Here, we have briefly outlined what you should and should not consider in your local SEO strategy.

What to do?

• • GMB page – A GMB or Google My Business page is crucial because that’s where your target audience will search for your products or services when they want local results. Having a GMB account can help in local link building efforts, boosting your SERP ranking.

• • NAP consistency – One of the best local search engine optimisation best practices is NAP consistency. Your business’s name, address, and number must be identical across all local listings, so your customers don’t get confused. Also, this will make it easier for your potential customers to search for you and find all the information they need to arrive at your brick-and-mortar store.

• • Local citations from online testimonials and local directories – Positive testimonials and citations are a great way to boost your local rankings. These show search engines that you are a reputable and reliable company. The citations must come from online review websites and business directors that have a good reputation.

• • Design a website – If you wish to augment your local ranking, it would be prudent to design a website. When businesses don’t have a website, search engines don’t find them credible enough to rank on the first page of the SERPs. Furthermore, websites act as digital storefronts to lure customers.

• • Local landing pages – To achieve local ranking success, you need to have local pages aligned with the local listings. These landing pages will drive traffic and support your local SEO efforts.

• Keywords optimised for local SEO – Keywords are an integral part of SEO, and even when you are locally promoting your brand, you need to invest in keyword research significantly. Use the most relevant keywords that are used locally to make your brand search-ready.

What not to do?

When it comes to local SEO, you must never engage in the following:

• • Avoid local spamming at all costs. You must not fill the local landing pages with unnecessary and unrelated keywords to your products or services. Such practices can get your local landing pages penalised by search engines, and it will result in hurting your rankings.

• • Don’t use keywords that do not make sense for your local audience. It is useless to try and use keywords that would be more suited if you were promoting your brand nationally.

• • You must never have inconsistencies relating to the name, number and address of your business. If there is any discrepancy, your customers will flag you as unreliable, which will hurt your rankings. In local SEO, you cannot afford to attract negative reviews because it is bad for business.

These are a few things that you must and must not engage in when trying to boost your business online to your local audience. You can enlist our local SEO services in Liverpool to let us take care of your business objectives.

Wrapping up

If you are the owner of a small business, local SEO is your best friend. It can help attract and lure new customers and make your website rank high in the local search results. Local SEO is different from regular SEO because it is much more targeted. The former only targets a specific region, area or location. So, you need to be careful when crafting a local SEO strategy and avoid practices that will penalise your business and harm your reputation. Positive reviews are everything to a local business since customers are keen on judging companies based on testimonials.

So, if you need any help promoting your local business, do not hesitate to contact NHANCE Digital. Our team of local SEO experts are here to assist you and look after your needs.

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Want to know how you can beat your competition? Here are a few local SEO trends that you must be aware of. If you need any help meeting your business goals, avail NHANCE Digital’s local SEO services in Liverpool. 

GMB or Google My Business 

In recent years, GMB has become more important than ever. Google focuses on search intent nowadays, and results are no longer shown on the SERPs purely based on keywords. The results are shown based on what the users want. 

For instance, when someone uses Google to search for the best real estate agent, Google already knows the user is not looking for the best agent in the world. The search giant uses location-based information to show the best results in the user’s area. This is where GMB results pop up. 

So, you need to create a GMB account and set it up. Ensure to complete your profile with all the relevant information, including phone number, business hours, address and so on. If there are any changes in the future, make sure to update the listing as soon as possible. 

Additionally, you can keep your listing relevant by frequently updating it with a fresh post. If you need help creating a GMB account, talk to us. 

User experience is paramount 

User experience is expected to be everything in local SEO 2022 because Google announced it would start factoring UX signals into its ranking algorithms. 

What do UX signals mean, you ask? It refers to how easy it is for visitors to navigate your website and find what they are looking for, how fast your website loads, how well can they browse your website on both desktop and mobile, and so on. 

If you wish to accentuate the user experience of your website, NHANCE Digital is here to offer guidance. Our team will start by conducting a thorough website audit to find the loopholes. Once we know the weaknesses, we will craft a strategy to solve them. 

Zero click search results

Zero click search results have been around since 2019, and now you cannot ignore this trend anymore. Zero click results are extremely convenient because users get the information they are looking for from the search results page. They do not need to click through to the business website. 

You can also become eligible for the zero click results if you craft rich content and break them into listicles or Q&As. Also, make sure to use the right keywords that users are using and keep all the information on your GMB fresh and updated. 

Optimise your website for mobile

It’s been a few years since mobile searches surpassed desktop searches, and today, you cannot win the heart’s of your customers if your website only works on the desktop. You need to create a website with a responsive design that will easily adapt according to the size of the screen. It will allow users to start their product search on their desktop and carry the same search on their mobile devices. 

There’s also Google’s mobile-first index that means websites will be reviewed by the search giant on their mobile design first. It means your website must have a simple and easily understandable design, the web pages must load quickly, and there are clear CTAs. 

Conclusion

The outbreak of the COVId-19 pandemic has transformed the way people shop, and it means 2022 will be the year when the online presence of a business will matter more than before. Google is also rewarding user experience and a customer-first approach when it comes to ranking websites. 

If you are on the lookout for providers of local SEO services in Liverpool, talk to us and let our team help you. Our services are priced affordably, and the packages can be tailored to suit your requirements. 

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Do you want to know how can you improve your local SEO? As a local SEO company in London, we, at NHANCE Digital, have briefly explained the different ways that your local SEO can be improved. Take a look.

