Give Me 5. Local SEO Tips for Small Business
Search engine marketing is one of the most powerful tools to help small businesses attract local customers. While paid search is relatively inexpensive compared to other advertising methods, natural search is free. Follow these five expert local search engine optimization tips for accelerating your marketing efforts and helping your customers find you.
Staples' Adam Bradley covers:
Today I'm going to share with you five local SEO tips for small businesses. First, claim your listing on Google Places. You can do this at Google.com/placesforbusinesses. It will walk you through a few simple verification steps, which include a phone call or a postcard to verify your address. You also want to claim your profile on Yelp, Bing Local, Yahoo Local, Merchant Circle, and other sites. Make sure that your information is accurate across all these listings. Complete your listings across these platforms. Be consistent with the information provided. In addition to the mandatory fields, be sure to differentiate your business with a unique description of services and three to five or your own photos.
If you have a website include your address and phone number in a prominent location, and in your header or footer across the site. It's best to do this in the same format as your Google Local listing. This is helpful for customers and reinforces your location to search engines. Ask your customers to leave reviews and be proactive about responding to reviews diplomatically. Learn from reoccurring themes that appear and thank your customers for positive feedback.