Every modern business knows the importance of SEO, but businesses who operate at the local level need to make sure they’re not overlooking to importance of local SEO. It happens too often that a local restaurant will drill into small business SEO, online marketing, and social media marketing, while completely neglecting the most important thing of all: LOCAL SEO!
Luckily, a new survey has just been published, and it gives us the quick and dirty answer to this problem. Here are the five most important things to remember when you’re setting up your local SEO.
1. The physical address in the city of search
2. Proper category association
3. The proximity of the address to centroid
4. The domain authority of the website
5. The quantity of structured citations on Internet yellow pages websites and data aggregators
But what does it all mean, Basil? (I can hear you asking.) Let us give you a quick overview of these five factors.
First is physical address. Be sure to list your complete address on your landing page. Additionally, it’s always beneficial to have your physical address in the same city that you are attempting to rank for.
Secondly, make sure you are assigning your business the proper categories. You should be listing all the categories that are relevant and avoiding categories that you aren’t 100% sure of.
Third is the proximity to centroid. Basically, you have a better shot at ranking if you’re physically located near the center of the area you’re targeting. No farther than 5 miles is best, but it’s by no means necessary.
Fourth is the domain authority. Like any other form of SEO, domain authority carries weight. It is important to note that domain authority alone is not enough though. To rank locally, you need to utilize all manner of techniques to hit page one.
Fifth and finally, there are the structured citations. Google “local citation sites” and find as many reputable ones as you can. Give these sites your business info and be sure to keep it accurate as it changes. This technique alone can give your local SEO a serious boost!
Need help managing your local SEO efforts? Not Sure how to get your site to rank better? Contact Wikimotive for a free evaluation and advice on how you can improve.