The Unique Challenges and Opportunities of SEO in the Bustling NYC Market

The Unique Challenges and Opportunities of SEO in the Bustling New York Market

by with No Comment Digital Marketing

New York City and the surrounding area are full of a vibrant community of shoppers, business owners, and international clients. This is one of the most diverse areas because it is a melting pot of cultures, ideas, and beliefs. That diversity is exactly what you need to leverage when considering SEO in New York.

You will run into competition in New York. Every single day, new businesses are cropping up in boroughs around everything from selling typewriter ribbons to offering augmented reality online travel services. That range of specialization requires laser-focused SEO practices. You need to stay on the cutting edge of current industry trends and test out different methodologies to find what will work best for your brand to resonate with your target audience.

The need for a more comprehensive and agile strategy comes with that intense competition. As you consider how to best adapt your SEO in NY strategy, consider:

Local keywords

While emphasizing a “Chinese restaurant in NY” keyword phrase may have worked 5 or 10 years ago, today you need something way more precise. Local keywords specific to your service area, competitive advantage, or cultural demographic may work better.

Niche Marketing

Speaking of specialization, lean into your industry at the niche level. Don’t be a general toy store. Be a provider of exclusive learning toys designed and built by Norwegian artisans.

Mobile SEO

New York is always alive with millions of workers, tourists, and residents. Meet that need by ensuring all your SEO efforts are mobile-responsive (fast-loading pages, mobile-friendly design, image optimization, etc.).

Quality First

Google loves a website that focuses on quality over quantity. Stuffing your web page with keywords is not going to work anymore. You want quality content that engages your target audience and meets their specific search needs.

Use Social Media

Keywords do not end at your website. Adapt your SEO in NY strategy to include social media platforms, email marketing, and other digital touchpoints with your audience. Not only does this help with continuity, but it ensures you are providing an omnichannel approach to capturing more leads.

Reputation

While you’re improving your SEO, watch your reputation. For example, if you are using your Google My Business profile (and you should be!), look out for reviews or incorrect information that could negatively affect your business. These may also inform the “negative keywords” you want to include in your SEO.

Finally, focus on link building. This is more than getting your business listed in local directories or through paid advertising. You want high-quality blogs, websites, social accounts, and other sources to link back to your local business. The more links you have pointing to your products and services, the higher your organic search engine results with Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and social media platforms.

The challenge of NYC is that it is ever-changing and dynamic. To keep up with this market, you must have a professional team that also watches the ebbs and flows of the online world. That is where hiring our team at Griffon Webstudios can help. We have spent years succeeding in the Big Apple and understand the industry from all aspects. Our SEO in NY strategies are fully customized to the short and long-term goals of our clients. Give us a call today, and let’s discuss how we can help you!

Digital Marketing Agency in New York- What To Expect?

Digital Marketing Agency in New York- What To Expect?

by Digital Marketing

Elevating your brand recognition and market reach does not require a massive enterprise-level advertising agency. You can get far more ROI with specialized agencies that understand the power of targeted marketing.

This is especially true for businesses working in and around the greater NYC area. You want to work with a digital marketing agency in New York that understands how to build websites, leverage ad campaigns, and utilize local SEO in New York to bring in more direct leads in your geographic area.

For businesses outside of the NYC area, using a digital marketing agency with direct experience in surviving the highly competitive New York environment means you have an expert company. If they can make it in New York, they can make it anywhere!

Benefits of a Digital Marketing Agency

The goal when searching for a digital marketing agency in New York is to improve your online visibility. This means a firm that knows how to increase traffic to your website through hyper-targeted advertisements on Google and other social media platforms.

You want to increase brand awareness while building trust with your target audience so they will organically share your content. This way, one advertisement could create a ripple effect that goes well beyond the original intentions of your initial digital ad.

An experienced team, like those at Griffon Webstudios, will then use those increased visitation numbers to leverage them into higher conversions for your sales and site traffic. This transforms the people checking out your online brand or ecommerce store into actionable sales and brand interactions.

