Atlanta Local SEO: Is Your Local Business Invisible Online

Your Local Business Can Keep the Cash Register Ringing with ‘Local Buzz’

Here’s something that would interest you – 78% of consumers do their research online before buying a product or service.  What does that mean for your business?  Well, if you are not visible to consumers on the internet, then you don’t have a business.

Most business owners truly understand the urgency of having a presence on the internet.  They get a website designed, pay for Local SEO services to professionals – but is that enough?  Or do you need to do more to get noticed locally?

What’s Wrong With Your Local SEO Strategy?

Clearly, you have to be visible on Google for people to know who you are and buy from you.  If you do not rank high on Google’s results, even your friends wouldn’t buy from your shop.  That’s why most business owners pay big money to Atlanta Local SEO firms.

But here’s the problem.  If you have a local business and wish to appeal to local customers, your Local SEO strategy should be much more than just including keywords that target your location.  What’s important here is to create a buzz about your business.  This gets people to visit your store and helps your business rank high on local search results.

Optimizing your Local Online Presence

What are the important factors for Atlanta local search engine optimization? According to a study by Moz.com, the following ranking factors are important to get a high ranking on local search results.

• Social Signals – 6.1% - refers to Google+ authority, Facebook likes, and social shares
• Place Page Signals – 19.6% - refers to proper categorization of business
• Review Signals – 10.3% - refers to the review quantity and diversity
• On-page Signals – 18.8% - refers to name, address, phone number
• External Location Signals – 16% - refers to the name, address, phone number consistency across directory listings

Basically, to rank well on local search results so that your business gets found by local customers, it is important to rank high for your business site and get many more search results from external sites as well.

That’s why a presence on the social media, review sites, maps and local listings is so very important.  They all determine your ranking on Google’s local search results.

How Can You Generate ‘Buzz’ Around Your Local Business?

The following strategies will help you create a buzz around your business:

Publish on top Review Sites: According to a survey, 80% of your potential customers read user reviews online before deciding whether to buy from you or not, and 65% say positive reviews makes them more confident about buying from a business.  Only 15% claim never to have read online reviews.

Social Media Presence Helps: Forming a connection with social media users does help your business.  50% of consumers claim to have searched for a local business on social media and 41% of them submit reviews as well.

Consistency in your business Name, Address,  and Phone Number (NAP) across sites:  Always list your local business address on your website, if you don’t, this leads to an inconsistent NAP, resulting in poor search rankings and cuts you off from interested customers who are actually on the move and searching for your business on their mobile phones.

Enable Web Check-ins: Every time a customer checks in from a social media network, such as Foursquare, the activity is broadcast for all to see on the network. You can take advantage of this by offering promos or rewards such as friend deals.  These are given when a group checks in together or a loyalty deal offered after a number of check-ins.  Check-in services are used by 18% of smartphone users.

Prevent Duplicate Places Listings – You should have only one consistent listing for your business on all sites – Yelp, Google My Business and so on.  Don’t get confused between a business listing and a personal listing.

These are just some of the ways to help you create a local buzz about your business,  which gives you much better results than just using traditional SEO.  

YEAH! Local can help to generate buzz for your local business.  For more information on this, send us an email at info@YEAH-Local.com, call 404-539-6068 or visit us online at http://YEAH-Local.com to schedule a free consultation before your competition does.