SEO is important for any business, it will increase your customer base and also boost your brand recognition. What some people don’t realize though is that they do not need to try and sell their product or service to the whole country, the main focus should be about building your local customer base. The majority of local businesses have a shop/warehouse where they do their business and meet their customers face to face. This ‘local’ business is realizing that it is now more important than ever to have an online presence, especially on social media sites and the business website. Local SEO allows small local businesses to compete with the multi-national companies and major stores. With smaller businesses coming under threat from major corporations, it is increasingly important for them to do everything they can to get the edge. Local SEO should be your top priority if you are looking to reach a larger amount of customers and you want to get the upper hand on your local rivals. It’s easy to see why local SEO should be your priority, here are some fantastic steps to improve your local SEO.

Your Location is Key

Remember that if someone is searching online for a service they will also include the area they live or require the service. For example, if someone is searching for a dentist they will not simply type in ‘dentist’ into Google, they will type in ‘dentists in East London’ or something similar. You have to make sure that your business shows when someone is searching for your industry in your local area. It is easy to do this, all you need to do is add your location to your title tag – it’s simple but will help you no end in searches.

The Correct Contact Info

You will be using a number of online tools to advertise your business and promote your online presence, it is important that your contact info is the same throughout. So, whether it’s your social media, website or local listings, your address must be consistent on all. NAP, otherwise known as Name, Address, Phone number need to be the same on all platforms. The same business name, address and phone number should be everywhere, if there are any variations or differences then it can damage your ability to rank highly on searches. Check carefully when you place a paid listing that the information printed is correct and they don’t use an alternative phone number that will connect to your business.

Use all of the Online Platforms You can Find

When people Google your business name more than just your website will appear in the search results if you have used every platform available. You should get listed on all of the following; Google +, Foursquare, Yelp, Google Places, Bing Places, Yahoo! Local Listings and many more. Register for each of these and then add as much info as possible. Each of these platforms acts as another way for you to show in search results, this will give you an extra edge of your competition.

Author Bio:

This post was submitted by Simon, he works in SEO and has his finger on the pulse. Recently his interest has been in how to improve your local seo, because it’s becoming more and more important each day.