Improving your local SEO is key to getting more leads and growing your business. Search Engine Optimization helps you obtain customers that are searching for your business name or type online. Combined with other marketing efforts, local SEO helps customers searching for you find you.
Set Up Your NAP
NAP stands for “name”, “address”, and “phone number”. NAP makes it easy for search engines, and people, to find your business. Your NAP should be included in the HTML text on your site to optimize your local SEO. The more directories your NAP is correctly listed in, the more authority search engines will give your website. It is important to make sure it is the same everywhere!
Claim Location Pages
The next step you should take is to claim your business location pages. These pages provide your customers with your NAP, store hours, photos of your business, store descriptions, reviews, and more. You should not have more than one page per location.
Claim Your Google My Business Page
Your Google My Business page is the most important page to claim. Login to your Google account and claim your business. You will need to create a Google account if you do not already have one. You want to make sure that you do not create multiple Google My Business accounts.
If you find that you accidentally have multiple listings, remove them. It is important to only have one listing on Google. You want to make sure your customers are leaving reviews on one page and not across multiple pages. If both accounts have important information on them, you can merge the pages.
Build Customer Reviews
After claiming your Google My Business page and making sure your NAP is correct, it’s time to build your local SEO presence. You can do this by receiving reviews from customers. When someone leaves your business, ask them to leave you a review. There are multiple ways you can do this. You can either give them a business card with a link to your profile, or you can send them a follow-up email. Once you get multiple Google reviews you’ll be able to verify your business.
Optimize Your Local SEO in Detroit Business Categories
Google My Business allows you to pick different categories for your business. You should include one main category, as well as multiple subcategories. It is important to identify with the categories closest to your business. We recommend using a broad, yet specific main category to start. For instance, if you own a Greek Restaurant, use the “Greek Restaurant” category instead of just “Restaurant”. The category needs to be specific, yet searchable.
Earn Local Links
One of the best ways to improve your local SEO is by earning links from local sources. Reach out to local businesses, newspapers, directories, and more to share links. Creating content that is worth linking to is also very valuable. Build relationships with local community organizations, schools, or non-profits.
If you are not sure how much time and money you should spend on local SEO in Detroit, request a free analysis here. Local Media Team is ready to review your website.
