With search engines developing and progressing to become more ‘intelligent’, a slightly different strategy is required to perform well for local search.

There are several points to consider when planning your website for the search engines and local search. Keep these points in mind when selecting an SEO company for your needs. It might be that you will need to specify that you want each of these points covered, however, they will certainly know that you will be on your toes when you mention them.

In order for you to gain the maximum return on your investment, the SEO company should assure you that they will be taking into account the following:

• The SEO providers should be claiming your Google business listing so that your company appears on the Google map. This feature of Google can often return on the front page of Google, and it is also one of the factors taken into consideration for credibility, not to mention the extra backlink to your site.
• Your SEO providers should commit to writing you a relevant and inviting meta description that will include the name of your city or region that you want to rank for. Your products or services should also be covered in the meta description.
• Citations should be earned from other online local businesses – Google is checking for this and rewards accordingly
• Photos and videos of your premises and / or products will provide the search engines with further credibility. Google loves credibility and so do customers.
• Your company should appear on industry review sites when possible – for example hotels with positive and plentiful reviews on Trip Advisor perform better in Google.
• Your region, town and business category and name should be added to the page title of each page of your site.

Points that you can do yourself are:

• Extension of your domain to over 2 years will gain trust from Google, you will be stating that you are planning on being around in the long term.
• Look for all mentions of your business; ensure that the telephone numbers and addresses are consistent with every mention.

Ideally list a local telephone number for your area. Also ensure that your business category is consistent. The internet runs on words, and you need to keep the words consistent for good rankings.

If you need to know more about SEO and local search, follow our blog or even allow us to help you with good search engine results.