LOCAL SEO POSITIONING
Local businesses have found a real gold mine on the Internet to capture new leads (potential customers). Local SEO They have realized that today, by not using the Internet, they waste a good part of their potential . For this reason, they have decided to implement new strategies adapted to changing times and the new economic reality. Google Places and, in general, everything that surrounds the activity of the American giant will set the tone.
The Internet has revolutionized the consumption habits of citizens. Increasingly, they use the Internet to obtain information and details about certain products or services that they wish to purchase. Geolocation, in this sense, has become a key strategy to position companies in the top search positions , according to local criteria. It is especially useful for offline stores , with a physical point of sale or provision of services, to attract customers
Next, the most widespread practices that concern local SEO positioning will be examined:
Google + and Places for companies
Social networks are of vital importance in an local SEO positioning strategy. Above all, Google+, which allows Android and iOS devices to share the location of a registered business profile.
The Google Places tool for companies also allows you to fill in the opening hours and the sector of activity of the company. In this way, the metasearch engine will more easily identify what the business does to provide the most appropriate information, according to the information search criteria of Internet users.The figure of the community manager is of great importance when carrying out SEO positioning. Among his functions, he highlights that of moderating a large debate forum in which he answers questions and doubts and provides users with a good channel to structure their relationship with a company.
In this context, social networks (Google+ in particular and the rest) represent a unique opportunity to generate and deploy an engagement strategy with users who, also depending on their geographical location, have entered into a buying or selling relationship.
Read more articles : How Do I Get Traffic on my Website?
How to optimize this strategy? Some of the most relevant aspects are the following:
Developing a creative copy that includes the company’s keywords, as well as its exact location.
Specify the sector of activity to the maximum. For example, Japanese food restaurants must include the cuisine in which they are dedicated.
Schema Markup : this field must be filled in so that the URL also specifies the sector or keywords.
Google Places gives companies the possibility to appear directly on Google Maps .
On-Page SEO Optimization
Each page of a website is structured according to several elements, which are used to geolocate. All of them must include the name of the city or district , so that organic searches obtain the results closest to where we want to go. The elements are the following:
ALT section of the images
Descriptions
H1 and h3 headings
URL name
in the content
Include a map on the cover
The more information provided to Google, the better indexing will be obtained when positioning a company. In this sense, just as images, videos and infographics are very useful to gain relevance, the same is true of maps. Inserting these elements with the exact location of the company, as well as a legend that informs about its opening hours and address with postal code, is a task that should not be missing.
Users will check, with a glance, the proximity or distance of the business premises and decide whether or not to go, depending on the kilometers they must travel to get there. Without an added value that complements it, they generally go to the closest places. Hence, developing content with relevant information is the perfect complement to make yourself known and explain the characteristics of the company, as well as its prices and return conditions.
Content Marketing
As already announced: “on the internet, content is king”. Therefore, this is one of the star strategies to achieve the desired SEO optimization. Through quality content, 100% creative and original, it is possible to send the right signals to Google, so that it puts special detail on the pages that, through a Content Plan, update the information on your site .
In order to carry out a Content Marketing strategy, it is necessary to create an attractive site that allows the constant upload of information through texts, images, videos and infographics. Creating an interactive and participatory scenario will increase the reputation of the website. Do not forget that reviews and comments are high-impact elements in local SEO positioning.
In addition, the work of a copywriter of creative and striking content will be of special interest in the design of e-mailing campaigns and the sending of promotional bulletins and newsletters .
geolocation directories
The NAP ( Network Access Point ) is extremely relevant in this local SEO process. Google will be waiting to receive information from the most reputable business directories to find out the relevance of the company that you want to position. In this sense, always using the same name for the NAP and being precise in the information provided will be of vital importance to be able to scale in the company’s organic search. The most useful directories to achieve this purpose are: , Yelp, Foursquare, Yellow Pages, QDQ and, of course, Google Places (explained in previous paragraphs).
SEM ( Search Engine Marketing ) and AdWords campaigns
Don’t confuse SEO and SEM. SEO stands behind this information.
Through a simple interface, the Californian giant allows companies, with its Keywords Planner tool , to find the keywords that best represent the search criteria of users (future leads ) when obtaining information about a product or service. .
The CPC method consists of the company that advertises on Google paying an amount calculated through a bidding algorithm based on what direct competitors using identical keywords pay and the conversion rate they generate.
AdWords campaigns are especially useful, because they allow companies to rank first based on geolocation criteria. it seems clear that a citizen of Valencia is not going to travel to the capital to fix the image of his mascot. Or yes, who knows?
In short, local positioning has become vital for SMEs. Ignoring it implies competing at a disadvantage.
