Ranking your Local Business can be tricky as well as challenging at times. Some of the reasons why it can be challenging are:
- Your website is lacking a mobile-friendly nature, as most of the visitors are now using mobiles.
- More local businesses are taking up digital marketing services to expand their businesses, resulting in more competition.
- Google Local pack 1st showed the top 7 business listings and now, it is just top 3.
So what does a Digital Marketing Agency can do to overcome all these problems and appear at the top, which would help you get more leads and how Google Local Pack would be a game-changer for your business.
Recent Update on Google Local Pack
While doing SEO you need to be updated on the changes and updates Google makes, because if you implement there are higher chances of getting ranking.
The Google Local Pack is constantly modified to make it easier for the searchers like Google has recently introduced rolling out to the search interface on a desktop. So that when the users search for places and businesses near them, they can easily see results on the left and the direction map on the right.
There is no exact formula for getting to the top ranking on Google. Local SEO is a critical component of the overall optimization strategy of your business, as ranking locally for your business is vital and if you hope to improve your odds of getting ranked in Google’s Local Pack.
Top SEO Ranking Signals
The list of critical SEO Ranking Signals are categorised into two broad categories:
- Basics Local Ranking Signals: It covers the basic ranking signals, basically the fundamental factors that should be addressed to rank for SEO.
- Advance Local Ranking Signals: It summarises the more advanced local ranking signals that would help you to move to the top and outrank your competitors.
The Basics Local Ranking Signals include:
- Google Business Profile: You should claim a Google My Business account, which would help you improve your local SEO and even easy and free to claim.
- Categories of Google Business Profile: This would describe the product or service you offer and help you with connecting to your consumers easily. Be specific in describing your business, and do not get confusing.
- Insert Photos On Google Business Profile: Photos always generates more interest within the clients. You can upload pictures and videos of your work, products and even clients if they allow you to.
- Bing Places For Business: The most used search engine is Google, but Bing still hold about 7% in the world market and setting up Bing Places For Business would help your reach a different target audience.
- Online Citations: Claim your business in different popular online citations like Yahoo’s Localworks, Apple Maps, Foursquare, Yellowpages.
- Listings On Review Sites: Reviews on Google carries a lot of weight. But, listings on other sites like Glassdoor, Yelp, Angie’s List etc are even valuable.
- Positive Reviews: Respond to consumer reviews to create more engagement, and high-quality reviews help the visibility of your business.
The Advance Local Ranking Signals Includes:
- Structured Data Markup: This is highly recommended by Google to improve your local ranking signal. You can add markups using Google’s guide or the Schema tool. There is also some lack of clarity on whether including GPS coordinates within structured data is useful.
- Click-Through Rates: Concentrate on your meta titles and descriptions that make sense. So that your visitors find what they would be expecting when they arrive at your site, this would lead to an increase in Click-through rates
- Content: Content is the key, if your content is of poor quality, your bounce rate would increase. You should be consistent with the publication of your content to increase engagement.
- On-Page Location and Keyword Optimization: For easier understanding, do not just optimize for “Digital Marketing” Optimize for “Digital Marketing Kolkata”.
- Title and Meta Description: Incorporate key terms and location in the title and meta descriptions.
- High-Quality Inbound Links: The topic of inbound links should match the topic of your content. Links from the sites that Google trusts are good for SEO.
- Inbound Using Local and Keyword In Anchor Text: Inbound links are mostly used by Digital Marketing Agencies from high authority sites utilising both your city and the main key term is very important for links.