What to Bring to Your First Digital Marketing Agency Meeting

Bring a list of questions about the agency, their work, and what you need from them. For example, if you are looking for content marketing help and know that your business needs a lot of blog posts each month, ask the agency what volume they can handle. If you’ve heard great things about video marketing but are not sure where to start with it, ask the agency how they would incorporate video into your marketing strategy.

Bring some examples of creative content work you like (and don’t like). This will give the agency a sense of what style and tone fit your brand and how you want consumers to perceive it. It also provides an idea of whether or not an agency can deliver what you’re looking for.

Have a clear picture in mind of your budget and timelines before going into this meeting. These numbers will directly affect what type of strategy the agency designs for your business, so they must be considered early on in this process.

Most importantly, keep an open mind. A digital marketing agency in New York will have plenty of experience and make suggestions that may seem new to you. Let yourself be convinced of the latest techniques and strategies that are proving beneficial to the agency.

Getting Started with Griffon Webstudios

If you’re looking for an exceptional digital marketing agency, it’s vital that you do your due diligence to find the one that will best suit your needs. At Griffon Webstudios, we are a digital marketing agency in New York with a proven track record of success from satisfied clients. We have plenty of testimonials and case studies that celebrate how we bring value to your brand, including local SEO in New York.

Reach out to our excellent design, marketing, and development team today, and let’s schedule a consultation. We are eager to learn more about your upcoming project or ad campaign. We love creating custom solutions for clients in New York or anywhere else around the globe. One quick email or phone call could mean all the difference in accelerating your online growth.

5 Ways How Multi Location Businesses Can Improve Their Profits Online

5 Ways How Multi Location Businesses Can Improve Their Profits Online

by Digital Marketing

With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to linger, online/hybrid commerce has arrived much more quickly than many businesses had originally anticipated. In fact, many online selling platforms have more than doubled their number of users in less than two years. Whether or not your business was ready for this online migration, it has become the new normal for a business in 2022. If your multi-location business is still struggling to navigate these waters, the following breakdown looks at 5 ways you can improve your online profits in the current business climate.

 

1. Add a “Where to Find” Page to Your Website

Despite the continued shift to online commerce, there is still a large demographic that enjoys making purchases in person. Some people simply feel more comfortable when they have the chance to hold a product in their hands, compare options, and chat face-to-face with a real-life member of your team.

However, even those people who like to make their purchases the old-fashioned way will more than likely be starting their research process online, comparing options through a basic internet search. In order to capture as many of these leads as possible, it is paramount that your business has the best store locator software added to your company website.

 

Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash

 

Having a “where to buy” page serves a number of important purposes for the business:

    • Segmentation and conversion – automatically route leads to your nearest dealers and vendors so that these professionals can follow up and get clients in stores.
    • Client engagement – allows your business to use branded local pages to feature showrooms, reviews, and product photos so that customers can quickly see what types of products and services are in their local market.
    • Analytics – gives actionable statistics on how clients are arriving at your stores, which online campaigns are working for your business, and how effectively your dealers are following up with leads and closing sales.

 

2. Use a Central Location to Consolidate Resources

With the cost of commercial rent soaring across the country, businesses are looking for as many ways as possible to downsize. While shifting completely online is the logical choice for some companies, this is simply not an option for service-based businesses that will always require some sort of physical presence.

However, what you can do is pare down each one of your physical branches. Keep only what you need for doing business at each location. Have a central hub to store all products and supplies for servicing each of your branches.

This will greatly reduce the amount of space needed for storage at your physical locations and limit the number of worker hours needed to keep your separate branches running. In fact, if you are able to perform this process effectively, you may be able to rent a small section of a larger building to perform your service, splitting the rent with another tenant.

 

3. Have Elite Customer Service

In the age of hybrid commerce, customers have greater choice in where to buy than ever before. If they are not happy with one business, all they have to do is search for a similar offering and place an order from a competitor. Customer defection can transpire in a matter of seconds.

