Using Local Listings to Improve SEO, 10 Simple Tips
Whatever the scope of your business, local listings offer great exposure for your business and will help your ranking on results pages
. Unsure why? We've compiled a list of tips to help guide you.
First, let's take a moment to think about local listings. They're usually respected as authoritative because they're used for reference and not blatant advertising. The beauty is that whatever the service you provide, it's probably useful to someone. To be listed in local directories is to be available and to be extant. Through appearing in listings you become available to a great many users who would never think to search for you directly.
While professional SEO services can give you great advice about the finer points of appealing to search engines, there are some practices that are good marketing and good SEO at the same time. These are free SEO tools and you'd be mad not to take advantage of them.
1. Create a professional profile. However beneficial you think local listings are going to be to your business, be sure and take the time to create profiles that present your company in the most fitting way. You might be surprised at how many people see your listing eventually!
2. Be present on as many local listings sites as possible. It's quite reasonable to appear on listings for other areas, if your service or product might usefully be searched for.
3. Make it graphic. Include whatever logos or pictures you think will improve your profile. Remember to name pictures properly for indexing by the search engines. A picture named 1234.gif will tell search engines nothing about its content whereas rareblues1234.gif will tell them a lot.
4. Check for inconsistencies. Remember that inaccuracies spread as quickly as any other form of information on the web and double check every detail of your listings wherever they appear.
5. Have a working e-mail address on every listing. This might stand to reason, but it's surprising how many companies neglect to include this. If you have a special inbox for queries, make sure it's checked regularly.
6. Feature a local telephone number. While this may be impractical for some international suppliers listing on local sites for exposure reasons, it does add a personal touch that's very much appreciated by many clients. Give it careful thought. If it's practical to include a telephone number then do so. Being accessible is good for SEO because it's good marketing.
7. Get listed with as many local directories in the same region as you can. If a locality has two competing directories, feature in both.
8. If you're a company with different outlets, try to have a different homepage for each. The benefits of this are far-reaching. In the context of local listings and SEO, the more different homepages there are for a product the more links there will be.
9. Get advice from SEO consultants while professional SEO services are optimising your pages. As part of a more general consultation about search engine optimisation, an SEO agency should advise about methods specific to local listings.
10. Welcome feedback. Our last tip is potentially the one that will earn you the most kudos. Feedback is a very useful tool from an SEO point of view. Invite ratings and comments about the service or product you provide and you invite links and good exposure. Oscar Wilde asserted that there's only one thing worse than being talked about, and that's not being talked about. He had a very valid point. Comments, even (heaven forefend) negative ones can be good publicity. Be active in leaving feedback too. This provides a good opportunity to be pro-active when it comes to linking. You can leave reviews that are informed and sincere with a view to getting visitors to your site and useful links.
Using Local Listings to Improve SEO, 10 Simple Tips
By: Ronald Kresten
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