LOCAL SEO IN 2019: WHAT WILL IT LOOK LIKE?

Shotland kicked off the webinar with the evolution of local SEO. It was originally perceived as a mysterious marketing tactic that few companies invested in, but has since proven to drive real value for SMBs. So what has changed over the past few years? Shotland highlighted some key factors for Google Local Search in 2019:

1. Google at the center: Google has added new features to keep users on their main interface such as in-search product feeds and related questions and answers on Knowledge Panels for simple information gathering.
2. Third-Party domination: Google allows third-party providers to lead more business to the SMBs through transactional functionalities on Google My Business, but at a cost to the SMB. 
3. Increased Ad Content: To drive profitability, Google has added lead generation ads for local businesses. Consequently, Google is leveraging this data to drive leads to SMBs, but at a cost.

HOW TO OPTIMIZE SMB WEBSITES

Your small business customers can do a lot to ensure they appear in organic search results despite Google’s effort to increase visibility of paid search, especially making the most of their Google My Business page. See below for a selection of tangible tactics that were highlighted by Shotland:

Google My Business (GMB): Content from GMB has authority, so don’t forget to remind your SMBs to check that their profiles are up-to-date with the latest business information and attributes. Find suggestions below on how to drive better SEO:

• Regularly adding photos and manage what is shown on google
• Reusing content from the website and including offers
• Keeping track of reviews, and flagging them to Google if they appear fake
• Adding extra content targeted towards relevant search queries on GMB landing pages

Over the past two years, related questions and instant answers in GMB have become a critical part of SEO because of its prominent placement within search results. Instant answers provide information that Google thinks is sought after by users, and is a hint at what content should be included on your SMBs websites. 

During the webinar, Ruben Coll Molina, of PA Digital in Spain noted that some SMB customers are missing the Q&A functionality on their GMB page. Shotland followed up with a few simple steps on how to add this. 

The value of adding ‘near me’: Searches for everything ‘near me’ has been simple to use and continues to grow. Your SMB clients can simply add the words ‘near me’ to the pages they want to rank, so they can easily boost their organic search results. 

Visibility across the digital landscape: Your SMB clients can improve their local rankings by ensuring that their basic information, category of industry, name, address, phone number, is correct and consistent across the digital landscape. This information should also ideally be registered with all their local listings to increase consistency and accuracy across the web.

Use of backlinks: Ensure that your clients’ websites have quality links from other websites that are relevant to the business category. Suggested link building strategies are to continuously publish new relevant content on the site that is sharable, host local events or ask partners/vendors of the business to link to the site. 

WATCH THE WEBINAR

Want to check out the full webinar? You can watch the full recording here. For more about the Local SEO Guide, check out their website (www.localseoguide.com) or follow their Twitter (@localseoguide).