Getting your local business to appear on the first page of Google is key to getting inbound leads and calls to your business. Here is a step by step guide to help you get the local visibility you need with Local SEO.
Understanding what Local SEO is
Your Local Business Listing
Local SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is getting your business to show up in the right service category on Google in the local business listings. So for example on a search for “Web Designer” the following local listings appear:
Your Google Maps Business Listing
The second place you have to be concerned about is your Google My Business Page. So when you click on “iGo Sales and Marketing” you get the image on the left.
So as you can see, your local business listing has reviews, business description, an article post and images you posted from your business, plus a map location.
Your Google Knowledge Graph
The third way your business listing can appear is; if someone searches for your business by name. Then an extended business listing will appear on the right hand side of search. This is the Goolge Knowledge Panel. You’ll see it has various components about your company:
- Reviews
- Logo
- Posted article
- Questions & Answers
- Links and reviews from around the web.
How to bring all this Local SEO Together
Making all this info appear on Google is not as straight forward as you may think. There are various things you have to do to make this happen. Here are all the components
Google My Business Page
The first thing you need to do is sign up for a Google My Business Page.
https://www.google.ca/business/
You’ll need to fill out the various fields and info required, upload your logo and pictures of your business. Then you’ll have to verify that you are, in fact, the business you are trying to register. Google will either check that under your logged in gmail address you have Webmaster Tools installed on your website and you are an admin. In that case it will automatically approve you. If that’s not the case, Google will send a postcard to the address on your listing. Once you get the postcard, it will have a PIN number on it. You just then log in to your business listing and enter the PIN code an you’ll be verified and published
Key Items for Your Listing:
- Choose the right service category
- You can choose many secondary categories. Find all that apply.
- Give some thought to the business name and description, as this will help with search relevance.
- Your post with a call to action will appear, so make it count.
- Add relevant pictures of your place of business or service.
- Get your clients to leave good reviews!
On Page Local SEO
On your website, you still have some work to do. You’ll need to include “structured data and schema” in your web pages. Structured data and schema are just standard formatted ways to communicate specific information to search engines. Search engines use this information to populate your local listings and other data. Having this info present may also increase your ranking.
Here’s and example of some of the structured data from my site:
<meta property=”og:locale” content=”en_US” /><meta property=”og:type” content=”website” />
<meta property=”og:title” content=”iGo Sales and Marketing, Inc. Website Design | Logo Design | Digital Marketing & SEO” />
<meta property=”og:description” content=”We drive traffic to your website and help you convert it to leads and revenue. Plus, we're a Google Partner's Agency so we can help you with Google PPC Advertising.” />
<meta property=”og:url” content=”https://igosalesandmarketing.com/” />
<meta property=”og:site_name” content=”Mississauga Website Designer” />
<meta property=”fb:admins” content=”746767418″ /><meta property=”og:image” content=”https://igosalesandmarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/FB-page.jpg” />
<meta property=”og:image:secure_url” content=”https://igosalesandmarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/FB-page.jpg” />
<meta name=”twitter:card” content=”summary_large_image” />
<meta name=”twitter:description” content=”Mississauga Website Designer and SEO Company Specializing in B2B Lead Generation,SEO & SEM. Serving Toronto, Mississauga & GTA” />
<meta name=”twitter:title” content=”Mississauga Website Designer | SEO Company | Branding” />
<meta name=”twitter:site” content=”@paulstevens_71″ />
<meta name=”twitter:image” content=”https://igosalesandmarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/FB-page.jpg” /><meta name=”twitter:creator” content=”@Pablostevens_71″ />
<meta property=”og:image” content=”https://igosalesandmarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/FB-page-1024×536.jpg” />
<meta property=”fb:pages” content=”493268530726727″ />
You can see I’m telling the search engines specifically what my site is about, plus, giving them associated links to my Facebook and twitter pages. The search engines may pull content from there or in my case, you’ll see they pulled in my reviews from Facebook and Top 10 SEO’s.
You can check that your structured data is working in Google Webmaster Tools (now called Search Console).
Full lists of specifications are available at:
http://schema.org/docs/schemas.html
Ensure to use the right schema info that applies to you. If you’re an author, for example, there is a whole bunch of structured data that applies specifically to authors. If you’re a local business, you use the local business structured data.
You can also tag your pages with your latitude and longitude. This is important for your Google Local listing because often Google serves up the closest result to the searchers location.
Bonus Tips:
Get your clients to leave you reviews. Good quality positive reviews help your listing appear first. Plus, it’s a great way to show potential clients how great you are. Send the link to your Google Local listing to your clients when you have completed the service and ask them to give you a review. It’s that simple, and it will help your Local SEO.
Do you need help with Local SEO?
iGo Sales and Marketing specializes in Local SEO. We’re a Mississauga SEO Company and we can help you set all this up and ensure you get the best exposure for your local business and help get your phone ringing.