The web experts since 1999
The web experts since 1999
Recent events underline the importance of having a robust local SEO strategy in place for your business. Lockdowns throughout the UK have restricted travel to the local area, which has meant shopping locally for many. Another driving factor making local SEO critical for your business is growing public support for the local economy due to the pandemic's devastating effects on the high-street. This newfound support for a shop local mentality means dominance in local search results could lead to huge profits for your business.
The UK Promotion team have compiled a 16 point local SEO checklist to give you a competitive edge in today's crowded online marketplace, so grab a coffee and please take some notes.
If you'd like a hand implementing any of these local SEO tips on your website, please contact our friendly web experts today for a free consultation.
Have you heard of Google My Business? It's Google's free and easy tool for businesses like yours, allowing you to manage a Google profile, including listings within its search and map results. It's also the key to getting your business listed within Google's "map pack", which appear above other search results in their index.
It's also essential to realise that when you perform a non-local search such as "electrician", Google may use the location data from your device to return relevant local results first. Hence, a query of "electrician" may show similar if not the same results as "Llandudno electrician" (based on UK Promotion's location here in the Queen of Welsh Resorts).
GMB (Google My Business) should be your primary local SEO objective when listing your website on a "directory". Still, many other directories are also worth the time and effort required to create a free company listing. The leading contenders in the United Kingdom worth your time are:
When compiling a list of directories to submit your site to, do some homework and identify guides and directories local to you, which may also be worth considering. The critical thing is to avoid websites that look old, spammy, neglected and cheap; you need to concentrate on high-quality backlinks.
What is NAP? NAP is short for Name, Address and Phone Number, and if your business has been around for several years, your NAP data will already be included on many other websites. As a rule of thumb, this data is known in the web industry as a NAP Citation, and your NAP Citations must be consistent across all websites to have the best effect on local SEO.
Make sure to keep track of websites containing any NAP Citation for your business, ensuring they are maintained and updated frequently; this is especially true if you've had a recent change of address or phone number.
If your NAP Citations differ from site to site, you'll find this negatively impacts your local SEO efforts because it's more likely that some of the data is wrong.
Schema markup, aka structured data, is a snippet of code informing search engines and other interested web bots about certain aspects of your business, brand or website. This markup is used primarily by search engines to return more intuitive results to their users and to enable additional features such as rating stars and datestamps.
Google has a good guide on local business schema and the available markup options for your business. At a minimum, we recommend your site includes the following schema data:
Google's Structured Data Markup Helper can assist in creating schema markup for your website. If you don't feel confident enough doing this yourself, a professional web design agency such as UK Promotion can help.
You're probably not surprised when we say that local SEO and general SEO go hand-in-hand. If your website ignores the principals of good SEO, then this will impede your local SEO efforts. The basic principals you should follow for good SEO are:
Google reviews can be a powerful tool for your local SEO. Not only do reviews send strong signals to Google that you're a genuine, trustworthy business, they also help convince customers to buy from you and not your competitors. The key here is honesty; yes, it's possible to ask Uncle Buck and Aunt Em to leave you a review, but fake reviews are usually easy to spot, and Google's algorithms may also catch them, which you'll want to avoid. Collect feedback from genuine customers only, and it will pay dividends.
You may also wish to collect reviews through a Google licensed review partner; we can help you do this through our partnership with reviews.co.uk. The benefits of reviews are huge; take a look at how your business should use customer reviews on your website.
For those already dabbling in SEO, you'll be familiar with the process of acquiring high-value backlinks for your website. In short, backlinks from high-quality sources pass good mojo, sometimes known as link juice, to your site. This link juice is seen almost as a vote of confidence by Google, so the more high-quality links you gain, the better your site will perform.
Local SEO is similar to generic SEO when it comes to backlinks, meaning the more high-quality local backlinks you have, the better you will perform. Look to attract links from local suppliers, local partners and even your local friendly web design agency to build your backlink portfolio.
