Using Local SEO to rank up one’s business locally is already a known fact for years. Despite that, business owners still seem to have a hard time opting their sites for the said practice and still fail to follow the right procedures in doing so. It’s these mistakes that brings down the online exposure that their business is getting and many would simply ignore them. If you want your Local SEO strategy to be a success, then you need not to overlook these things.

NAP Consistency and Accuracy

This is what mostly drives your Local SEO - three basic information regarding your business. One of the general practices of Local SEO is that your NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) or others would also call as NAP+W, with the addition of Website, should always be placed and positioned in that particular order when listed down on local aggregators like Yelp or Bing. That much should already be obvious to you.

However, the problem lies not in the knowledge about NAP but how you’re applying it. Many small business owners failed to list their NAPs accurately and consistently. What’s more surprising is that most of them know that something’s wrong with their NAPs and didn’t even do a thing about it.

There are many factors why this would happen - the business may have changed locations or phone numbers and the owners simply forgot or didn’t update their NAP listings on the local directories. Updating your NAP sure is a very tiring work to do, considering how much time and effort one has took in order to list it down on numerous local listings. However, it is essential that they update it, otherwise Google will detect duplicates on it and it will hurt the business badly.

Aside from constantly updating your NAP, you should also make sure that the information provided is exact. Because Local SEO is majorly based on the exact geographical location of a business, a misinformation on this part would result in a negative local ranking factor as well.

Filling Up all the Information in Local Directories

Local directories are finally rejoicing with the launching of Google Pigeon. That said, SMBs should be taking this opportunity to fill up their listings with information other than their NAPs. Local directories are so much more than that and the SMBs need to realize their full potential and put it to good use.

Here’s a study regarding the things that consumers are looking for in a review listing. That should give you an idea that local directories aren’t just all about NAP.

Focusing on Social Media Accounts

SMBs can survive without a website as their base of operations. In turn, they can focus on their social media accounts like Facebook and Twitter to boost their business’ online reputation and image. But most of all, it’s necessary to make use of their Google+ Local Business page to the fullest. This is a very important local SEO tool as not only will it put you in local search rankings, you’ll also be shown in Google’s map packs.

You might then question yourself this - so I don’t need to buy a website? Of course you need them and it’s highly recommended that you create one for your business as well. But if your consumers would want to find a review for your site, where it’s located or what time it opens, they can simply look on your Google+ page for that.

Reviews, Reviews, Reviews

This is one of the most important factors of Local SEO and it’s something that you have no control over. Reviews are something given by your consumers and having many good reviews on your Google+ page is like showing to everyone that your business is well liked by a majority of people. You can’t force people to write reviews about your business, however, you can always ask for it. Try to think of ways to encourage them in doing so - you could impose freebies or something, so long as you don’t go down so much to the point of bribing them for good reviews.

Afterword

Local SEO is one of the best marketing strategy that’s even more probable to yield results compared to its general counterpart. That’s because they target audiences from the proximity of the location of your business. This means more chances of getting walk-in consumers. A well planned strategy and the dedication to comply to the necessary changes that must be made will result in a very successful Local SEO campaign that would surely benefit you in the long run.