Local SEO is a totally stand-alone form of SEO all unto itself. Not taking advantage of the tools and techniques afforded by today’s local SEO procedures is like cutting one’s throat.
The follow-through regards using tried and true techniques and new and innovative ones. Don’t underestimate any of them and be prepared for the learning curve that each may require.
You may already be familiar with some and have been using what you have for some time, but you may be unaware that you’ve gotten into a rut and hadn’t realized that there are new ways to old ways.
Reviews And Citations
One thing is reviews and citations. You have to make sure these have your updated and correctly spelled NAPs (Name Address Phone) and that each place these are posted utilizes as much efficient space as possible. You may have to go all the way back to earlier reviews and citations to make sure you’ve updated them and let not one of them have anything incorrect.
You need to use social media to get your customers and fans to add positive reviews and citations whenever they make a purchase or have enjoyed your goods and services for a while. It says a lot when a long-term customer continues to sing your praises and when they comment and share your posts and other posts.
This causes a link building base of local SEO that Google will see as viable and of great importance. It will boost your authority and other sites, bigger than yours, will take notice and be more amicable should you wish to get hooked up with them.
Schema Markups
Do not let your schema efforts go without optimizing. You have to make sure the tags are up to date and correct and squeeze in as much local data about yourself as possible. Adapt them to mobile and voice search too. This will allow for the crawlers to find you and list you properly and that means fans and surfers will get your results just where you want them.
As mentioned earlier, the voice search is the big thing now. You must adapt to it if you want to stay in the game. The reason is that voice goes hand in hand with mobile, and the two have rocketed to the top of the search engine game. Voice search is growing rapidly because of better hardware and software. It frees up people’s hands, especially drivers and people doing chores. Your sites have to have the right local SEO data on them so that when someone gives a search command, it recognizes that your sites not only exist but having been optimized correctly will appear at the top of the search results.
Final Word
There are lots of free tools for optimizing your local content. Google offers such tools for overall SEO but is also proficient in local SEO. If it all seems too complicated, then it might be time to hire a local SEO expert to get things set up and rolling along for the long term. Remember, this is not an overnight success kind of thing.