Local SEO Trends that will dominate in 2016

Local SEO Trends 2016 - PicknBuilt

Publication – Anamika Mohanti

Local search engine optimization (SEO) can be tricky. Not only do you have to do all the customary SEO stuff, but then you have to do a new layer of complex SEO activities. Most tech-savvy local-business owners have a decent idea of how to do local SEO, but diving to a deeper level can get confusing.

You have to make sure that you’re getting listed with the right local directories. Also, you have to know how and where to find the local directories that are unique to your geographical area. Plus, you have to ensure that you are optimizing for your geospecific hyperlocal neighborhood, not just the general location of your business.

In order to address some of these major issues, I’ve explained the top five things that most people forget about local SEO. If you want local search traffic, you need to make sure that you go through each of the five issues in this article.

Online Listing – Accuracy & Consistency The most important component of local SEO is a trinity of information known as the NAP. NAP stands for Name, Address and Phone number. Some people call it the NAP+W, adding in the Website for good measure.

The No. 1 negative local ranking factor, according to Moz, is a “listing detected at false business location.” The third biggest negative ranking factor is a mismatched NAP. Inaccuracies like these will kill your local SEO. Clearly, small and local businesses are facing a severe challenge when it comes to getting local listings. Let me break this down into two specific areas -- accuracy and consistency, and why they matter so much.

Accuracy of NAP Local search engines use the NAP as a measuring stick of accuracy for a business’s existence. In order for the local search engine or directory to validate the presence of your local business, it must make sure that every point of data aligns perfectly.

In order for a business to be legitimate, it has to have all three of these pieces of information -- name, address, and phone --and they all have to correspond in every citation across the local landscape.

Consistency of NAP The other issue to keep in mind is consistency.The NAP must be consistent across all the local directories, mentions, citations, and listings.

Consistent NAP information is essential to getting more citations and improving search engine rankings.

The information on Yelp must be consistent with the information on Google+, which must be consistent with the information on Foursquare, which must be consistent with the Local Small Business Association, and on and on.

All of local SEO begins here -- with the obvious NAP. But it goes further, with the not-so-obvious issues of accuracy and consistency.

Online Listing – Detailed Information It’s easy to get listed in local directories. It’s noteasy to fill out these local directories to their maximum potential.

Creating a local listing is time-consuming and tedious. But that’s exactly what a local business must do if it wants to rank. This is where we get into one of the often-overlooked features of local SEO. These directories should be filled out with as much information as possible.

This leads me to the point that many businesses miss: Your customers are using your place page or social-media page as your de facto website.

Where did all that information come from? It did not come from the website, because this particular establishment doesn’t even have a complete website. All they have is locally-optimized accounts on every meaningful local listing.

With the recent rollout of the new Google My Business platform, local search experts are insisting more loudly than ever that it’s important to fill out all your information as completely as possible.

Grab your reviews The good thing about local search is that it’s mostly under your control.

You create your local listings, optimize your Google My Business page, pimp out your Facebook account and do all the other things that bump you to the top of local search results.

There is one thing that you can’t completely control. Reviews. You can’t force users to post their review on Foursquare or Yelp or give you a five-star rating on Google+. But you can encourage them to do it.

There are plenty of ways to motivate users to give reviews. In exchange, you can provide them with free drinks, a shout-out on Facebook, discounts, props -- whatever. At the very least remind them to leave a review. Post a sign on the counter or the door so they can leave a review.

Reviews are so essential for local search optimization that it’s worth it to go the extra effort and ask for these things. Google consistently delivers local results that favor establishments with higher reviews.

Hyperlocal SEO Local neighborhoods are hard to fit into a search engine algorithm. They lack boundaries and clearly-defined names. Thus, the moniker “informal space” has come to characterize regions. Locals may call an area something different from what appears on a formal map. It can be tricky to rank for local SEO in a neighborhood that has a name different from its official map designation.

By optimizing your company website with neighborhood terminology, you can make strides in local searches that target the informal space of your neighborhood while also ranking in

the official algorithm-selected region.

There are things that you can do to optimize your business for the possible neighborhood algorithm from a strictly local optimization perspective.

• Add your neighborhood name as a descriptor at the end of your business name on your Google My Business page.

• Add your neighborhood name to the description on your Google My Business page.

• Add your neighborhood name in text to your website (if you have one).

• Add your neighborhood name to title tags on your website.

• Make sure Google Maps has your neighborhood defined correctly. If not, go into Google MapMaker and submit an update.

• Add your neighborhood to all of your local citation profiles.

All the conventional SEO techniques and enhancements receive a complete makeover when viewed in the light of local SEO. A local business depends on local SEO. As part of the CTA on my personal website, I use a local-specific subheading. Every user that visits my page will see a message that is customized to their specific geographic region.

When I implemented this feature, my conversions shot up. This tells me that local-business owners want to be successful in their geographicarea. The only way to achieve this kind of success is through good local SEO.