With an influx of competition in every field of business, it has become profoundly hard to be known as the monarch. This leads business to concentrate more on, and deploy most of their resources on being known as a local monarch instead of trying to be the ultimate.
Akin to most international brands, the local brands too have to rely a lot on the search for business opportunities. But the same kind of generic SEO strategies would not suffice to rank higher in local search. It takes a little more beyond the traditional SEO which emphasizes on generic matters like diversified link building, domain age, domain authority, etc.
Local SEO on the other hand, pinpoints more upon usage of geo specific keywords, having location specific web pages, and so on. One major facet that influences traditional SEO and Local SEO alike is the much hyped ‘social signal’.
Significance of social signals in SEO
Post link building, the spotlight has shifted to social signals for a better SEO. Google has been giving hints that content which is liked and shared by people is given more weightage. In order to deliver stuff that is relevant to the searchers, Google takes cues from the social media in terms of shares, links, reviews, citations, and so on. Now, people are a step ahead of links from the search engine’s standpoint.
Enhancing your social signals for local ranking
Assuming you are convinced that social signals play a vital role in local SEO too, let’s see what are the immediate measures one can take to enhance social signals for a better local search ranking?
While there goes a lot into local SEO for which you may want to consider professional SEO services, here are some sure-shot ways that can impact social signals to a reasonably sizeable extent.
- Get your business listed on local directories like Google place, Yelp, Yahoo Local, Bing Local, Yellow Pages and other such directories. Fill up your business details to the fullest, including your images. All or most of these local directories allow people to rate and/or review your business. Encourage your clients turned advocates to drop a positive review on such listings. Gaining positive review can have immense effect on your SERP ranking.
- Some of these local directories even facilitate responding to those reviews. Grab the opportunity and let the search know that you are socially interactive.
- While creating a Facebook page for your business make sure that it is categorized under Local business or place. While filling out all details you may want to skip entering your business hours so that your website shows above the fold in the about section of your Facebook Page, thus increasing the CTR.
- Consider using Facebook adverts that target audience from your area of operation.
- The immediate next social network you ought to take up for local SEO is the 2nd largest – Google plus. For certain keywords, Google plus pages and profiles are often displayed in the SERP. So you can’t miss a chance.
- Likewise, optimize other known social networks’ profile pages with your geo specific keyword. Though networks like LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. do not have a user base at par with Facebook and Google plus, they are still profitable, considering each if these platforms attract millions of users with a constantly increasing user base.
- Also, be sure to have a common NAP (name, address, phone number) across all social networking platforms and local directories, as these NAPs act as citations.
Like mentioned earlier, there are certain more advanced SEO tactics which can better you local SEO status. But, the above mentioned ones are good enough to kick start your local SEO campaign.
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