Open a Google My Business Account

The most effective way to rank in local on Google Maps is to optimise your business profile or Google listing. This will also help you in gaining visibility in local SERPs. For this, you need to create a GMB or Google My Business account. From your account’s dashboard, you can edit your profile and enter all the relevant information that you need to attract your customers.

To have an optimised GMB account, make sure that you:

• Create and verify the ownership of your GMB account
• Provide up-to-date and accurate information
• Include your hours of operation, logo, product or services that you’re offering, acceptable payment methods and plenty of pictures
• Encourage your customers to leave an online review for your business and make sure to sincerely respond to the reviews
• Publish posts announcing events, new products or special offers to your business profile

Get reviews from your customers

Customers writing positive reviews of your business is not only helpful in optimising your GMB profile, but it also encourages more customers to trust your business and buy your products or services.

To encourage your customers to leave reviews, you can use the following tips:

• After you have closed a sale, ask for a review in person
• You can send a post-purchase text or email to your customer to leave a review
• Respond to the existing reviews by thanking the reviewers and also addressing their complaints

Craft content based on local stories, news and events

The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown have somewhat changed the content consumption of the audience. People are not merely looking for content that advertises specific products or services. But, they are looking for brands that empathise with what is happening around. They also want to associate themselves with brands that care about their customers. This is why your content has to be a mix and match of local stories and brand promotion.

You can write about the causes that your business supports, create blog stories around the most sensational local events or activities, or you can create a location-specific webpage to serve various parts of a region.

Optimise your website for mobile devices

The shift to mobile is happening faster than expected. Also, it has been noticed that approximately 75% of mobile searches that exhibit local intent actually produce offline or in-store visits within 24-hours, which makes it imperative for online businesses to have a website that is optimised for mobile users. To achieve this, here are some tips:

• Make sure that your website loads quickly. It should not take more than 3 seconds.
• You can use bigger fonts so that it is easier to read while on the go
• Make sure to use intuitive UI

If you can have a responsive website, it will solve all your problems. Responsive websites quickly adapt themselves to any screen size. This means that your website can be opened on a desktop or any mobile device.

Some additional tips to help with your local SEO efforts are given below:

• Ensure that your NAP is always accurate and updated. This stands for the name, address and phone number of your business.
• Invest time and effort in local keyword research
• Leverage online business directories and get your local business listed on them. This will boost your local SEO and help you gain more online visibility
• Pay attention to getting high-quality backlinks, which will make you appear credible in the eyes of Google and your local customers
• Create a dedicated webpage for each of your products or services. You can also create region-specific webpages so that you can rank according to your location.

If you need professional help, NHANCE Digital’s local SEO services in Liverpool are for you. Connect with us and let our professionals tell you what to do next.

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However, we, at Nhance Digital, have come across several businesses in Manchester and other parts of the UK, who do not understand the difference between local SEO and SEO. If you are amongst those businesses that think that investing in a long-term SEO plan will get you the attention of your local audience, you are mistaken. This is why we wish to break down the information for you and give you a clear idea of what local SEO is and how it impacts your business.

What does local SEO mean?

Local SEO refers to the practice of optimising a product/service or business for a search query that is specific to a location. Google and other search engines make use of the location of a user based on geolocation (for mobile) and IP address (for desktop) to determine what results will be relevant to the user. So, when someone searches for a restaurant, car wash, dentist or a locksmith, the search engine is going to display businesses that are relevant to the user’s location.

What is the importance of local SEO?

Local SEO is crucial to businesses that have a physical store or provide services in a specific location. When people are searching for a business near them, it means that they would most likely visit the store right away or within a few hours. With the help of local SEO, businesses can reach out to customers at the exact time when they are looking for their products or services. Several surveys have revealed that 50% of people who carried out a local search on their smartphone and 34% of people who searched on their desktop or tablet, went to the store on the same day.

What are the basics of local SEO?

Now that we’ve told you what local SEO means, let’s take a look at the basics of local SEO.

The first thing that you need to understand is that local SEO is for location-based searches. This means that your business must have a physical address so that it can show up on local search results. If the address of your business is not updated in GMB (Google My Business) and other online directories, your business will not show when your customers run an in *locality name* search or a “near me” search.

The second thing that you have to make sure is that the name, address and phone number of your business are accurate and consistent across all the digital platforms that you are using. The slightest discrepancy might make Google ban your business from getting listed in the local 3-pack. You must keep checking and updating the NAP of your business so that your customers do not feel misled with a wrong phone number or address.

Citations are another important part of local SEO. A citation is when a third-party website lists your website as a point of reference. This may contain your business’ location, name or contact information. It does not require a backlink to the website of your business. Example of a citation would be a food blogger mentioning your restaurant in his/her blog as a good place for meals in your locality. Citations let Google know that a business is trustworthy and this increases the chances of a business getting in the local 3-pack.

Last, but not the least, reviews. Testimonials or reviews is an important part of local SEO and this helps Google in ranking businesses. If you receive positive reviews, you should always remember to thank the reviewer and if there are negative remarks, you must also address them. This will show Google that you care about your customers.

How will local SEO impact your business?

• Help potential customers in discovering your business
• Give your potential customers the information that they are seeking so that they can make their way to your business
• Provide you with qualified leads with a high chance of converting into an actual sale
• Local SEO helps potential customers in deciding in favour of a business. The more information that one has of a business, the more trustworthy the business seem.

So, it is time for you to boost your local SEO so that your target audience can easily find you. Moreover, a strong local SEO plan will help enhance your organic search ranking and also positively impact your long-term SEO plan. Schedule a consultation with NHANCE Digital to find out about our local SEO services in Manchester and how we can help you grow your business.

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