Local SEO Archives

Monitoring Reviews

Do you monitor what your customers are saying about your business online? Reviews can have a significant impact on your local search results and thus on the likelihood of new customers visiting your business. But do you know where should you be monitoring?

Facebook Business Page Customer Reviews

Whether you’ve claimed your Facebook business location or not, there is a strong chance that either Facebook or a customer has started the process of your business appearing.
Facebook uses phone directories and customers can just check-in (to tell their friends that they are at your location, even if you never started a page). As a result, you may have reviews and not even know it. Search
Facebook to find your business, or browse to manage your page. See the reviews on the lower right column from a desktop, or view it as “public” on mobile and see reviews near the top.

Google+ Local (Formerly Places) Customer Reviews

Do a search for the name of your business in Google. Do you see those little red balloons? Click on those to see the reviews of your business and the automatically created listing of your business. If you haven’t yet, claim this. Look over the reviews here as well. Android phone users can search for what your business offers easily from their phones, and other mobile phone users can search on the Google app on their device.

Also note that Google finds other sources of reviews when you view the full listing. Browse to these other sites that Google has incorporated and see what reviews are on those sites as well.

Yelp

Yelp is most popular in more urban areas, however it is important to know that iPhone users conducting a search via Siri are getting suggestions based upon Yelp reviews. Also, even if you are a business in a small town, you never know who may be driving through your town. Claim your business profile here and check back at least monthly. You can respond as the owner.

Foursquare

While originally started as a site for people to “check-in” or share their locations to Twitter and Facebook, Foursquare has evolved more into a discovery tool. I often use Foursquare to find a new place to eat and see what reviews others have left. In addition, business owners can publish special promotions on Foursquare.

Industry Specific

In most every industry, specific review sites pop up specific to that niche. Do a search in Google for “Your Industry AND reviews”. See what other results you can find and be sure to monitor any that your business already appears on.

Local Reviews

Search for local business directories on places like your nearest Chamber of Commerce, TV news, radio, and newspapers to see if you can or are listed on these sites, and if these sites allow users to review your business.

Reviews Matter

Reviews can make or break the likelihood of a new customer visiting your business. It is good to encourage people to leave you reviews on any of these networks, and to know what is being said.

July 28, 2013

Courtney Engle Robertson

Local SEO

business, Facebook, Foursquare, Google, iphone, local search, twitter, Yelp
Geotagging Your Website for Improved Localization

Standing out with Local SEO takes some work, but it isn’t too difficult. When I search for coffee in my town, I should get results for nearby coffee shops. If I go to another town, the results should reflect that location. How this happens is with a bit of code.

Business Address

First, you need to tell the search engines where your business is located. Your contact page and main page of your website should include your physical address in a way that is readable by search engines. For that, I like the Local SEO contact form, as well as the Local SEO plugin by Yoast.

Additionally, you can include the geotag coordinates of your business in the header of your site. Using Geo Tag Generator, you can create the meta data needed.

Also, if you are blogging with WordPress, you can easily add specific geotag data per post via the mobile app. The blue circle in the title looks for your coordinates. This can be disabled, but I often keep mine on.

Geotag Your Media

Not only will you want to provide the local coordinates of your website, but all media that you create. If you are taking photos on your phone, it is automatically included. Many newer cameras also can include the gps information of each photo. If you upload those photos to Flickr, Google+ (Picasa), Facebook, or any number of online photo websites, you can catalog the location that each photo was taken in. Windows and Mac both include location options within their default photo programs as well.

Placing location specific information isn’t limited to just photos though. Youtube is in on the location aware act. Within your video upload, browse to the advanced settings, You can include at least your zip code to drill down the results some.

In as many places as possible, give search engines relevant data that will help your content be discovered in the appropriate regions.

39.932231-77.66035

May 21, 2013

Courtney Engle Robertson

Local SEO

chambersburg, Facebook, flickr, geo:lat=39.9323987, geo:lon=-77.66025439999999, geotagged, Geotagging, Google, picasa, Web search engine, wordpress, Youtube
How to Increase Local SEO for Your Small Business
Search engine optimization is important for local small business. With it, you can stand out when potential customers are searching for what you have to offer. By claiming your listings and including data on your website for search engines to know exactly where you are located and help your community discover you in search, you will see higher search engine rankings.

Local SEO Tips:
1. Claim the big social media sites like Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Complete your company profile thoroughly.
2. Claim your business on the local check-in places like Foursquare, Yelp, and any niche systems related to your industry
3. List your business on free local news websites. Many tv, newspapers, radio, and other traditional media outlets have sections of their websites for businesses to freely list their business.
4. Include your address, phone number, and hours of operation on the main page of your website, along with your email newsletter. Preferably as a click-to-call link.
5. Include Geotag data in the meta information on your website. I use Yoast’s Local SEO plugin for this, but you can also include data from http://mygeoposition.com/. The important addition that Yoast’s Local SEO plugin includes is Schema.org data, which can be complicated to hand-code.
6. Claim your listings anywhere and everywhere else that you can. There are countless directories in your niche, but also many listings such as the online Yellow Pages. Find as many of these listings and precisely claim each. Plan for this to be at least an afternoon of tedious but simple work. Each asks you to verify that you are in fact the business owner by using your company email and phone to verify these. The more claimed listings that are all the same, the better your standings will rank.
7. Ask customers for reviews.
Check your local seo citation listings at:
1. GetListed – a great base start if you are trying to do it all yourself for free
2. Yext – an inexpensive option if you pay, or a good listing for free places to claim
3. Nuestar’s Localeze – a thorough listing, but works best when purchased
4. UBL (not free)
5. WhiteSpark (very limited in free mode)
Local SEO services:

It isn’t complicated to claim your accounts, but many just don’t know where to go to do so. In addition, seeking out a local seo company can provide the benefits of monthly reports on reviews, monitoring activity on the networks, and claiming additional listings as they become available.

I can help with your Local SEO needs if you’d prefer to go that route. Contact me for further information.

Related articles
- Easy Ways To Improve Your Local SEO – Citations
- 5 Reasons Your Small Business Needs Local SEO
May 14, 2013

Courtney Engle Robertson

Local SEO

business, Facebook, Foursquare, Google, LinkedIn, Search engine optimization, Yellow Pages
Local SEO by Yoast
Local SEO involves adding snippets of code to your website so that when people search for something in your region, your business should be discovered. If my pipes burst, I don’t want to see the highest ranking plumber of all time, I want to see the plumbers in my town that can provide service to me. Local SEO is especially important for all businesses that need customers to actually walk into the store.

Earlier we looked at how to add the Local SEO Contact Form plugin to your site. This makes quick work of the minimum information needed. For a more complete listing of additional snippets to add to your site, see Schema.org’s Local Business.

If you’d like more functionality than just a contact form and need more results than what you are getting now, take a look at Yoast’s Local SEO plugin. This adds considerable functionality for things such as:
- Multiple locations
- Widgets (maps, show address & hours)
- Geo sitemap settings to submit to search engines
This looks like a handy plugin to use for many local and small business owners. See Joost’s how-to article for a preview.
March 21, 2013

Courtney Engle Robertson

Local SEO

local seo, wordpress