Is Google My Business Good Enough for Local SEO?

Optimizing Your Google My Business Page for Local SEOGoogle earns majority of its revenues from advertisements-of the US$ 110.9 billion it made in 2017, ads alone contributed US$ 95.4 (or 86%). No wonder, Google is the most popular search engine in the world, processing 1.2 trillion searches globally every year. That very statistic is a burning instance of the search engine’s earnest attempts to keep all its users happy.
In order to enhance the visibility of your business across the net, Google continues to introduce cutting-edge tools and techniques periodically. Google My business for instance, is one such tool that strives to bolster local SEO so as to help businesses to become more visible in their immediate surroundings. But can ‘Google My Business’ help achieve your business goals?

What exactly is Google My Business?

The Google My Business tool not only lets you display your business across all the search engine’s platforms and interfaces but also enables you to control the manner in which the same is visible. Registering for the app (via App Store or Google Play) is easy as you simply have to fill in a few mandatory details for gaining access to several versatile features.

Benefits of listing your business with Google My Business

1. Sweeping visibility

Since innumerable third-party portals bank on Google for obtaining relevant info, you can bet your firm’s visibility will significantly perk up. Once you’re listed on Google My Business, the likelihood of your site showing up on third-party website will increase manifold. Also, business categorization will lead to users landing at your site via local SEO search.

2. Steady NAP consistency

If you key in the correct name, address, and phone number (NAP consistency) of your business while signing up for Google My Business, you can take it for granted that Google will show exactly the same info. Also, make sure that you enter the actual operation hours so that your customers can contact you or vice-versa.

3. Analytics data helps fine-tune visibility

You’ll have the added advantage of reviewing your business performance by exploiting specific metrics such as Google Analytics. By using Google Analytics, you’ll be able to determine the traffic volume, total number of users, and so on. The interface ‘insights’ will let you find out the proportion of users who found you through organic searches and paid searches.

4. Impress customers with stunning visual content

Since attention-spans of users nowadays are extremely short, you can make an indelible first-time impression on your prospective customers and/or users by uploading eye-catching footages and snapshots. Google My Business offers you the opportunity of uploading of exhibiting your online storefront apart from videos and photographs.

5. Online bookings

In case you are a dentist or a veterinarian, listing with Google My Business will allow your patients to make appointments directly from your site. The advantage of booking online is a win-win situation-you’re assured of a visit (read consultation fee) and your customers is spared from the hassle of having to wait in a queue at the chamber for an appointment.

6. Intuitive blog posts

Needless to say, you’ll have to compete with many other businesses or professionals for the same number of customers. So, how do you make your business stand out from the crowd? Of course, by posting creative and original blogs describing your product or service as well as through promotional and seasonal offers. And Google My Business is definitely your best web-based platform for showcasing your business.

7. Interactive reviews

Google My Business provides you with the incentive of establishing an intimate rapport with your customers by responding to their feedbacks. You’ll surely be able to take your business to the next level if you pay heed to your users’ feedbacks.

The drawbacks

Perhaps the only downside of exploiting Google My Business is that you’ll have to put in a lot of effort to maintain the goodwill of your brand. However, there is no online business management tool that allows you to publicize your business effortlessly.

If you want to make the most of your Google My Business listing, log in at www.localseojacksonville.biz or dial 904-425-9679.

Making the most of organic SEO and local SEO for your online business

Organic SEO and local SEO for your online businessIrrespective of whether you’re push selling a product or aggressively promoting a service via your web-based or online platform, the effectiveness of your SEO strategy will decide whether your site is there on Google’s or Yahoo’s first SERP. You may be aware that nearly 90% of all users never bother to look beyond the opening search engine results page when looking for a product or service or searching for specific info? So, you might be tempted to ask yourself as to how you can make your e-commerce site claim a 1st page rank on Google, especially after all your previous attempts to do so have come a cropper?
The answer to the aforementioned question largely depends on whether you want your portal to rank for local SEO or organic SEO. There’s a great deal of difference between the two expressions and there are specific factors or attributes based on which organic search engine optimization can be differentiated from local SEO. This article elucidates on the fundamentals of both online marketing strategies, and after going through both, you’ll have a fair idea on where and how to channelize your efforts for driving maximum traffic to your site.

Demystifying local SEO

  • What is local SEO?- When you plan your campaign for promoting your business throughout the world of web based on where you are physically located, such an approach is termed local SEO.
  • Who stands to benefit the most from local SEO?-If you’ve have a brick-and-mortar outlet, physical consultant office or a medical chamber, you’ll stand to gain maximum by fine-tuning your canvassing strategy for local search. In that manner, prospective customers situated in the vicinity of your physical storefront will be able to locate your store or chamber, thereby boosting your business.
  • Modus operandi of local SEO-Consider a hypothetical scenario where you go online and browse for a standard family restaurant in the area where you reside. You’ll most probably search on the Google or Chrome browser using the keywords, ‘best family restaurant in Piccadilly’, family restaurants in Piccadilly’ or ‘restaurants for dining with family in Piccadilly’, and so on. After keying in the keywords, and clicking ‘enter’, you’ll instantly see Google throw up the search results.
  • What you actually see is the first page of the results. The URL at the top of this page is the one that is maximally optimized for searching locally. The URLs that follow are ranked in order of their optimization level. The restaurant heading the list is the one that’d be most convenient for you to step in.

