there is another business by the same name with the same location. A few tips:
Use a tool like Yext or Localeze to help see where your local listing of your company is found online.
Consider using Google Map Maker to search for your business and phone number to help you see if there are any duplicate listings.
Search for various names of your business. If you already have a listing created, which information gathered from around the web so it could be incorrect.
You will have to verify that you are the owner of your business either by email, phone, or possibly traditional mail. Services such as Yext and Localeze can also speed up this process because they can also help you create these citations or make them more uniform so that all of your local information on the web is accurate.
Online Reviews
According to a story published on the Search engine Land Google looks at reviews as a major factor for ranking on the new carousel design; however more than anything your reviews are for Google users who see your company on a SERP. Reviews are quick and easy ways for consumers to decide which link they want to click.
