Local SEO: Growing the Corner Store
3. Get visual; provide additional company information with photos and videos. Searchers see a company's primary photo first. Make sure the photo is eye catching. To provide Google an additional link to where important information about your business is stored, identify a citation source Google has not. Retrieve the URL from a photo on that site and load that URL into your Google+ Business listing.
4. Provide references; leverage third-party listings to improve Google rankings. Google uses many off-site ranking factors to determine local search results. Not only does Google check to see if other sites are mentioning the business, it also looks to see if those websites are reputable. Identify the most influential third-party sites and submit robust company profile information.
5. Make it a habit; routinely modify your listings to rank for both long-tail and short-tail search terms. The beginning of the optimization process requires the most maintenance, but once your rankings begin to improve, it remains essential to keep tabs on Google Business listings. Retailers should continually track search volume trends that could affect their visibility — positively or negatively.
Small businesses and enterprise brands alike can benefit from taking the time to optimize their Google+ Local pages for improved visibility in local search results. Small businesses should dedicate time each week to review their progress and improve their listings. Enterprise brand marketing managers responsible for multiple locations should consider automation technology to help ease the process.
As businesses wise up, competition will no doubt increase. However, plenty of ripe opportunity still exists to boost local visibility with some focused SEO efforts.
Jon Schepke is the president and founder of SIM Partners, a technology provider that empowers brands to maximize digital marketing results at a local level. Jon can be reached at jschepke@simpartners.com.
