Building Business Reputation And Visibility With Local SEO

What is local SEO? How is it different from SEO on a National Scale?

Local SEO is the optimization of your business for local online searches.  Unlike national SEO, local SEO focuses more on building citations online for your business, as well as compiling organic quality consumer reviews on your business listing profile.  For small financial businesses, such as community banks whose market is only the area in which their physical business location is, local SEO is the perfect option for reaching your target audience. Local SEO is also a valuable investment for financial businesses that target multiple locations, such as regional banks.

The 3 Key Elements of Local SEO

Google Places Listing

Claim & Verify Your Business Name and Location With Google Places.

The first step in your local SEO efforts should be to create a business profile on Google places. This will automatically create a Google + profile for your business, so when local searchers are researching finance services or banks within your area, your local business profile is what will show up. Make sure to add an SEO optimized description of your business, include images, as well as any products or services your business offers to your Google Places listing.

Google-Places-Business-Listing Building Business Reputation And Visibility With Local SEO

NAP Citations

A Business’s Name, Address, and Phone Number listed on related websites within the industry or other local businesses within the target region.

A consistent NAP is vital for your business when receiving citations on other websites.  An inconsistent NAP can confuse Google about the identity and Brand of your business. So when your business is being shared on other websites make sure your business name is spelled correctly and that the format is consistent across all web listings and directories.

 Screen-Shot-2014-02-17-at-1.33.14-PM Building Business Reputation And Visibility With Local SEO

Reviews

Ask loyal consumers and repeat cliental for reviews on their experience with your company. It is very important to remember that you should NEVER buy reviews or offer incentives to clients in return for a positive review. Google is capable of picking up on inconsistent information and fake reviews. There are plenty of other ways to encourage past consumers to post a review of your company, including the obvious of supplying a quality experience for all of your customers. While the number of reviews your business receives is a big ranking factor in local SEO, remember that the most quality and positive reviews will always rank better.

Consumer-Reviews Building Business Reputation And Visibility With Local SEO

Other Helpful Local SEO Resources:

  • Yext – Yext is a great platform for making sure your Google Places information is properly displayed on all other local sites to help with quality citations.

Contact us today is discuss how we can help with your Local Marketing Efforts!