Quick Guide to LOCAL SEO :how to implement it in 5 steps

For small and medium-sized enterprises that work in a specific area, the new battle to emerge from the sea of the internet is all about Local SEO : improving your visibility for searches related to your product or service in association with a specific city or geographical area , is the trump card to beat the competition.
But where to start?
Here is a quick guide to Local SEO and how to implement it in 5 steps :

• First, if you haven’t opened your Google Business page yet… Do it immediately! ( At this link all the information on the procedure)
  This is a fundamental step if you want to position yourself also on Maps and have more chances of appearing in the Google results when, for example, a user is located in your area and is looking for your product. or service in its vicinity.
  In any case, the Business card must not only be created, but also and above all optimized:
  • Modify the information about your company, inserting everything that may be useful: address, telephone number, website, hours;
  • Select the category of your business (if you don’t find the right category for you, choose the most similar one)
  • The description field is very important: you have a few lines available to explain who you are to potential customers, but also to search engines; therefore use original and non-duplicate content that is badly viewed by Google and if you manage to include your keywords in the text all the better.
  • Complete everything with images: company logo, photos of your business, products, etc …
  • Once the page is ready… Don’t forget it! Update it from time to time with posts, just like (we hope) you also do on Facebook and other social networks; if you want to optimize the posts too, remember to put the titles in bold (insert them between stars * put the title here * ) and make a brief introduction in the post, because the first 160 characters are seen as a sort of meta description.
• If you want to appear for Milan parquet offers … Somewhere the word Milan will also have to appear on your site!
  And there is no random place on the page you want to place on search engines – in this case the page of offers – Milan and its province must be written, not only in the text, but also in the metatags; even better, as a general rule for Local SEO, is to insert your address on the homepage and in the footer (so it will be displayed on all pages of the site).
• As we have said several times, links are still today one of the most considered factors in evaluating the ranking of a site: as with everything, it is not the quantity that counts, but the quality.
  For small and medium-sized enterprises, it is necessary to focus on a local link building: ask to insert a link towards your site to local newspapers and associations; local business listings, or even relevant blogs in your city or region. We have already explained how to do it here: link building for small businesses , you could for example start a collaboration with a local blog, sending your articles with links to your site.
  Or you could add a blog to your site: new and original content is always well received by search engines; on the one hand you will be able to update customers on the news of your products and services, on the other hand you can take advantage of them to put some links; and if you write interesting things you may also attract natural links.
• This point is perhaps more for the experts in the sector: we are talking about structured data markup, or the insertion in the html code of the page of certain items that help search engines to better understand the data that is present on the site. For example, to better specify company name, address, telephone, etc … It would be useful to add in the site footer:
  
  <div class = “itemtype =” http://schema.org/LocalBusiness “>
  <span class =” address- title “itemprop =” name “> Company Name </span>
  <div itemprop =” address “itemtype =” http://schema.org/PostalAddress “>
  <span itemprop =” streetAddress “> Address </span>
  <span itemprop = ”addressLocality”> City </span>
  <span itemprop = ”addressRegion”> Province </span>
  <
  </div>
  <div class = “phone-number”>
  Phone: <span itemprop = “telephone”> Telephone number </span>
  </div>
  </div>

To implement even better the markup of your site, you can learn more here
Returning to less technical aspects, one thing that even a layman can do is make sure that there are h1 / h2 / h3 tags… On the page; and even here, not inserted at random: your product or service should be in the h1 with the city or area of ​​reference.

• Finally, it is good to keep an eye on your reviews, which may appear on various sites, but especially on your Google Business card; for this reason it is good practice to encourage customers to leave positive feedback. Negative reviews may arrive: do not be afraid to face them and always answer for your inefficiencies.