Tips on making the most of local SEO

  • Ascertain your NAP consistency-No ‘NAP’ is not an abstract term but the abbreviation simply stands for name, address, and phone number. When you host your site, ensure that your business’s name, address, and phone no. is identical throughout the internet and across all directories.
  • Take advantage of Google My Business tool-For ranking high enough on local SEO search listings, tap the potential of Google My Business tool for listing as much info about your venture as you can.
  • Persuade customers to post positive feedbacks about your business
  • Always use relevant keywords that will let your customers find you quickly

About organic SEO

  • Defining organic SEO-When Google ranks your website (using search algorithms) based on your site’s content and user-friendliness, the process is called organic SEO.
  • For whom organic SEO is meant?-Organic SEO strategy works best for businesses and firms that only have an online presence and do not own a physical office or branch.
  • Mode of operation of organic SEO-Extrapolating the abovementioned example of ‘family restaurant’, the chances of your restaurant showing up in most organic search results will be higher if you temper content with relevant organic keywords that have a greater likelihood of being used by diners.

Guidelines for taking advantage of organic SEO

  • Keyword optimization is the key
  • Adjust and tweak on-page optimization
  • Garner as many quality inbound links as you can
  • Develop content around a focus keyword

https://www.localseojacksonville.biz will help you out with formulating a customized local or organic SEO strategy for you. You can also make a call to 904.425.9679 for clarifications.

6 Tips for Local SEO That You Can Advantage of

6 Tips for Local SEO That You Can Advantage ofThough the SEO landscape has come a long way and evolved tremendously over the years, its significance in the world of websites hasn’t diminished at all. SEO remains as relevant today as it was during the days when Google was steadily progressing to become the world’s most admired search engine. Google, in order to maintain its top position in the search engines’ listing, updated its ranking algorithms several times in a year.

The world’s top search engine still releases algorithmic updates for ranking countless websites secured on its servers, only the parameters have undergone change, a sea change in fact. For instance, updates to Penguin or Panda are more geared towards sites that are smartphone-friendly. More than 60% of those who log into sites (for completing a purchase or seeking relevant info) do so from portable digital devices, mostly smartphones.

Another factor worth noting is that the updates accord significant weightage to sites that are promoted by taking advantage of a local SEO strategy. If you have a business website, especially an e-commerce site whose SEO marketing technique doesn’t incorporate local or regional demographic, then chances of your site not garnering a good rank or even getting delisted from Google’s servers are quite high. So what tips should you follow to have an effective local SEO plan in order to attract niche clients for your business?

1. Register your site with Google My Business

The very first and foremost local SEO tip that you should make the most of is to register your business with Google My Business. You may have a state-of-the-art site that you claim to be user-friendly but it could be that the same is not visible to many individuals as it is not displayed prominently. Once you subscribe to Google My Business, your site’s name, business address and hours, reviews, and nearness to user’s location will be visible on the SERP (search engine ranking page) whenever a user makes a Google search of your firm.

Just go to the Google My Business to complete the registration or listing process.

2. It pays to have an interactive and smartphone-friendly site

Are you aware that majority of your present clients may have logged into your web-based outlet via their handheld PDAs, like smartphones and tabs? It is also very likely almost all your future customers will get in touch with you after visiting your site from their portable devices. If users or prospects face issues downloading and/or navigating through your portal on their mobile digital gadgets, they’ll not waste time in moving on to competitors’ sites.

So, if you haven’t yet structured your local SEO site to make it smartphone-friendly, then it’s high time you did.

3. Make local SEO listing consistently across the web board

In order to make your presence felt throughout the web world, you can choose to register with local indexing sites, besides Google. But before you proceed to enlist your business with such listing sites, you’d need to ensure that the NAP (name, address, and phone number) info is always provided. Additionally, make sure that this info is correct and identical in all the listings including but not limited to:-

  • Angie’s list
  • TripAdvisor
  • BBB (Better Business Bureau)
  • Bing
  • Yahoo
  • Foursquare
  • Yelp
  • Local commerce guilds and federations
  • Chambers of Commerce
  • Telephone directories, white pages, and yellow pages

4. Benefit from testimonials and feedbacks about your service

It has become the norm for businesses, both small and big to maintain separate profiles for the different social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter. Customers, shoppers, and buyers of products and services are prone to offering a review or feedback on such automated social media sites at the drop of a hat. Refashion your local SEO in a way so that customers are encouraged to write a positive review about your product or service.

5. Target local ad extensions

Make the most of Google AdWords in order to publicize your business in the locality or neighborhood you’re located. Once you subscribe to Google AdWords, users will be able to know more about your business’s location that’ll give them the confidence to get in touch with you via a ‘call button’.

6. Develop content that’s relevant and location-based

Develop content that is original, meaningful, and relevant to your business. Also, make sure that the content is orientated towards the locals, and is tempered with names of streets, local news, events, and happenings.