One of the surest ways to annoy customers is through poor customer service. While chatbots and redirects to tutorial videos and FAQ pages are a great place to start and will suffice for some customers, others will quickly become frustrated when automation does not have the answer to their specific question or concern.

Therefore, it is incumbent on your business to go above and beyond to guarantee customer satisfaction. If possible, try to quickly connect customers to a live service agent. If this is not feasible for your business, make sure you provide them an opportunity for voicing their concern and try to get back to them in no more than 24 hours. The last thing your business needs is for a frustrated customer to defect to a competitor and leave a scathing online review as they go.

 

4. Build Ongoing Relationships

Statistics reveal that a mere 5% increase in customer retention can lead to up to a 95% increase in profit. As such, it is critical that you place special attention on locking in your current client base and not give them the chance to go elsewhere. Some ways you can do this include:

    • Keep up-to-date contact information so that you can provide them with the nearest option to access one of your stores whenever they move.
    • Featuring their stories and feedback on your company website or social media pages. Customers love feeling like they are part of your team.
    • Sending unique coupons, offers, and incentives to returning clients. Have a robust referral program so that your loyal customers get rewarded for marketing for you.
Photo by Jason Goodman on Unsplash

5. Set Up an Infrastructure for Convenient Online Payment

Finally, customers want as much convenience as possible during the online checkout process. Setting up ponderous accounts or not being able to use their preferred payment option is one of the leading causes of abandoned carts. Some ways to add convenience to the checkout process include:

    • Applying any saved information from previous purchases to current purchases.
    • Accepting as diverse a selection of payments as possible. Younger customers particularly like Venmo and Cash App.
    • Make guest checkout an option for new customers. If they are happy with your business, they will eventually create an account.

 

Improve Profits for Multi-Location Businesses

Hybrid commerce has become a way of life for businesses in 2022. To help your multi-location business be as profitable as possible in these uncharted waters, add a WordPress store locator to your company website, consolidate resources to a central location as much as possible, have elite customer service, build ongoing relationships, and set up a robust infrastructure for processing online payments. It is very important to consider working closely with the marketing experts who can help you strategize and improve your ROI.

Proven Local SEO Tips to Dominate Google Search

Proven Local SEO Tips to Dominate Google Search

by Digital Marketing

How often have you done your keyword research only to find those challenging to leverage phrases that always end with “near me” or “in my area” in your results? That is because almost half of all Google searches involve looking for local information. Consumers use their mobile devices to hunt down stores, restaurants, entertainment, and services near their specific location.

Google noticed this a long time ago. They began shifting their search engine algorithm to elevate businesses higher in organic results with location data as part of their SEO strategy. Maybe your site gets buried when people in two states over searching for “local sushi restaurant,” but you are number one in the results when it is someone within 20 miles of your excellent spicy tuna roll.

Would you like to rank higher in Google for local SEO? Here are a few of our digital marketing tips that are proven to give you a boost.

1- Leverage Google My Business

Google My Business is a profile of your company that often comes up beside search results on Google’s website. It is a quick overview of your business that makes it incredibly easy for consumers to locate your products and services. On mobile devices, you will appear above the fold, often before any other search results after filling out the proper information for Google.

2- Utilize Other Business Listings

It might seem simple, but updating your listing on Yelp, Angie’s List, HotFrog, or any other popular business listing website should be at the top of your local SEO checklist. This sends a clear signal to Google that you are who you say you are, and any searches in your area should filter back to your business.

3- Consistent Information

Business information will change periodically. Maybe your company will move to a new building, or use multiple phone numbers for different departments. In either case, you need to ensure all your NAP (name and place) data is the same across all your platforms. Google wants to verify you because it improves their service. Having your name, address, phone number, and other contact data the same on Google, Yelp, and even social media is incredibly important to your local SEO results.

4- Create and Optimize Local Content

This may seem obvious, but many businesses overlook simply adding highly relevant local keywords to their content. For example, if you are a Seattle-based dog groomer but do not list words like Seattle, Washington, and Northwest on your website, you are not telling Google exactly where you operate. You’re missing out on potential customers because your digital marketing isn’t directed to consumer location-based searches.

