When you are looking around and researching SEO, one of the topics you may come across is local SEO. Local SEO is getting your site ranking higher on Google and other search engines in the local area. You may already be wanting to do this, but not know there is a term associated to it…
Ranking in the local area is much easier and faster than trying to rank for keywords nationally or globally! This is due to the reduced competition. However, it can still to a tough ask. The good news is that there are some simple steps that you can follow that will help you rank your website in the local area with little work required.
1) Claim your business on Google
Google has already created the perfect tool to help local people find your services when they search. It is called Google Business (previously ‘Google Places’). When you do a search with a local town name (‘web design Wigan’ for instance), you will see there is a list of businesses and a map! Google business features different businesses on this map, allowing people to find and contact businesses offering the service they are looking for in the local area.
This works particularly well for café’s and bars in tourist locations, as there are reviews that are featured too, but it isn’t restricted to these industries. There are still an amazing amount of companies who don’t take advantage of this feature and just leave Google to complete the listing details for them, without claiming the listing themselves and editing the details available.
These details include:
- Address
- Opening hours
- Web address
- Phone number
- Email address
- Images of work, team, services and locations etc
- Details of services provided
- Reviews
- Updates on latest news, events etc
If you don’t claim your listing, you are missing out on keeping your customers updated on important information in the first place they will see them – on Google.
2) List on Local Directories
If you do a Google search for ‘local directories’, you will find a bunch of different places for you to add your website to. Directories – like the old Yellow pages are lists of services that can do quite well on search engines, due to the amount of content and amount of links they contain. Having your website listed on the best directories not only makes sure that your website is is the mix for a search on these directories, but can also add a valuable link back to your website, increasing your power when it comes to local SEO. There is more to understand with links that could take lots and lots of reading to understand, but the basics are understanding DO-FOLLOW and NO-FOLLOW and then understanding domain authority.
do-follow links are the type you want, as these are the website equivalent of a recommendation to your website. No-follow links are not recommendations and won’t help any SEO efforts.
Domain authority is a 0-100 scale that can help translate how Google rates your website based on trust and authority. The higher the domain authority number, the better trusted the website is. A link from a website with a high DA score is worth 100’s of links from websites with lower DA scores. Not all links are equal.
Check out this list of the 100 best free directories you can list your website on.
3) On-Page Local SEO
The content on your site will be the best way to increase your prominence on Google for local searches. Adding your town/city, or a local area within your content/page titles will help you be found more easily when a local search is performed. Don’t be afraid to mention the geographical limits of your service. If you can only service a certain area, make sure you mention that in your content. There is no point in generating leads from an area you can’t service.
If you have completed these steps and want to find out more, please feel free to get in touch and we can perform a free review of your website and SEO to find out what is going on and what can be better or what strategies can be implemented for continuous improvement.
To find out more about our local SEO services, take a look at our SEO services in Wigan page. For national SEO, please take a look at our SEO optimisation web page by clicking the link.
All SEO can take a few months of time to start working. It is usually a bit quicker than this, but it can depend on when the search engines get round to crawling your website again. If you need a faster way of getting higher up Google, perhaps a local focussed PPC campaign would work for you. Check out our PPC Adwords management in Wigan page to find out a bit more.