STAND OUT LOCAL SEARCH IN 2015
Here’s our top 5 recommendations for standing out against your local competitors in Google and Bing search results in 2015. Although the higher you rank the more clicks you receive is a fact, here’s a little help to make the most out of your Google and Bing listings all of which also help with your rankings.
Building credibility in your SERP is not easy you only have a few sentences to capture your potential customer and entice them to make that first click on to your website.
1.Build credibility and standout with 5 star reviews!
If your listings show that customers trust your business you are more likely to convert and build website traffic! It’s great getting a testimonial from a client. Ask them leave reviews your Google and Bing local results.
You need a 5 review minimum to start showing the stars in the results on Google. BE AWARE that Google does see if these are credible so don’t go writing your own! get your clients to do it!
Google and Bing also pick reviews from credible local business directories so make sure your reviews are also featured on directories that feature in the search results for your target keywords. Here’s a few good UK directories for citations and reviews.
• YELP (this is going to hold massive value in 2015)
• FreeIndex
• Yell
• Thompson Local
Google show these on your My Business Page: More reviews: yell.com yelp.com
2. Mobile Friendly Website in Search
Also shown in the featured image (highlighted in red) Google is now showing mobile friendly websites in search results. Having a mobile friendly and a responsive website will give you the opportunity to standout against your competition that does not have a mobile friendly website design.
3. Be Local to Attract Local Potential Customers.
If you are a local business ensure that you use your Town, City or County in your title tag and meta description, people are more attracted to localised results when looking for a local business.
4. Including a local number in SERP.
Having a local number showing within the search results also allows your business to gain the upper hand on your competition if you want to get found locally by local customers.
5. Take over the results page.
Make sure all your main pages are shown in Google having all your pages displayed make you standout and allows your potential client to navigate directly through to the right page on your website.
The Pigeon update UK – Google December 2014
The new updated search algorithm completely redefined Google’s local search patterns.
2015 is the year of building your brand and reputation online.
Onsite content and offsite data link profiles are still going to play a part but the intelligent search bots are now crawling the web for local directory websites like Yelp, Yell and Thompson Local to devise a solid base of reviews for local businesses.
Yelp is bigger is the US then the UK but don’t underestimate the power of this directory on our little island. Google also added a yelp section on analytics the first directory we have seen on there.