Local SEO is a very important factor in gaining ground on the search engine pages. Optimizing your webpages so that they deliver just the right information that Google and the other search engines need to list your site’s pages accordingly is getting tougher by the day. The reason being is money. Plain and simple.
Money changes all things and Google now has monetized their local search engine results to the point of overwhelm. Basically, if you don’t pay, you don’t get play. It really puts the small business guy at a great disadvantage because the results people get nowadays at the top of the SERPs are bought and paid gads and your chance of getting the high ground are next to none.
Unless.
Yet there is hope to a degree and that’s to build on your own Local SEO campaign to target your area with gusto. This is where the chaff gets separated from the wheat. This is your time to study Local SEO, what it is and how it works and apply it professionally or your chances of even showing upon the SERPs is dismal to say the least.
Google has combined two things that challenge you, paid results and a suite of software that is kicking butt and taking names. No more sloppy, unprofessional sites nor spammy and unethical pages. You’re really in for it if you try to push off a webpage that is less than top quality. This means working from the ground floor up, crossing all Ts and dotting all I’s and letting nothing inefficient gain root.
Your content has to be top quality, your local data placed prominently where it’s supposed to be on each webpage. Take advantage of your area including history and popular events like celebrations, sports teams and the like. Include it in copy, videos, pics, and graphics. Get the social media thing going on and take advantage of AMPs, Accelerated Mobile Pages. AMPs may well be the wave of the near future so it’s good to know how to create them and convert your webpages to the format for extra power.
Remember what you’re up against. Google’s local searches are its most lucrative asset. You can’t get in on Google as they monetized their local searches to a T. The local pack at the top of the pages that used to be it is gone. That’s the standard local pack. Now there are advertisements called ‘ads of nearby businesses and ‘ads within the local pack’ replacing the old 3 pack to the 2 pack. Promoted pins in the Google Maps as well as regular ads, and you’ve got the hierarchy of domination that keeps the small guy off the Google plate.
There’s literally no way to get the top spots on the SERPs unless you’re rich. This is why you have to take things into your own hands or hire an SEO expert who specializes also in Local SEO. Together you’ll be able to overcome the bottom line stumbling blocks to give you at least a fighting chance at the SERPs and beat out your competitors.
This is the only solution to what’s going on with Local SEO and Google. Local search results turned out to be so lucrative for Google that money and its acquisition had to become the prominent priority and damn the small guy.
Now the small guy has still a shot at gaining position, not the tip top positions mind you, but enough to bring in the business.
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