How I can improve Local SEO in 2018
-
Hi. I have already applied this strategy:
- Capture Your Space on All Local Business Directories.
- Leverage the Power of Local Link Building
- Focus on Reviews and Ratings
- Use Local Structured Data Markup
What could I do to improve my strategy in 2018?
-
Last day, MOZ Team publish a post about it.
https://moz.com/blog/how-to-optimize-your-google-my-business-listing
-
And Google also encourages you to respond to all good and bad reviews too
-
Good question! So, replying to reviews doesn't directly correlate with increased rankings, if this is how you define SEO. But, reviews have a massive impact on your reputation and your revenue. And both of those elements then indirectly impact your SEO, in terms of what people are saying about you (and linking to) regarding your brand, and the financial picture you achieve, which enables you to invest more in your SEO. So, think of it as a circle, if you can.
Given the importance of closely managing your reputation, owner responses have become a critical vehicle for contributing to how consumers feel about your company. Negative reviews, in particular, need responses to defend your reputation and revenue, and also, to keep existing customers happy instead of having to spend so much more in replacing them with new customers.
So, owner responses do not = any known, direct ranking benefits.
But, owner responses definitely do = core benefits to the health of your brand.
You might like to read: https://moz.com/blog/mastering-owner-response-quintet-google-my-business-reviews
-
Thanks for the reply. I have a question about whether it is important or not to answer the reviews on my business page. How important is this for SEO?
-
Good morning!
Great question and good discussion happening here. I have two recommendations for you:
-
Harness all possible features of the Google Knowledge Panel, including description, posts, photos, reviews and review responses, Q&A, etc. Set up UTM tracking wherever you can to assess which particular activities and features are driving traffic and conversions. Google is slowly but surely on a path the replace your website as the interactive level your customers experience for more and more searches. While your website still definitely matters, viewing the Knowledge Panel as a secondary, quite powerful mini-website is appropriate in 2018. Experiment and analyze.
-
Focus on in-store experiences that drive consumer content (reviews) and loyalty. Take advantage of the fact that, for many businesses, Google is still driving new customers their way, basically for free, except in those verticals where free packs are being replaced with paid packs. If Google gives you a customer once, it's up to your in-store staff to turn them into a repeat customer. Emphasize building a loyal consumer base now, while Google leads remain "free", as a preventative measure against the future in which less and less of these leads will be free. What can your business do to create the kind of consumer experiences that win customers for the long term, and prompt word-of-mouth recommendations to their network of family and friends?
Hope these two ideas help!
-
-
Hola elenaglop. Thanks for the link!
-
Hola elenaglop. Thanks for the ideas!
-
It sounds like you're on the right track to me.
With regards to business listings, I have found regularly adding posts to GMB listings quite helpful. While it's not a 'ranking factor', there have been a few case studies done which suggest they can be helpful. E.g. https://searchengineland.com/google-posts-impact-ranking-case-study-285668
Since they take about 5-10 minutes to do, it definitely doesn't hurt!
And then yes if you can create more localised blog content that could help too
-
¡Hola!
Something that always works is writing an article for your blog listing the best specialists in your area or city. In your case it would be something like: "Los mejores logopedas Madrid", of course you can include yourself on the list. Usually this kind of article gets to the first page of Google quite fast because it is quality content. With this little trick you will appear in the first positions when somebody searches "logopedas Madrid".
I hope this helps!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Not Showing Up On Local?
Hello, I purchased Moz Local for our fitness and performance company, BIM Fitness & Performance, about 6 weeks ago. Compared to the other people in our area, we have the highest DA. We show up 2nd in search but are not showing up on the "map pack" for local. That said, can someone please help me pinpoint why this may be? We've selected several categories that are relevant to search and we can't seem to understand why.
Reviews and Ratings | | scottgray06200 -
We have a link we to: Grace Construction, but the company has switched owners, and is not local anymore.
