A critical parameter of internet visibility, local referencing or local SEO (local SEO) holds strategic importance in the way an entrepreneur reaches its target audience. Unlike simple SEO, local SEO focuses on promoting content and improving its visibility on a national or regional scale. Since a non-negligible part of internet traffic is generated by local searches (SERPs), local referencing is not only a competitive tool, but also an economic one for medium-sized players in markets already invested by much larger companies. large communication budgets.
In order to ensure that you build an effective and profitable SEO strategy, here are 10 tips with which you can easily promote your business.
« GMB » GOOGLE MY BUSINESS
Google has been offering you for a while to create what the search engine commonly calls a Google My Business listing. The latter is the window that you often find in connection with an activity. This is the one that Internet users consult most often after a search and on which appears the name of the company, the category of activity, the address, the opening hours, the website - but also additional information too. various as customer comments or even photos. These last sections, very often neglected by companies, however, often make the difference and contribute to giving you a reliable image.
It is also important to pay particular attention to the “category” section; it is advisable to fill in the latter accurately and not to hesitate to cross several categories if the description of your activity requires it. Google generates more than 50% of the average SEO traffic each year.
Moral: do not shun the search engine and its assets
THE COMPANY LIST
The business listing represents all the sites whose objective is to list the actors common to an activity and to offer a search system based on one or two simple criteria: the address for GoogleMaps, telephone number for the PagesJaunes directory, company name for Company.com, etc.
Some like Yelp or TripAdvisor have an interface where the user is confronted with customer satisfaction reviews. It is essential for your SEO to display consistent information between them on a multitude of these listing sites.
THE ROLE OF CUSTOMER REVIEWS
As introduced earlier, there are many sites whose purpose is to inform Internet users of the quality of your activity and rate it through customer satisfaction reviews. It is rare today that these take the form of comments alone, which a user would have to tediously leaf through. These satisfaction notices are very often accompanied by a note which makes it possible to compile these various returns into an average, often appearing prominently and allowing a much easier and faster interpretation of the information.
By their simplicity and convenience, these reviews have become very influential among Internet users. It is therefore essential to the quality of your referencing, to multiply customer reviews on various sites, platforms and social networks, for example by managing them on your Facebook page, or by creating a book of 'or clearly visible on your site.
LONG-TAIL KEYWORDS
To understand “long-tail keywords” or “long-tail keywords” you have to understand how they differ from classic keywords. These are basic and represent a relatively simple concept; by extension, they are often short, consisting of one or a few words, but make up an overwhelming majority of traffic generation. Conversely, those called "long-tail" are often composed of more words and are therefore more specific, in that they address more precisely certain searches in particular.
For example, where “wine cellar” is part of the first category, “primeur tasting wine cellar” is part of the second. It specifies precisely which searches should lead to your website. Thus you gain in competitiveness compared to your competitors with respect to which you will be better referenced on this keyword.
To include these keywords in your content, there are different methods:
- The "title-tag" or title tag is the title of the link that will appear in a search engine. It is essential that it contains specific “long-tail” type keywords.
- The "meta-description" represents the encoded description (in html) of the content of your web page. It is important to describe the latter in a few concise lines but including a maximum of long tail keywords.
- “Alt-images” are the encoded descriptions of the images on your site. Invisible to the eyes of the search engine, it refers to this tag to reference you; Describing your graphic content with relevance is therefore essential.
- Body text, headings, etc.
Advice: The more precise your keywords, the more your site will satisfy the searches of Internet users who will consult it, which has the advantage of increasing your conversion rate.
KEEP YOUR MAPS UPDATED
MAP is the acronym for Name, Address, Phone number. Not only are these three pieces of information decisive, but so is the consistency of these across the different platforms. Indeed, it is important to keep this information up to date in a uniform and simultaneous manner on all structured (PagesJaunes, Yelp) and unstructured (external sites that mention your company) referring sites, since the search engines take as a relevance factor for a search for consistency between this information, thus influencing your referencing.
LOCAL AUTHORITY BACKLINKS
“Backlinks” are all the links posted on other platforms to your content, which generate traffic and greatly improve your local SEO. When it comes to backlinks, it is often interesting to prioritize the quality of your backlinkers over the quantity, since it is the quality of the latter that will determine the quantity of traffic generated. An important step is to determine which are the local authority players in your field whose backlinking would greatly benefit you.
In order to reach and encourage quality backlinkers to reference your site, it is important to offer quality content, accessible and above all related to the area of interest of your potential backlinkers. To get a head start, it is possible to contact influencers with high visibility on social networks so that they can refer you and thus generate traffic, boosting your local referencing.
OPTIMIZED FOR VOICE SEARCH
Voice search is a phenomenon that has grown considerably in recent years and has become a game-changer in SEO referencing. Optimizing your content to be suitable for voice search, often performed by mobile users who represent a significant portion of overall traffic, is paramount.
First, it is important to be aware that voice search differs from traditional search in a few points: users more frequently use phrases, assimilated to long-tail keywords that we have already dealt with. In addition, certain language elements typical of voice assistants are inserted: Where? When ? How? 'Or' What ? It is therefore very beneficial to modify your content accordingly, as well as to ensure that any information required by an Internet user is concise and easily accessible.
BE PRESENT ON SOCIAL NETWORKS
Social networks are an incredible tool to increase your visibility and find potential backlinkers. Here are some tips:
- All the information needed to contact you must be clear and consistent between the different networks. This provides you with an identity card that can be accessed almost immediately by all users.
- Do not hesitate to check that your profiles are indeed professional profiles.
- Claim your Facebook Place page.
- Include the social networks you are active on across all platforms.
BE MOBILE OPTIMIZED
Mobiles generate impressive internet traffic, which is still growing. More than one out of two searches today is done via a smartphone. No matter your audience, every customer will view your content on mobile at least once. This is why it is important that your site is optimized and mobile responsive. Prioritize the key pages of your site: the one on which your information, your products, etc. appear.
Do not hesitate to use a simulator to check if your site is mobile responsive. If not, it's time to change your design.
CHECK YOUR SITE LOAD TIME
Tools like Gtmetrix can analyze your content and give you insight into the performance and ways to optimize your site.
Sources :
- https://www.agencejamey.fr/conseils-pour-ameliorer-votre-referencement-local/
- https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2018/10/12/local-seo
- https://seo-hacker.com/improve-local-search-rankings/
https://www.copyblogger.com/local-seo/ - https://www.webmarketing-com.com/2019/05/17/91210-comment-optimiser-son-referencement-local-en-2019