Our SEO firm cannot stress enough the importance of local SEO in online marketing especially here in Newport Beach. The easiest way to obtain new customers is no less than optimizing local SEO as nearly 92% of consumers seek out local businesses for the products and services they need. Nobody cares to look at yellow pages anymore unless you’re one of those people who never want to let go of their old cellphones to make way for a smartphone or tablet.
The shift in the trend is very beneficial to local SEO as this brings in more client who are seeking to promote their businesses online. What are the best ways to start local SEO campaign though? Here’s a few tips that you might want to try according to the SEO expert, Michael Brandt :
Google+. Google+ has been dubbed as a graveyard site because nobody cares to look at it however that’s what we are all wrong! How else can Google rank your business with its leading search engine if your business isn’t even listed on Google+? Think about it. Without any pertinent information of your business on Google+, nobody will give your business a second glance. Make sure to include all information regarding your business and top it off with a good quality photo and encourage past and loyal customers to leave you a review as this builds up your online reputation on Google’s search engine ranking.
Aside from Google+ local, build your business profile with two other major search engines Bing local and Yahoo local as well.
Directory sites. Directory sites pertaining to your business category in Newport Beach as well as the whole of Orange County should have all your information as well. Judy’s book, foursquare, Just Click Local, HomeAdvisor, LocalPages, My Web Yellow and several others where your business is listed should be claimed or otherwise activated with a consistent list of information like your business name, phone number and address (NAP) as scoring of your business through search engine is influenced by the ease by which Google’s crawl bots can see these details.
Make the most of the Review Sites as well according to our SEO expert. Request your customers to fill up an online review for you in exchange for a service discount or promo. Whatever it takes for them to give you a positive feedback online. Yelp reviews cant be ignored as in doing so would place your business in the mercy of unsatisfied customers who are out to ruin your online reputation. The more good reviews you get, the better ranking you’ll have.
Mobile-Responsive Site. And to top it off, all of these isn’t going to work out if your site is not mobile-responsive. Customers don’t have time to look your business up unless necessary, how much more if you ask them to review your business but your site isn’t accessible on smartphones and tablets? How will they make online purchases while they’re on the go unless though their mobile devices? As I mentioned before, Google’s bots likes simplicity and consistency. Two qualities that will allow it to see your site and allow your prospective customers to navigate to your site regardless of the device they use; which in the end will benefit your local rankings.