I have a second question to put forward! Probably close to 8 years ago I exchanged a link with a good friend's construction company, Grace Construction. We are a local fence company in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. They were new home builders and we sometimes would build a fence for their new home owners. They wrote a positive review of our business and I published it on our reviews page: (it's near the very bottom) http://www.a-better-fence-construction.com/fence-reviews.html And, they linked to our website from their website. However, now after 8 years, they no longer build homes and have let their domain name expire and has been repurchased by a construction company in Florida. I had linked to their website from the text and the image of their logo. I am not up to speed on what is best practice. What do you recommend I do? dwhAV
Reviews and Ratings | | SuperNovi0 -
Why can I not add Schema Mark up to my homepage?
I've paid a company to add Schema to my website, but they just told me they can't add it to my homepage? Is this correct??
Reviews and Ratings | | MissThumann0 -
Customers can review business on New Google Plus
Google Plus for businesses has switched to a new Google+ page that does not have a "WRITE A REVIEW" button available for customers to leave a review for a business. This is preventing us from sending a link to our Google Plus business page directly to customers soliciting a review for our business. Has anyone else noticed this update migration and does anyone have a work around for how to send a link to our customers so they can leave a review on our Google+ business page?
Reviews and Ratings | | bcannon130 -
Review of my site, just starting seo and looking for any tips
Hello, Just after advice for a website I've recently relaunched, started very basic seo. However having loads of pages it’s hard to dedicate the time to get the on-site seo completed. Question for Ecommence sites, do we really need to individually content on all pages? I've also start link building & will be setting up blog, Am debating which task too complete first Or maybe combination of them all. I think due to my dyslexia I keep putting the blog off as you can properly tell English is definitely not one of my strengths. Anyway am looking for advice not just on seo , design too, what your opinions ? I have good concept for marketing just learning the ways to implement it, my website sportingdesires dot com. I believe everyone desires some kind of sport or fitness activity, a hobby you enjoy... mine is football (soccer) hence why I started selling branded football merchandise and ventured into Rugby, Basketball and American football. Will be adding other sports, really need to impermanent a blog... all in good time I suppose. Sorry for my rambling please leave any feedback good or bad I promise I won’t hunt ya down (lol) in all serious am just looking for eyes from people it always help to get mixed reviews and opinions. If you’ve read this far well done and thanks ste
Reviews and Ratings | | sportingdesires0 -
Ups store and local listings
HI,
Reviews and Ratings | | corn2015
Does google look negatively if an address is at a UPS store? A client has their address there because they don't have a physical locaiton yet. Corn1 -
Localized vs Professional Images
When it comes to local directory sites such as Google+ Local for business, Yelp, Bing places for business, etc., what is everyone's opinion on the type of images that should be used? I am trying to decide if I want to use 10 professionally produced images (the same 10 will be used across hundreds of locations under the same brand across the country) or if each location should use their own unique 10 images that show localized images from that exact location. When it comes to profile completeness, I think each site does not care, as long as they represent your company well. However, I am curious if there are any case studies or the like that show that one image type is better to use over the other in terms of helping customers make decisions to contact your business or not. really appreciate any comments you have to share.
Reviews and Ratings | | dsinger0 -
Google Warns Local Businesses: You Have 3 Weeks to Save Your Places Listing
Has anyone heard anything about this Google warning that was supposedly sent to some Google Place owners recently. The message says: We are making some changes to Google Places for Business and Google Maps so we can continue providing people with the best experience when they're looking for local businesses. As part of this process, we're asking business owners to review and confirm some of the information in their Google Places accounts so we can keep showing it to Google users. We know this will be a few extra steps for merchants, and we apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your time. We have sent business owners affected by these changes an email entitled "Action Required: You have 3 weeks to save your Google Places Listing". Source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2327744/Google-Warns-Local-Businesses-You-Have-3-Weeks-to-Save-Your-Places-Listing I haven't found much other information in the SEO community but I just wanted to see if anyone has actually received this notice or not? Someone suggested it may just be a test in Australia/Austria. (Not sure which one it is as the comment in the above list references both countries) Thanks for any information you have on this topic.
Reviews and Ratings | | DCochrane1