Local SEO is probably one of the most under-rated and under-used SEO tactics. But on the bright side, that’s what makes it a “low competition” strategy as well, pertaining to the fact that lesser number of people are focusing on it.
I won’t beat around the bush, by the end of this piece you’ll have some of the best Local SEO Tools to help you skyrocket your SEO game.But before that, let’s have a sneak-peek at some of the basics you need to cover before any tool can help you out.
Locations Pages:
Most business either doesn’t have a location page or have a very poorly optimized one. A locations page is nothing more than a specific page designed to inform the visitors about the location of your business.
It’s not the same as your “contact us” page because even though it can be used to get in touch with your company, that’s not its primary concern.It should be placed on a different, unique and descriptive URL. A good example is:- www.yourwebsite.com/locations or www.yourwebsite.com/addresses
Optimization:
- Proper NAP information- Name, Address, and Phone number.
- Any and all information even remotely related to your business should be present. For eg. Office-hours, representative contacts, URLs to other location pages etc.
- Easy navigation: – After you’ve created a location page, make sure you’ve included its link either on your top-bar, footer or some blog posts. The whole point is, it should be easy for the bots to reach the page.
- Use Schemas- You can use the locations schema for advanced exposure.
Add to Google+ Locations:
This is by far the easiest way to get listed over on Google for your business. Google+ is a platform owned and created by Google.So if your business exists on Google+ it exists on Google. Also, your customers can leave reviews on your Google+ business. And it’s really easy to let Google know of every information using Google+ locations like office-hours, employee count and everything else.Here’s an example of a detailed Google+ listing:
Optimize Your Business Page for Mobile:
This holds true not just for your locations page, but for the whole website as well. After the Mobilegeddon Mobile optimization wasn’t a “choice” anymore, it was mandatory for anyone with serious hopes their business.
Optimizing your website for Mobile makes sure that you don’t miss out a single potential lead/customer.On the other hand, if your website isn’t optimized for mobile phones, not only they’ll simply hit the back button and land on another one of the millions of results on Google, but this will also hurt your SERP (Search engine ranking position) quite hard.Here’s a graph of why Mobile optimization is of utmost importance:-
Be Consistent:
It’s extremely important that you make sure all your listings have the same E-mail Ids, phone numbers, addresses and other details. A mismatch in them would result in a chaos for your local business.
5 Essential Local SEO Tools for Marketing your Small Business Online:
So by now you probably have covered those other bases we talked about earlier. So now let’s get some help.
1. Moz Local:
Moz is one of the leading “SEO” solutions out there. The same holds true for its Local SEO suit as well. Moz Local is a simple, easy to use analyzer which let’s you know which platforms have your listings. What is the completion percentage of your listing, duplicate listings and details as such.
It helps you get an overview of your listings, after which you can either procure the help of Moz or manually complete the incomplete profiles, remove the duplicate ones and all take any other necessary actions.
2. WhiteSpark Local Citations Finder:
If you’re familiar with Ahref, you’ll better understand this tool. Just like “backlinks” are important for general SEO, citations serve the same purpose for local businesses.So Whitespark helps you find all the places where you’ve been mentioned online (cited), and along with that it also helps you locate fresh citation opportunities.
Other features include procuring reviews, local rank tracking etc.You need to understand that “citation” isn’t the same as a backlink, because citations can also be made without actually linking to your web page, but they deserve the same attention as far as local SEO is concerned.
3. Google Alerts:
Owning a small Local business means more than just delivering quality products and services. You need to keep track of who’s saying what about your company.“Black hat marketing strategies” are on the rise, competitors spread rumors about your company in order to grab a hold of your customers.
Google alerts is a simple to use tool which lets you set alerts for keywords. For eg. You can set an alert for “Derek’s Chow Corner”.And everytime something new appears on Google with those specific keyword, Google notifies you via mail so that you can extinguish the rumors before they make the headlines.
4. Yext:
Yext basically like an A.I which helps you manage all your local SEO tasks. Starting from managing listings, data cleansing, duplicate content updates, directory citations to generating authentic customer review; it takes care of everything.It’s not free, but its client-base and reviews speak for themselves.
5. GeoRanker:
GeoRanker is an all in one local SEO solution for small businesses. It starts from basic keyword research, helping you target keywords your consumers are looking for.Other features include white label reporting, keyword analysis as well as local citation sources, keyword prospecting and what not. Basically, its armed to the teeth when it comes to helping you out with your local SEO.
Final Words:
So those were some of the basics of local SEO accompanied with some of the best tools in the market you can procure to bring your A-game out.Although let me make it clear that I’m not affiliated with any of those tools, and hence you’re free to choose any alternatives to them you might find over the internet. These are specifically listed here simply because of their simplicity, reputation and established trust.Do let me know if you know of a Local SEO tool which deserves to be on this list!