5 – Be Mobile Responsive

If you haven’t already, update your website so it is mobile responsive. This is a good idea for your local SEO checklist because nearly 30% of all mobile searches are locally based. If your website does not display well on a mobile device, you will not appear well on Google’s search engine results.

Local SEO to the Rescue

Leveraging local SEO in your digital marketing strategy is an easy way to increase your brand visibility, website traffic, and overall success. This is a straightforward solution to growing your business within your local area that does not take a lot of work or research to complete. The more you can take advantage of improving your local digital footprint, the more likely you will rank higher in Google, leading to better customer engagement.

mastering-the-art-of-local-seo

Mastering The Art of Local SEO – How To Rank In Multiple Locations?

by Digital Marketing

A powerful online presence is crucial for businesses these days. Companies that want to succeed have to make sure that they work on increasing their visibility to potential customers. If you are familiar with digital marketing then you know what search engine optimization can achieve for your business. It can help you increase your traffic, visibility and eventually your leads and revenue.

With almost all businesses trying to rank up, it can get very challenging to optimize your website for the search engines. The competition is high which is why you need to hire a professional SEO company to take care of your online marketing needs.

How To Perform Local SEO?

The procedure to rank your business locally on the search results is different than that of performing a traditional search engine optimization. There are certain things that you might have to do differently in getting ranked for local searches.

Choose The Right Keywords

You won’t be able to optimize your website in the right way without proper usage of keywords and location related to your business. So be extremely cautious in choosing the right combination. Let’s say you are a local realtor operating across the New York region, here are the keyword combinations you could possibly use to reach your potential clients- “Buy A Home In NY”, “Property To Buy Near Me”, “Buy A Home In New York”, “Which Borough Is Best For Investment”, “Is It The Right Time To Invest In Real Estate In New York”, etc.

Study Your Competitors

One of the most powerful ways to perform search engine optimization is to study your competitors. Analyze what they are doing and try to do it better. Check what keywords they are using, what type of content they publish and review all the other SEO related practices your competitors do.

Use Google My Business

These days if your business doesn’t show up on Google Maps, it instantly loses most of its credibility. It is another important aspect of local SEO. When someone searches for your business, they should see it on Google Maps with all the information related to the products/services you offer. Having a business on Google Maps will automatically help you perform well on the search results.

How To Rank In Multiple Locations

When people start a business, they only have one thing in mind, that is to build their business and scale-up in the coming years. You might be performing really well on the search results for your local market but once your business starts to attract more clients and turns into a bustling company, you need to expand to other nearby areas as well.

Now it can be very tricky to perform SEO for locations where you don’t have a physical presence as you can’t register a local address on Google Maps or show it on your website that you have an office in multiple localities.

Create A City Landing Page

One of the best ways to rank in multiple locations even when you don’t have a physical presence in that area is by creating a city landing page for the targeted location. One thing to keep in mind is that the content should be unique for each one of the cities. Using the same content and just altering the location names is going to do you no good. It might not even get indexed by Google due to duplicate content.

Make sure to not provide incorrect information about your business address or the location of your service because it can have an adverse effect on local SEO. Create high-quality content and backlinks for your city landing pages and that should help you rank better.

How-Content-Marketing-Builds-Your-Business

How Content Marketing Builds Your Business?

by Digital Marketing

Success in Modern Business

The concept of success is defined in many ways. In business, success manifests in two primary categories. Profitability and Growth. Many emphasize the former as it directly impacts sustainability, requiring a continuous feed of revenue to continue normal operations.

This leaves the latter considerably underdeveloped leaving substantial growth potential left untouched. In order to truly succeed business must deploy methods that encourage profitability and growth simultaneously.

Necessary Currency

Content Marketing is the solution. A stagnant user base can seal the fate of even the most revolutionary ideas. The adage “if a tree falls alone in the woods, does it make a sound?” seems aptly applicable. The event is elevated by witnesses. This viewership adds value. Users or customers are crucial to establishing a sustainable business. They are the necessary currency.

