Your First Five Shots in Local SEO

Back in 2013, Jonathon Monk gave an hours presentation to over 1,000 delegates in Basingstoke regarding Local Search Engine optimisation and the key things that business owners can do themselves.

The information in this video is still 100% relevant today.

Jonathon’s full talk can be seen below; though this blog post is also a brief summary of the main points that Jonathon covers within his talk.

Introduction

Diagram of search engine optimisation concept with hands holding arrows and SEO target

Viewed by some people like the dark arts, the truth regarding Search Engine Optimisation is that you do not have to delve into the world of Harry Potter to be successful. At heart, successful SEO involves the implementation of a variety of basic practices which are designed to help enhance the online exposure of a business. For any business placing a strong focus on local custom, the implementation of local SEO techniques can prove to be the difference between the success and failure of your online venture.

The fundamentals of all SEO can be summed up into 5 different shots, all of which will help to lay a rock solid foundation for your website.

Still a little unsure about what SEO actually is? Click here for some further insight.

Shot 1 – Keywords

Keywords are the underpinning of all SEO activity. The careful selection of keywords using the Google Keyword Planner will help you to identify which related terms to your business are being searched for on Google and will be useful to focus on.

The careful utilisation of these keywords will go a long way towards allowing you to tap into your target online audience.

Shot 2 – NAP (Name, Address and Phone Number)

Continuity of the name, address, and phone number of your business should be found throughout both your website and anywhere your business is mentioned on the internet. Don’t be shy, these details should be easily viewable on every page of your website so that customers can easily find you and so that Google can make the connection with any external listings of your address.

Moz takes a closer look at why the continuity of information is so important. Check it out by reading the following article – https://moz.com/blog/why-listing-accuracy-is-important-whiteboard-friday

Shot 3 – Claiming Major Online Listings

Even if you haven’t set up your own Google Places, Yahoo or Bing listing, there’s a good chance you could still have one and that’s pure because these search engines, crawl the websites and they scrape data from all sorts of places and they may have set one up for you.

It is important to make sure that no-one else claims your listing, so you must ensure that you go out there and claim it yourself because even if you haven’t set one up, there could be one out there.

Save yourself some time and effort by finding the ultimate 57 online directory listings by clicking right here!

Shot 4 – Online Directory Registration

There are a lot of directories that you can register yourself with. In the past, an SEO tactic was to register with hundreds, if not thousands of directories, a lot of them are very, very low quality and that is now widely regarded to be a poor SEO tactic. It’s much better to register with some good quality directories.

It is possible to submit your details to the wrong directories. Find out why this should be avoided by clicking here.

Shot 5 – Online Customer Reviews

The addition of a number of genuine customer reviews on third-party websites, such as directories, will not only help to create a positive overall impression of your business, it will also take steps towards helping Google to focuses on obtaining as many online customer reviews as possible.

Essentially, by following the 5 shots of search engine optimisation outlined in greater detail in this video you will take significant steps towards helping your website get found when people search for a local term via Google.

Find out why online reviews can be a huge positive for many small businesses by clicking here.

We hope you found that useful if you have any comments or questions please do not hesitate to leave a comment.