You may be missing the days when taking a local business to
top spots in SERPs was as easier as making a website, submitting it in a few
business listing websites and claiming it on Google My Business; BOOM. Sadly,
those days are gone and local SEO has become more of a challenge for most of
the businesses.
One of the main reasons for local SEO being more challenging
is the competition. A few years ago, local businesses had no idea about
enhancing channeling their marketing efforts on online media. Now, most of them
have realized that Indianapolis SEO can seriously improve ROI. Hence, they have
started working on the basic levels and this trend has made basic level local
SEO more challenging. This competition has urged not only the business
marketers to go at advanced levels but also the search engines to update the
ranking signals.
With this change in local SEO environment, it is now important for the local businesses to adapt some advanced measures to boost their SEO efforts.
Local 3-Pack and
Google Maps
Over a year ago, Google had reduced its 7-pack for showing
business listing in the maps to 3-pack. This reduction in the pointing of businesses
has created more competitive environment among local businesses. Soon this
3-pack will have 2 spots for the businesses with improved SEO strategies and
one for the paid-for businesses.
Local content
Local business websites used to have very basic type of
content and contact details on their pages. This approach was enough for a
business to get traffic and, eventually, the customers. Now, Google has started
to emphasize on creating better local content by making content a ranking
signal. What does the local content mean? It basically includes blog posts,
local news, local market trends and much more. You stick with a few of these
and you will see improvement in your local discoverability.
Citations and local
business listings are still powerful
Citation websites and local directory submission sites like
Yelp CitySearch and foursquare have their importance unchanged. The backlinks
coming from these websites are useful and are used as ranking signals by
Google. Another reason that these websites hold their importance is that these
websites have credibility with Google.
Online reviews
It has now become more important for the businesses to have
positive feedback from satisfied customers. With the help of positive reviews,
your business will not only be able to convince search engine about your
business’s credibility but it will also impress the customers, potential
customers to be precise.
