SEO Rules for Orange County Businesses to Increase Bottomline
The statistical report of Small Business Authority (SBA) shows that less than 50 percent (50%) of small business owners place importance on the role of SEO in ‘future’ business. Fourteen percent (14%) played safe and said they aren’t sure. On a positive note, a study conducted by Leverable.com found that 72% of businesses that are using SEO have increased their bottomline.
What can be the possible reasons of such short SEO orders amongst small business owners especially here in Newport Beach and the rest of Orange County? Drive Traffic Media believes that the unfounded misconceptions about SEO rose from the black-hat marketing techniques still being used by some other companies not to mention the lack of time to learn, budget issues, and for businesses which have been in the industry for a while- traditional marketing.
Our SEO firm cannot stress enough the importance of local SEO in online marketing especially here in Newport Beach and the rest of Orange County. 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. Traditional advertising might be straightforward and has a longer history but we can’t deny that customers’ way of searching for their needs shifted and are geared online.
The shift in the trend should have been very beneficial to local SEO as this will bring in more customers; and increasing the business visibility to online searches should be a top priority as Google, in its aim to serve local search results when applicable, ranks businesses which are local only if the following rules were implemented:
Local Listings. Online profiles pertaining to your business category in Newport Beach as well as the whole of Orange County should have all your information. 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 verified with consistent 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.
Review Sites. Make the most of the Review Sites as well according to our SEO expert, Michael Brandt, who would always say that the absence of reviews is equivalent to having bad reviews. Request your customers to fill up an online review for you in exchange for a service discount or promo. 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 if not necessary, More so if you ask them to review your business unless your site is accessible and viewable on mobile devices. In addition, how will they make online purchases while they’re on the go unless through 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.
Use High-Quality Images. To further accomplish the aim to provide the best user experience to customers, local listing services usually require images of your business. Make sure it is of high-quality and are adequate representation of your business.
Separate Landing Pages depending on the Number of Locations. Local listing sites want business owners who have multiple business locations to have different landing pages for each location instead of having just a single one for all. Each page should discuss information specific to that location only.
Google’s local searches work uniquely and even though local business don’t have control of all online information appearing about their business, they can at least make sure that the information they provide on the local listings they have signed up on are consistent.
So if you want to top local rankings here in Newport Beach as well as the whole of Orange County, hire an SEO firm like Drive Traffic Media. Call Us at 949-800-6990 and we will discuss how to grow your business through the expert internet marketing techniques we have acquired through the years.
Sources:
Why Aren’t More Small Businesses Using SEO? by Jason DeMers of Forbes
10 Helpful Tips For Local SEO And Online Marketing by Cormac Reynolds of Reve News