Local SEO is the bread and butter of many businesses these days. In fact, we get a lot of clients looking for this service at our SEO company in Bangalore. It is a wonderful concept that you can set up a profile and potential customers can see your store images, products, reviews, etc from the comfort of their homes and make a decision to avail of your services or not. This puts a lot of importance on satisfying customer needs and transparency. However, how do you get to the top of the local pack rankings for certain areas? It is through following some Google best practices that we are going to discuss in this article
Google My Business Factors
A complete GMB profile is one of, if not the main pre-requisites to ranking well in the local pack. This means adding as many pieces of information about your business to the profile as possible. This includes adding things like logos, website, pictures, opening date, services offered, products, phone number, address, service areas etc. This gives a signal to Google that you are happy to provide the best information to your potential customers.
Review Signals
The number of ratings, important keywords in the content of reviews, and the number of Google review with text combine to make up the whole review signals ranking factor. It is the second most important ranking factor after GMB signals. They have grown in importance over time too. So, if you own the business, ask every customer that walks in to leave a review on Google and reply to all the reviews you get, no matter positive or negative. Try to include keywords you want to rank for in the replies. Also, observe the number of reviews that your competitors are getting and try to get more if not at least as many as them.
On-Page Signals
On-page signals are nothing but keywords in the business title, NAP consistency, and domain authority of the given website. They are the 3rd most important factor after GMB and review signals. Basically, try to include as many keywords in prominent places on your website that you have given a link for in the info section. If your business name has a keyword that you want to rank for, well and good. However, do not include it deliberately in the business name if it is not on the shop hoarding as it can be a violation of Google guidelines. Also, try to include your city name or service area name in 2-3 spots across your landing page.
Citations Signals
Citations are nothing but online directories where you can post information about your business. The main prerequisite of getting a good boost from citations is to maintain consistency in NAP. NAP stands for Name, Address and Phone number. You have to provide the same across all citations. The more citations you have, the better rankings you get. Some of the important sites where you can build citations are yelp, Citysearch, Hotfrog, etc.
Link Signals
Link signals are nothing but the number of quality links that the landing website you have provided in the info section has. Links are an important factor not only for SERP rankings but also for local SEO. Try to get links for your landing page from authoritative and relevant websites to get the highest benefit out of the links
Learn more about local SEO here.
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