An increased user-base directly correlates to increased value. There are many methods available, though few have shown as much promise in a condensed timeframe as proper content marketing. Our singular goal is to maximize your growth utilizing content marketing and build a stronger business.

Appropriate Audience

As local SEO experts, we understand the importance of delivering the right content to the appropriate audience. Many competitors rely on overall metrics without out concerning themselves with the viewership they attain. The leads they are providing are simply not actionable.

As an example, imagine approaching an individual shopping for an elegant pair of high heels. You approach this individual with a competitively priced bicycle that is sure to elate a cycling enthusiast.

However much to your chagrin, the individual turns you down alleging that it has been years since they have ridden. Understand that in this instance the product is not at fault rather the selected audience. Content marketing utilizes popular search terms and phrases to deliver the appropriate audience. Presenting customers that have a preexisting interest in the product you provide.

Marketing

Customers want to purchase. Consumer mentality exists as both a byproduct of cultural upbringing and an instinctive borderline primal desire. A desire to have. As product providers, we must understand what separates our products from the competition. We must understand our value proposition and develop a message that supports those claims.

The importance of deploying a properly develop marketing strategy cannot be understated. We rely heavily on the moment to moment stimulation for our decision process. The purchasing process is no different. Operating primarily based on mindshare.

Our experience as a top tier of local SEO provides valuable insights. Displaying our unique ability to deliver time and time again in regard to marketing strategy and developing innovative marketing ideas.

Experience

We provide companies with vital market experience. Operating as a trusted Search Engine Optimization provider, Our knowledge of current infrastructure allows us to offer unparalleled results. Dedicated to delivering the professional experience our partners have come to expect.

Uniquely positioned to provide the necessary tools to significantly impact growth. Harnessing years of experience to realize the entirety of your company’s underlying potential. Together we can achieve.

Local-SEO-Strategy-How-to-dominate-your-local-search

Local SEO Strategy- How to dominate your local search?

by Digital Marketing

If you have ever searched anything on Google, you should be knowing that you don’t always get the same results for the same keywords you search for. It changes according to your location, IP, browsing history, etc.

Google frequently change their ranking algorithms to bring out the best result for every query. This means that you need to have the right local SEO strategies and website ranking methods.


If you want to learn how to dominate your local search and get better rankings using improved local SEO strategies. Here are the ways:

Knowing how to understand local SEO ranking

You can’t work on dominating your local search if you don’t understand how local search works. When you try to find products or services in a particular local area, Google recommends the businesses that are nearby.

For instance, if you’re hungry and you want to grab a quick lunch near your place, it won’t show the restaurants that are more than 20 miles away. So, if you are targeting the local market then you need to focus on optimizing your website for local search results.

Google determines local rank with three key factors:

  • Distance
  • Relevance and
  • Prominence.

Prominence is determined based on the data Google collects on you such as your review scores by previous customers, and other info. So if you don’t have many customer reviews then you may not get as high of a ranking as a place with lots of reviews.

Distance is vital too, If Google doesn’t know your exact location, it can’t show potential customers how far your business is from your potential clients. And relevance means you must show all the details about your business in your profile so Google can use it to understand your company more and add your business to the local ranked businesses in your niche.

You must improve the information for your business to get a higher rank

So, now that we understand how local SEO ranking works, you need to check your company out and first see where you fall in the local listings. If you can’t find it all, or it’s way below those first three places in the search listing, you are in big trouble and need local SEO experts to help you fix the problem.

A good step is to create a Google My Business account, and a Bing Places for Business account which should get you listed better under Google Maps and Search feature, and better listed on Bing.

Be sure all the data in your account listing is up to date and that it includes phone, actual address, category of business, email, your operating hours, and a photo of your brick and mortar store.

All this has to match and be exactly the same in every place your business is listed because even if there is a tiny flaw as small as one listing saying First Street and one saying First St. it will cause Google to throw it out and your business will be lowered in rank.

