If you’re Amazon or PayPal, you want website traffic from all over the world. But if you’re a car mechanic, a plumber or pizza restaurant, you can only serve customers that live nearby. Local SEO is where you try to rank better to local visitors that are searching for queries related to your business.
If you search for window repair and you’re based in New York, Google knows that you don’t want to see Alaska-based window repair businesses. So, if the searcher types in “window repair NY City” or “window repair”, Google will still try to find businesses that are in the right city.
In this article, we’ll explore ways you can rank better for local search queries. There are many unique aspects of local SEO, so the usual rules about link building and quality content aren’t enough on their own.
Add Your Picture to Google+
You can place your picture next to your website in search results. This will make people more likely to click on your listing, and it will make potential customers more likely to trust you and your business. When you show your picture, it gives people confidence you have nothing to hide.
“To enable this to happen, you must have a Google+ profile for the business proprietor, link to it from your website including a querystring with rel=author: <a href=”[profile_url]?rel=
Your Google+ picture will increase your search traffic by increasing your conversion rate from search results. When people see an image, they’re much more likely to click through to the website.
Add your business to directories
You will see an uptick in traffic and rankings when you add your business to small business directories and online Yellow Pages. Google looks around to find citations to your local business, and each citation counts as a positive vote for your business.
In the YellowPages United FAQ, the copy reads, “Yellow Pages United is viewed by thousands and thousands of people searching for businesses per month. Bizyellow provides you with a customizable webpage that gets your business found in search engines.” Keep in mind that you will also get direct traffic from your listings in the directory, and that people will come across your directory listing in search engines. Additionally, your website will rank higher in search engines, so there are many different advantages to directory listings.
Include full details of your business
Make sure to include as much information as possible about your business. Search engines want to find a local address and telephone number to validate that your business is based in the area where the search is based.
“Each time you add your website and business information to a local directory, social network, or forum, make sure you be consistent with your business name, address, telephone number, email address, website link, and business description,” writes Search Engine Journal.