2 Ways Local Listings Can Improve Your Business
Consistent Local Listings help your Local SEO Marketing Strategy
Effective SEO today goes far beyond the old days of keyword optimization. While keywords are still important, as they’re the basis for all Google and Bing searches, they aren’t the only SEO factor driving traffic to your site. In fact, it can be argued that external citations are just as important as internal keyword use.
When you Google your business, where does it show up in the results page? If it’s not first, you have an SEO problem. Basically, this shows that your business doesn’t have enough credibility online to allow Google to place it first in the ranks. Simply getting local citations with your business’ name, address, and phone number on a few data aggregators, business listings, and/or review sites could solve this problem.
They Help Google (and Your Customers) Trust Your Business
Not only that, but local listings can also increase your search results rankings when people search for keywords related to your business. This is basically because your listings give you more credibility with Google and Bing.
Think of it this way, when you see a company you’ve never heard of before offering great prices on a service you want, what are you going to do? Well, if you’re like most people today, you’re going to Google them. If they don’t have any online presence or a weak presence, you’re probably going to assume that the deal is too good to be true and move on to a seller with more of a presence.
The same thing happens with Google and Bing’s search algorithms. If they see you represented on multiple trusted listings, then you’re going to get a higher ranking in search results. And, as we all know, the higher you are in the ranks, the more likely people are to click on your site.
At the same time, just as in the example above, your customers will see your name and address in listing and review sites they trust. As a result, they’ll start to become more familiar with your name and more trusting of you as a business, and they’ll be more likely to click on your site instead of your competition.
They Draw More Customers in Through Mobile Searches
Local listings also do a lot for local-specific searches, especially for mobile searches. When users search for a type of business, product, or service on their mobile devices, search engines use their location to make the best, most convenient recommendations.
They don’t just base their results rankings on location and proximity, though. Your competition might be right next door to a customer looking for your products or services, but if you have more local listings, your business will likely show up first in the search results.
Getting local citations and listings for your business can be tedious and time consuming, but it doesn’t have to be.
With Umbrella Local, you can sign up for your business' listing management service that allows you to enter your information once and have it pushed to all of the major listing sites and aggregators to get you more traffic and better search results rankings. Try it out and see what local listings can do for your business.
