3 areas of local that a search engine optimization agency target

It might not have the huge search volumes that so-called mainstream terms have, but there’s no doubt that the market for local SEO is absolutely huge.

These local search terms are the ones that typically convert very well for local business, and it means that there is a vast market for a search engine optimization agency to conquer.

As the title of today’s post might have already suggested, we are today going to take a look at three areas of local which the standard agency will look at first. If you own a local business, make sure that the following three areas are up to scratch.

NAP consistency

One of the first areas that a local business should turn towards is its citations.

In its simplest form, a citation is a directory listing. As anyone who has tasted even a small form of SEO will reveal, this is something that you have to exercise caution with. After all, not all directories are equal, and selecting one that is of a poor quality could actually harm your site.

As such, any agency working on your site needs to take this into account. Once they have selected directories which are suitable for the purpose, it’s crucially important to list the business in the correct form. This is where NAP enters the picture.

Short for name, address and phone number, Google needs to see this in a consistent form if you are serious about ranking well in local. If your listing is inconsistent all over the web, it’s an immediate sign that you’re not a business that should be trusted. The upshot is that you are unlikely to rank as well.

Taking advantage of Schema

One of the more recent developments in the world of SEO as a whole is Schema mark-up. This is something that the user doesn’t have to see; it can live in the background of a page if implemented using JSON-LD.

For the local business, Schema offers a world of opportunities. It will allow you to tell Google specific information about your business, in a structured manner. For example, you will be able to say exactly what hours your business opens, or where to an exact longitude and latitude position it is in the world.

Armed with this, Google’s job to rank your business as high as possible is suddenly made a lot easier.

Location pages

This next point is more relevant if you have more than one location. On that note, if you do fall into this category, make sure it is an actual bricks and mortar store – not just a different area that you service. Google takes this much differently.

It’s at this point that you need to be adding different locations to your website, and ultimately adding content about these locations. This might be about the various services you offer there, or even a map detailing exactly where your store is. Again, this makes the job of Google a lot easier.