Calling All Local Businesses – How To Improve Your SEO

5th December 2013

There’s a revolution going on right now when it comes to getting your brand and your business seen by those that matter – your target audience members. Not only is mobile taking over as the new search medium of choice for millions, but Google is paying closer attention than ever before to local SEO when deciding on its rankings.

Of course, any and all changes implemented by Google are seen by some as the end of the world and pure evil, but with each change comes a series of opportunities for improvement. And the best news is that some of the most powerful techniques of all are not only easy to try out, but won’t cost you a penny either. A perfect example of this being the creation of a listing with Google+ Local, which unsurprisingly has a lot of pull with Google and can work wonders for your visibility.

So, as it stands right now, why it is that local search has taken on such importance?

Well, the reasons are numerous but perhaps the most important of all lies in the mobile revolution. These days, people aren’t just using smartphones and tablet PCs as convenient devices while on the go – they’re replacing their desktop machines and laptops with them entirely. And what’s more, they’re becoming reliant on them when it comes to making so many of their everyday decisions – where to eat, which bus to catch, where to shop, how much to spend, which route to take and so much more.

The statistics speak for themselves:

Mobile searches being carried out increased by a massive 25% during the course of last year are expected to exceed this wildly come the end of 2013.
Tablet PC searches have increased exponentially – 20% – over the course of this year alone, while searches carried out on standard PCs and laptops fell by 7%.
Google
has stated that no less than 40% of all search queries registered all local in their intent – billions and billions of searches all looking for local services.
Mobile searches have an enormous success rate when it comes to triggering follow-up actions, such as phone calls, visits to stores or actual purchases.
In the course of an average week, over a third of all consumers are known to use mobile devices to find out information on a potential purchase of some kind.

Low Hanging Fruit

The good news is that there are some really easy ways to make the most of this local search shift while the pickings are so rich. Rocky John Tayaban, the managing director of iSolutions Media, said that one of the best things you can do to make an immediate and noticeable difference is to sort yourself out with a free Google+ Local listing. Map-driven local search results are big business these days and you’re really selling yourself short if you’re not making the most of them.

To put it into an example, Google local results will be rather abundant to say the least if looking for a café in London. And as you can see if you take a look, you can use these listings to improve the image of your own café by adding pictures, access to reviews, directions, website details, contact information and so on and so forth.

Standing out in London isn’t exactly an easy job, but move away from the capital to smaller areas and you soon start to see the opportunities before you. Carry out the same search for cafés in a much smaller town and you will immediately see that while there are maybe a dozen or so cafés around the High Street alone, maybe three or four are listed on Google+ Local. Needless to say, these three or four will win all the hits going via this medium.

It’s free, it’s easy and it takes a few minutes max – where’s the sense in robbing your business of such potential?