Boosting your local search ranking

For local businesses, taking your business online can open up a whole new world of orders and requests. But being online doesn’t automatically mean that everyone will see your business. For this you need to optimise for search queries relevant to your products, or the services you offer. And you’ll soon find that there’s a world of competition out there. But one place you can get ahead, is in the local search results. So what are local search results, and how can your business top these? And if you do, will this be beneficial to your company as a whole? Well, here at Pumpkin Web Design, we are Preston’s leading SEO and web marketing experts. We don’t just build top quality websites, we help companies just like yours get noticed. As a result, we have produced this guide to securing your position in the local search results.

What are local search results?

So what exactly are local search results, and why should you be aiming to show up as part of these?

Well, whenever a query for a product or service is entered into Google, Google will pull up any relevant business listings, in the area you are searching from. This is part of Google’s personalisation algorithm. These listings come from Google My Business, and they will show searchers exactly where your business is located, on an interactive map. This is highly effective for people who want immediate products, or to talk to someone who offers the services they need. As soon as searchers see local results, they feel that your company is automatically more trustworthy, because the chances are, someone they know will have experience of your company. This can result in more sales and conversions, as well as increasing your brand awareness in the local area.

Different options for boosting your local search ranking

So how do you land in one of these top spots for local searches? Well there are a couple of things you will need to work on. These include:

• Signing up for your Google My Business listing. This is simple and easy to do, and your company will be listed in these search results in no time at all! In fact, 25% of Google’s local search signals come from the My Business listing. However, just because your company is listed, doesn’t mean it will appear top. For this you will need positive reviews.
• Research has shown that the companies and businesses displayed at the top of local results, have on average, a 4.4 star rating. This means that you should encourage positive reviews of your company online. These reviews will be displayed in the local search results, alongside any images. Google reviews, TripAdvisor, and even Facebook reviews or recommendations can be used and shown off here. Google reviews it seems though, will be the most valuable.
• Content marketing is the final step to dominating the local search results. Your content should be produced regularly, and make links to the local area. Whether that’s with the choice of colloquial words, or with local imagery and external links, you can make your content feel relevant to local readers. And your references will help establish your local search ranking.

For more information about professional web design, or web marketing, get in touch with the team today, here at Pumpkin Web Design.