Now that Internet access is virtually ubiquitous, with potential customers more likely than ever to seek out local businesses using services like Google Maps, ensuring that your company can be found online is of paramount importance.
What’s more, the higher your placement in these local results, the more reputable you look and the more traffic you’re going to get. Some of these fields can be hugely competitive, but there are a few simple measures you can take to ensure that you are ranking and keep yourself in the running.
Get on Google Places
While Google isn’t the only game in town, it still accounts for around 90% of search traffic in the UK, so getting your business on there is essential. Thankfully, this is made easy by Google Places for Business, which makes managing your listings across all Google services very easy and is believed to be the single most important factor in ranking locally on Google. Once you’re approved, you’ll immediately start appearing on Google Maps and mobile services when people search for local companies in your field.
Importantly, it puts the management of your business’ details in your hands. While Google is usually clever enough to find information like opening hours on your website, Places lets you be proactive when it comes to advertising your latest services.
Be social
Facebook and Twitter are increasingly popular business destinations and your interactions with customers do contribute to your rankings in search engines. But be sure not to overlook Google+, which may not be as popular but is being pushed hard by Google. It’s not a coincidence that businesses with a presence there will be the ones appearing near the top of the local search results, as in the image attached to this post.
Engaging with people across all social networks is to be encouraged, both from a traditional marketing and an SEO perspective. Search engines treat people sharing and linking to your content as a kind of vote for your popularity and will bump you up the rankings accordingly. Every time someone does that, it gives you more exposure to all their contacts, who could end up being your new best customers.
Encourage reviews
Once you’ve completed the above two steps, combine them by encouraging your customers to leave reviews on Google+. The number of reviews is listed right there in the local search results, and if you’re a customer and you see one Italian restaurant with 20 reviews and one with none, which one are you going to look at first?
There are plenty of ways to get people to spread the word about this. Why not put a QR code on your business cards that links to your profile page? (There are dozens of websites that will generate one for you.) Make sure you respond to existing reviews as well, including helping to straighten out negative ones, as this kind of customer engagement will only count in your favour. Just don’t be tempted to incentivise reviews too aggressively. That’s a violation of Google’s guidelines and you could get penalised if you’re spotted.
Keep your contact details prominent
Obviously, without your address and contact details on your website, your customers can’t find you. But is that information on every page? Keeping it in the same place across your website – for example, in the header or footer – will ensure that search engines know where you’re located. What’s more, it’ll get you ranking on local variants of all your keywords by default, since anything Google picks up on your site is automatically going to have ‘Bournemouth’, ‘Dorset’ and the like on the page with it.
It bears mentioning that you should keep them updated wherever your company is listed. Your website is easy enough, but don’t forget to tell Google Places, directories like Yelp and 192, social networks, the Chamber of Commerce, or any industry directories you belong to that you’ve moved. Search Google for your business at your old address to pick up anything that’s drawn your address from elsewhere and drop them a line with the new info.
Without needing to invest a huge amount of time into your search engine optimisation, these tips will ensure you’re visible, and coupled with designing your site around Google’s best practices, you should see your search performance boosting your traffic and therefore your business.
About Decoded Solutions: Decoded is a bespoke software development house in Bournemouth, specialising in database systems for companies in a wide range of industries.
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