We've spoken about the importance of maintaining a Google My Business profile to benefit your local SEO. One of the other benefits of a Google My Business account is the ability to publish Google Posts. Think of Google Posts as another social media outlet with the posts published alongside your business details on Google.
If you're already active with social media, then Google Posts should just become another one of your outlets for offers, news and product launches.
When it comes to keeping your blog fresh and updated, many business owners can struggle to find topics to write about; content based on local events or news may be able to help you out. By creating local content, you can incorporate local keywords to help your quest landing that coveted top spot on Google!
For example, here in Llandudno, hotels could write about the best beaches to visit in North Wales (broad), Conwy (local) or Llandudno (hyper-local). They may also wish to write about the nightlife in Llandudno or upcoming Llandudno events.
We've all become accustomed to marketing our businesses online; however, real-world publications can also be an asset if you learn to use them correctly. Consider prepping a press release for the local press when you have newsworthy information to share, such as business anniversaries, expansion plans or charity fundraisers. If featured in your local, you'll gain real-world exposure, plus most news outlets will also include the article on their website and across social media channels; what more could you want.
Keyword optimisation is the art of including keywords and key phrases on your website, which match the search terms favoured by your ideal customers on search engines. For UK Promotion that may be "Web Design Llandudno" or "Llandudno Web Agency", for you, it will be something completely different.
You can find ideas about which keywords to target by putting yourself in your customers' shoes and creating what's known as a customer persona. These personas will help you replicate the mindset of your ideal customer and ultimately help with keyword research. Type your ideas into Google... then navigate to the bottom of the screen to see Google's recommendations on other search terms people may be using - genius!
The aim of including relevant localised keywords in your copy isn't to create unbalanced content or lists upon lists of keywords to fool Google. The objective is to use them naturally a few times throughout your page to help Google draw a connection between your website and those topics.
You're most likely already using social media in some form for your business, and if so, congratulations! If you haven't yet claimed your space on social media, then now is the time to do so. Social media not only helps expose you to more people, but it also helps increase customer satisfaction through more accessible contact methods and easy access to your business. It also makes it effortless for those satisfied customers to recommend you to friends!
Whilst the social media accounts you choose to maintain are up to you, the platforms of choice are:
We've included this point not because it's easy to do but because it can help glean important information on increasing your sites local ranking with search engines. Competitor analysis is a specialised technique that can help guide your local SEO efforts, the downside being it takes time and technical know-how to do it thoroughly and correctly. A web design agency such as UK Promotion can help you keep on top of competitor analysis, but there are a few tips and tricks you can also try yourself.
It's easy to focus entirely on digital marketing techniques when it comes to local SEO. Promoting your website means directing your efforts to the internet, right? Well, hold on just a minute; yes, you do need to focus a lot of effort towards online promotion, but that shouldn't stop you from finding other, more traditional marketing methods.
You could add a simple magnetic sign printed with your web address to the side of your car or company vehicle. Leaflets could be printed and placed in local venues of interest, or you could even have a banner flown over your town by plane! Don't dismiss traditional forms of marketing; they can still work wonders for your business.
Another aspect often overlooked when attempting to promote your business locally is good old fashioned networking. Networking can take many forms, from joining local business groups and attending weekly meetings to the less formal approach of simply making sure everyone you interact with has a copy of your business card.
Physical networking works hand in hand with digital networking to help get your business noticed.
It's all well and good working hard on your local SEO and hopefully attracting many more visitors to your site, but once they are there, don't forget to look at CRO (Conversion Rate Optimisation). Although a subject in itself with much to learn and digest, the basics of CRO is simple, make changes to your site to encourage a higher number of conversions. Conversions could mean sales, filling out a contact form or subscribing to your newsletter.
Well done, you made it through our article on local SEO. Hopefully, it has given you some food for thought and an idea of where you should be focussing your energies. SEO is never a quick process; there is always more you can and should be doing, especially as search algorithms change over time. Do your best and always remember UK Promotion are at the other end of the telephone if you need any advice or help. Good luck on your local SEO journey!
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