Local SEO for Google only works with AdWords

If you want your business to show up on Google’s first page in a search query for your niche, you need to be using AdWords. With their recent algorithm changes, Google looks for strongly chosen AdWords ads and if your business is not using AdWords, you could be losing clients on a daily basis or worse.

Your business needs to be placed in a place online where people will find it right away, and having a higher ranking on Google solves that problem. If you are still having issues, contact SEO service experts to help you develop a marketing plan that also includes the use of AdWords.

Be sure to check your titles and meta descriptions

Title tags and meta descriptions are HTML elements of your website that describe the content that appears in the search results. It’s like a preview of what your business has to offer its customers.

Recently, Google made a change in the width of its search result pages that was favorable to writing these titles and meta descriptions. It lengthened the page to 600px, so now you have room to write a bit more for these design elements.

If you want to make sure the ones you write for your content aren’t too long, you can download a special emulator that will show you how it will look to people searching online. For instance, if you own a WordPress site, one such emulator is the SEOPresser for WordPress.

Just like anything else you post, make sure your titles and meta descriptions are relevant and up to date for your niche, and that they are unique and as descriptive as possible for best local SEO results.

Make sure to have your mobile app optimized for local search

Google looks fondly on places that have a mobile app and a local business website, so therefore having these will help your local SEO ranking. Don’t lose customers or get ranked lower than your competitors! Optimize your mobile app today or if you don’t have one, get one right now.

The conclusion is that Google and the other search engines rank businesses every day. If you want your business to stay in the top three listings, be sure that your local SEO is as optimized as it can get and call your SEO expert for help.

b2b-tactical-strategy

B2B Requires a Tactical SEO Strategy. Learn How

by Digital Marketing

Businesses that serve other businesses often have longer sales cycles and niche market. They don’t bother trying to earn traffic from search engines. However, the majority of B2B researchers start their research with an online search. You can gain an edge over competitors if you use a tactical SEO strategy.

B2B businesses should not only focus on driving traffic but also qualified leads. You should use the right SEO strategy that will influence the metrics that do matter for the bottom line of the business.

emotion_drives_b2b_business_decisions2
Create an SEO-Friendly Website

A tactical SEO strategy has two important elements, which are website and content. Before you can create content, you first need to optimize the website for search engines. You should optimize the pages with the keywords in the Meta descriptions, and headings.

You should also make sure that the website is mobile-friendly. When choosing your web designer, find one that knows how to do SEO-friendly design. The design must complement your marketing strategy, which includes search engine optimization.

B2B businesses require a platform where they can show they know what they are talking about and engage potential customers. Product descriptions are not enough to direct more targeted audiences to the website. By starting a blog, you get the opportunity to create content that will attract traffic to the website.

Write Interesting Content

In the past, SEO strategies called for content written for machines. However, times have changed and ranking high on search engine results pages requires building authority, high-quality backlinks, and social media shares.

Getting more clicks from search engine results will earn the website higher ranking. Search engines think that clicks from users indicate that the page provided the answer they were looking for. In order to get more clicks, the page must stand out from the crowd. It must grab the attention of the readers with interesting headlines and Meta descriptions.

When writing the content, you should put yourself in the shoes of the customers. You should consider what motivates them, their job title, and the information they are looking for. Create the content to target specific readers, and provide answers to their questions.

B2B SEO
Build Quality Links

Quality backlinks will improve your search engine rankings. When another website links to you, it is an indicator to search engines that the site is authoritative. The higher the quality of the backlink, the more boosts your website gets.

There are several ways to get quality backlinks. You can try guest posting on websites that are relevant to your industry. However, you should do this when you have already established your blog. That way you will not be neglecting your own readers.

You can also try to earn links by creating content that gives value to readers. Not only will the content make you seem like an authority in the industry, it will make readers want to share it with their colleagues and followers on social media.

As you can see, you need to have a tactical SEO strategy to drive traffic to your website and get positive results. By observing good B2B SEO practices, your website can help generate leads and improve the sales of your business.

