It’s 2020, and more businesses are running to the internet to look for more customers and delight their current patrons through evergreen content, engaging social media posts, and public details that lead them to buy products or hire their services.
While this is no new strategy, some enterprises still find themselves overwhelmed with ways to rank on search engines and capture their target market. It’s becoming more popular that users search for businesses near them, such as restaurants, gyms, or hardware stores. Aside from checking your website, they’ll go as far as reading user reviews, blogs, and other types of content to gauge if they should do business with you.
With Google changing the way how SEO is affecting websites and local businesses, be sure to prepare your strategies with these four trends and update your local SEO checklists.
Google to Continue to Look at E-A-T
E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness, and in 2020 this will further help your website its Google search rankings.
For organic local SEO, this means that your business can have the upper hand in search rankings when your content is written with a tone of expertise and authority, all to improve trustworthiness. But how can you make your site E-A-T-able? Here are some quick tips:
Cut out low E-A-T content:
These kinds of content can negatively affect your site’s reputation. Low performing blog posts and pages should be taken out or improved with the right keyword research that people are using to search for your product or service – a must-do in your local SEO checklist. This might hurt page views and other metrics in the short run but will significantly improve after a few months.
Bring in an expert
Related to the point above, you can also have an expert revise an entire page to improve your organic local SEO should you feel that it’s better to keep that element on your website rather than scraping it off. Experts don’t have to be professional specialists, but can be people who are deeply invested in a topic or hobby, such as locals who know which restaurants are great for large families.
Invest in security
If you’re an e-commerce website or use your online real estate for monetary transactions, it’s always good to have your site secure. Many of your customers, current and prospective, use Google Chrome and will take note if your site is secure or not by looking at the address bar. Additionally, do not mislead your customers by using other logos from other brands, as this can reduce trustworthiness and drive away business. It is important to display your company’s address and contact details, as well as other certifications to improve and maintain better standing in organic local SEO.
Take control of user-generated content
Q&A fora like Quora and Reddit are great channels to subtly advertise your business by giving expert advice, but you need to ensure that the content written on that sounds authoritative. Again, having an expert write content or check if the content being published is true and helpful will help your organic local SEO rankings and overall reputation.
Do note that drastic changes in your site rankings and metrics will not be noticeable until after a few months.
Influencers Continue to Improve Organic Local SEO
Consider working with industry or niche influencers as part of your local SEO activities. Engagement is an important factor as Google measures this specific metric to assess the quality of your content and its placement in search results.
When an influencer, be it a highly popular blogger or a celebrity, endorses your brand and its products and services it can positively affect your engagement in terms of the following metrics:
- Social shares: number of shares you acquire on social media
- Comments: number of people who leave feedback on your website
- Click-to-Purchase/Call: number of online purchases on your website or number of calls to inquire about your products or services
- Return Visits: number of visitors who come back to your website and further engage with your content
Google My Business Optimisation
Many businesses today have websites, social media channels and often have online directory accounts to widen their online reach. Local SEO activities need to be highly engaged in order to stay relevant and rank high on search results.
What some businesses do not take advantage of is Google My Business, which confirms the legitimacy of your enterprise and provides convenience to online users.
When someone searches for your business, they don’t immediately need to go to your website to capture your contact details. The GMB snippet is visible on the first page of Google Search and should contain a substantial description, images of your establishment, your company logo, operating hours and contact number.
Some snippets, such as restaurants, have an additional feature that displays certain times when they are most active – lunch or dinner, for example. Additionally, user-generated reviews and questions may also be visible.
You might think that this is one less pageview on your website, but in retrospect, it’s actually one more prospective set of feet entering your store. If the customer needs more information after having found basic information about your business then they’ll surely visit your website and search through your content.
Improve Mobile Search
More people are using mobile devices to search for information about businesses. It’s not enough to have a blog with great on-page and off-page SEO, but it’s also important to give your market a memorable user experience.
If you want more clicks and keep your market navigating through your website, better add to your local SEO activities creating or enhancing your site’s readability, easy navigation, captivating yet easy-to-load images, and informational yet entertaining content.
Here at DigitalMaas, we are always happy to help you with your digital marketing needs particularly getting your organic local SEO up and running in the fastest way possible. Get in touch with us today for a free consultation so you know the best strategies you can perform to grow your local online presence. Click the link below to sign-up for free today!
