Google Places Optimisation
In recent times local SEO and Google Places optimisation has gradually become more and more important. Google themselves have said that roughly 20% of searches now have ‘local intent’ and last year, altered their results pages to provide better local results for their users.
When a user searches Google for a location based keyword, the likelihood is that the top 7 Google Places results will appear on the first page along with some traditional style results. This means that if your Google Places listing is ranking well, it can provide some highly targeted additional traffic.
How we improve local rankings
Similar to traditional SEO, there are certain pieces of work that can be carried out to improve a website’s Google Places rankings. Some of the work needs to be carried out on the listing itself whereas as other bits of work are about building trust with Google.
Listing Work
As mentioned above, some of the work that needs carrying out has to be performed on the Google Places listing itself. This includes:
- Correct category choices
- Targeted business description
- Appropriate phone number selection
- Addition of images/video
- Correct business address
- Full listing completion
- Listing Verification
This work will result in a strong, fully complete listing, which is favored by Google. This work will also ensure that the listing is targeting your chosen keywords.
Other Work
Alongside the work listed above, there are many other factors that contribute to ranking strongly in local markets. These include (but are not limited to):
- Website amendments (to make your site more relevant to chosen terms and to improve consistency between your site and Places listing)
- Building relevant citations to your listing
- Ensuring consistency across these citations
- Building reviews for your listing
Want us to help you rank locally?
If you would like help increasing your presence locally, contact us today for an honest opinion and an overview as to how we can help.