 

Free-SEO-tools

Free SEO Tools To Improve Your Marketing Strategy

by Digital Marketing

A proper marketing strategy is more important for an organization to remain competitive in the current business environment. With organizations targeting the use of digital media to create awareness of their products and services, it is very important they employ the right SEO tools so as to easily achieve the desired goals.

seo-tools-

Following are some SEO tools that you can use to achieve your marketing goals.

Google Webpage Speed Tester

For a business to rank high, they need to make sure the business has a responsive website. Use the Google page Speed insights SEO tool to test how fast the page can load on mobile devices and desktop computers. This will assist in making sure the marketing strategy works. Check your web page speed.

Google Analytics

This SEO tool helps the business to track the actions that web visitors take when browsing their websites. This is a good tool because it will help the business determine if there are conversions that come from the landing page. If there are low conversions, the business should look at the marketing strategy employed. Create a  Google Analytics account.

Google Trends

This tool will enable the business to find a topic that is trending in their industry and create a blog post based on the topic to get the traffic while people are searching for the particular topic. Check out the latest trends.

Google Keyword Planner

This is an SEO tool that lets the business know what kind of words the internet users are searching and therefore he is able to create content that will bring the potential traffic as users browse the internet. You need a Google Adwords account to access the keyword planner.

Open Site Explorer

This is an SEO tool that gives the business ability to have a quick look at the full range of links analysis and therefore make use of the most impactful links that are coming to your way. Research your backlinks

search-engine-facts

Webmaster Tools for Google and Bing

These are the tools that are used to give the business insights of how the internet search engine views your website, and therefore you are able to see the bugs that may be on the website and act immediately. You have to install the code on your website to be able to make use of this tool. Google, Bing.

Keyword Tool.io

This is an SEO tool that allows the business to enter certain keywords, and it generates several long tail keywords that are suitable for use by the business. Do your long tail keyword search here.

Moz Local Listing Score

This is an SEO tool that allows the business to have data from all popular sources such as Facebook, Google + Google, so as to be able to score how your business is fairing on this website. You will also get a list of actionable to increase your performance. Check your business listing.

Incognito Window by Google

This is a window that allows the business to be able to have all the familiar list of auto-fill options that can be used to guide the business in search for keywords.

Rank Checker

This is an SEO tool that allows the business to see where their website ranks compared to the competitors; it is an SEO tool that will help in making sure that the websites rank well.

When using these tools, it is important that a business seeks insights from the SEO tools expert to make sure the marketing strategy works.

local-seo-image

5 important things to remember in Local SEO

by Digital Marketing

One of the highly effective forms of online marketing is Local Search Engine Optimization commonly known as Local SEO. This online marketing technique is found to be tricky because it does not just stop with performing the on-page and off-page work, but even the more complex activities such as citations and listings.

Though it sounds simple, Local SEO can get confusing when differentiated into various forms and deeper analysis. A good example of this is, the common misunderstanding that having listed in a lot of directories is the exact way to achieve a successful local SEO. The reason why it’s not completely true is that there are several other factors that need to be in order other than the number of listings in directories.

Local business store

The business should ensure that the directories listed are unique and relevant to the industry of business and are being optimized based on the location of your business which includes street name, city and state.

To better understand the technique to achieve a successful local SEO, you should remember the five major things below:
  1. Accurate location in online listings
  2. Useful information on directories.
  3. Building social profiles
  4. Getting more reviews
  5. Optimizing for Hyperlocal.

 

1. Accuracy and Consistency in online listings:

The first important thing to keep in mind is the information such as Name, Address, Phone number and Website. The information should be accurate and consistent across all the listings. A recent study revealed some interesting patterns found among the local business owners. 

Around 85% wanted their business to be found on local listings and directories but only a very few have actually taken the effort to update their business information on the web.

70% of business owners say that there is not enough time for them to update.

The two most annoying things for the local customers are:

  1. Finding a false location of the business he/she’s searching for will have an adverse effect on the business.
  2. Mismatch in business information- Untrustworthy.

