Even with a stellar marketing team, if local SEO isn’t part of your strategy, you could be losing out on hundreds or even thousands of potential customers. Local SEO is still relevant in 2015 for small businesses, especially in the thriving city of Des Moines, Iowa. If your small business is not using local SEO, we recommend you do so ASAP. Local SEO can boost your business immensely and generate more traffic to your store, whether online or brick and mortar.
Optimize Google My Business
Google My Business is a helpful tool for local businesses looking to improve their visibility within Google search, Google Maps and Google+. It helps businesses update all their business information in one spot for all Google platforms. When filling out business information, be sure it includes all of the most accurate NAP information. NAP is an acronym that stands for Name, Address and Phone number. The company’s website and business hours can also be listed on the website for more complete information.
Get Listed on the Right Business Directories
In addition to Google listings, it’s important to get listed on few other directories. Your company’s information should be listed in the following business directories:
- Yelp
- YellowPages.com
- Whitepages
- Foursquare
- Manta
- CitySearch
- MojoPages
When enlisting in business directories, make sure that company information is accurate, consistent and complete throughout all platforms. Having inconsistent information between directories and Google platforms will hurt your rankings. In fact, a recent Moz study ranked mis-matching NAP’s 3rd on their negative ranking factors list, with listing detected at false business location at No. 1 and Incorrect business category at No 2.
Encourage Clients to Post Reviews
Having multiple good reviews on Google+ and Yelp will make your business more relevant to search engines. In addition to better rankings, consumers trust businesses that have positive reviews. So no matter your business type, ask clients and customers to leave reviews on Google+. Getting customers to leave reviews can be tricky, so be sure to reach out to customers or clients soon after they have engaged with your business or with whom you have a positive rapport.
Listed below are a few ways to encourage your customers to leave you a positive business review.
If your customers are coming to your store to make purchases, ask them politely to leave a review about their experience immediately following their purchase. If you run an online business, email customers and ask for a review. In each case you can outline the steps to make it easy for them to leave the review.
Having a customer rate your business on industry specific review websites like UrbanSpoon and Trip Advisor will help boost click through rates. Ask customers to rate and leave reviews on these platforms when they are able. Asking customers how they heard about your business can be a great conversation starter into asking for a review on industry specific websites.
You can offer discounts or coupons to customers who leave reviews on their site. This is a good way to incentivise customers to leave reviews.
It never hurts to ask your Facebook and Twitter followers for reviews. Make it simple for your fans by posting the link to the review page, asking them about the product they purchased and they overall customer experience.
Another important thing to note:
Research from Google shows consumers are spending 15+ hours per week researching on their smartphones, and 69% of consumers are searching for a local business. With statistics like that you wonder why businesses aren’t optimizing for local SEO. Google labels mobile-optimized sites as “mobile friendly” when users conduct a search on their mobile device. A mobile friendly site will increase your click through rate, which also impacts rankings and most importantly, revenue.
We’d Love to Help You Get Started on Your Local SEO Campaign
Make local SEO part of your marketing strategy to kick off the new year. At Webspec Design, we pride ourselves on being a full-service web design, development and SEO company. Local SEO is one of our specialties–we even received an award at the U.S. Search Awards hosted in Las Vegas last year. With five SEO strategists on our team, you know you’ll receive the highest quality of service with the latest SEO practices. So whether you own a business in Des Moines, Iowa, or Kansas City, Missouri, we’d love to start improving your local search traffic.
