Local Search Insight: Don’t Miss Your Local Listing!

The importance of Local SEO for small businesses in cities is vital to
stay ahead of their competition as well as to simply be found.  I was
chatting with a friend the other day about his Local SEO tactics and it
reminded me of a somewhat recent report that highlighted the cost of
having incorrect info for your local business.  The report shows how
many local businesses actually don’t have their business listed locally
on major search engines.  YIKES!  The percentage that don’t is not
staggering or alarming, but the overall percentage with errors in their
listing is.  So if you are reading this now and you control this listing
 for your business, you might want to check out your local search
listing info ASAP before your boss does to make sure you still have a
seat next week.  Again, this might seem like a small error or a common
oversight that just happens, but when you have over 70% of search
traffic looking for local products and services, a small error can
really hurt you.

Local Seo Boston

So How Much is the #1 Google Search Result Worth?

In case you did not view this data from Chitika, it clearly shows how important it is to be on the first page of Google’s search results. 9 out of 10 people (90%!!) are satisfied with that first page of Google’s search results and only 1 out of 10 decides to take a look at page #2. WOW! Let’s face it, this is tough news for for small companies that are fighting in very competitive markets to get a coveted spot on that first page. So what can companies do to compete in this hyper-competitive online search market? Today’s market is saturated with mobile devices and mobile searches are rapidly increasing. Last year there were 30 Billion mobile searches and 12 Billion of those were for local companies. Hence, companies today want to make sure that they have a strong local SEO strategy. Let’s face it, if you own say a small auto insurance insurance company in a city or perhaps in a suburban area, it will be very hard to compete against the national companies that can spend large sums to really own page #1. Small companies can use their location to their advantage. Make sure that you register your business with Google’s small business – https://www.google.com/business/placesforbusiness/ This is a great, easy and free way to boost your search rank and get you in the game. Just make sure that you enter the right info as a lot of businesses make silly errors here. Remember, customers want to find what they are looking for without any delays. Include your location in your Title Tags. Yes this is a big one! You might even want to almost brand yourself around your specific location. For example, if your business is located in Atlanta, Georgia, then you might want to use some marketing messages that highlight your time or loyalty to this town. Content Marketing Campaigns based around location. You might want to create marketing campaigns (on your site, blog, social media) that tout your affinity to your specific location and if your business has been in this location a while you will want to highlight this for credibility. Local Link Building. Obviously, make sure that you are listed in the local area listings, Yelp, Citysearch and Patch. You will also want to look at your local business community to see what is popular with other local businesses (eg. Chamber of Commerce, Networking Groups, Community Groups, etc.) **This is where small businesses really have a leg up on the national chains because let’s face it, when was the last time you left a review for a McDonald’s burger? But, on the other hand, most of us are much more willing to post reviews for the local restaurant around the corner. Guess what all those reviews help your site with? Yes, better search rank. Social Signals. Make sure your business has a Google+ page and an additional social channel (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.) Be sure to communicate via these channels, search for your audience and build quality content as well as relationships. The key in this arena is to be consistent with your communication and to let your personality shine (be bold, try new things and have fun).

Boston SEO Services

The Best Free Marketing Tool You Don’t Use

As an online marketing professional who helps companies with their online marketing needs (SEO, social media, mobile marketing, etc.), I have noticed an interesting and somewhat alarming trend in the online marketing world.  I have found over the years that my clients for the most part consistently do not take advantage of Google’s Webmaster Tools.  In fact, I have found that a fair amount of the companies that I have worked with don’t event know what GWT (Google Webmaster Tools) are.  Now, I fully understand why these companies might not have heard of them or simply don’t have the time to utilize these valuable free tools because most of these people are too busy running their companies, hence it’s why they are reaching out for marketing help.  Anyway, it’s not only this crowd that is not reaping the benefits of this free Google tool, but I have found that many friends with accomplished degrees in marketing are rather oblivious too. So what makes Google’s Webmaster Tools so great? Let’s start with a little background on the tools and its easy to see their value.   Google Webmaster Tools is the primary way that Google communicates with webmasters or site owners.  Hence, it is a very helpful tool as it provides great traffic data and insight about your site, helps you to identify issues (eg. duplicate content, SEO infractions, etc.) with your site and even lets you know if your site has been infected with malware.  You can also use this tool to see which of your landing pages is receiving the most impressions, its rank on Google search engine results and the number of clicks from visitors.  Webmaster tools is also a great resource for learning about tactics which will help your site get found more easily on the internet and Google’s preferred methods for this.

Boston Seo Consultant