A lot of times we don’t find even some of the most important details such as the store information, operational hours, location with a map. Such inaccuracies lead to the dead-end of your local SEO efforts.

This can further be divided into two

(i) Accuracy of the Information

(ii) The consistency of the information.

  • crossfit nycThe accuracy of the Information: Information required to optimize your local business are Name, Phone Number and Address. It is used as an important tool to determine the accuracy of the business. The information fed on the listing should have the correct information. An easy example to remember is Kasey’s Donuts misspelled as Kassey’s Donuts– A simple spelling mistake would lead to inaccurate information on the listing.
  • The consistency of the information:  After accuracy, Consistency is the second most important word to remember in Local SEO. The business information on listings, local mentions, citations and directories must be consistent across all the places. Businesses should stay cautious and not let the consistency of their brand slip away by entering information that mismatch.

Local SEO can be optimized in a simple way by keeping the information consistent and accurate.

2. Useful information on directories:

It is a well-known fact that getting listed on the directories is a very simple process. The difficult part of this process is to provide detailed information about your local business and making them rank higher.

The most important step to perform is to create a local listing. A recent survey conducted by the Local Search Association Inc revealed the information consumers wish to see when they search for a local listing. 

  • Address 67%,
  • Phone number 66%,
  • Location 59%,
  • Company name 56%,
  • Website 54%,
  • Prices 52%,
  • Credentials 22%

There is enough reason now to keep the directories updated with as much relevant information as possible. If your listing has more information, there are higher chances of customers reaching out leading to more new business. 

3. Building Social Profiles:

The biggest advantage of local SEO is that your business can benefit even without having a website. This is possible because of the way the Local SEO works. Social profiles like Google plus, Yelp has become an identity for all the local businesses and it dominates the search results and listings providing exact information thus bringing success to the local SEO efforts.

As a business owner, Do you think the website will help in scaling up your business and streamline the operations? The answer is always a resounding “Yes” irrespective of the niche your business belongs to. A lot of times, customers prefer checking the business details on their social profiles instead of visiting the website. But having a website is an authority on the business you are managing as it allows the customers to know more about who you are, what services you offer, and read the client testimonials.

One classic example is the delicious coffee shop in New York- Neil’s Coffee Shop has so much success with social profiles. When you search for this restaurant you’d only see the rating, reviews, timings, and price. Now, this information surely hasn’t come from the web search, because this shop doesn’t have a website. The only way the restaurant earned its place is through social profiles and local listings, which clearly signifies the importance of social profiles for local businesses.

4. Getting more reviews:

The best thing about local SEO is that you can control it very easily by creating local listings in Yelp, Foursquare, Google Business page, and Facebook page which helps the listing go on top for the local search.   

The only thing that you cannot control is the ‘reviews’. You need to earn it with the quality of the service provided to your customers. You can always encourage them to give ratings and reviews online as most of the shoppers decide their visit depending upon the ratings and reviews.

As a token of appreciation and love, you could always incentivize your customers with some free coupons, discounts, etc which would make them share their experience at your store. We can do a few innovative things to make the customers voluntarily perform this act.    

QR-Code-local storePosting a sign at the door, a QR code on the menu allowing the customers to scan and post reviews, and so on. By going a little further, you can also get your service team to ask for reviews from customers at the time of checkout.

Reviews are an essential part of local SEO. Google always keeps delivering results that are local with high reviews for a great customer experience. 

5. Optimizing for Hyperlocal:

Google is in the process of testing an algorithm called the ‘neighborhood algorithm’.

Few steps for a successful local SEO:

  • Your neighborhood name can be added at the end of the business page. (Example: Ray’s Pizza, South City East)
  • If you have a website, don’t forget to add the texted version of your neighborhood name.
  • Your neighborhood name has to be added to the website on the title tags area.
  • Be aware and check thoroughly whether Google Maps has defined and placed your neighborhood correctly. 
  • Don’t forget to add your neighborhood to all the citation profiles that are local.

You need to follow the guidelines above to successfully optimize your business for the local search.