For many years, businesses have been using local SEO to drive traffic to their websites. Local SEO enabled companies to attract customers in their catchment area and attract them to their brick and mortar stores. Hyperlocal SEO is the natural extension of this, but rather than target people at the city or county level, hyper-local SEO attempts to attract people at the neighborhood and street level, hence the name “hyper.”
Why is hyper-local SEO becoming so important?
The reason has to do with how people are using their devices. More and more people are using phrases like “near me” in voice search, wanting to know which restaurants are just around the corner or where they can find the nearest gift shop. Companies that rely on local search need to focus on hyper-local SEO to pick up this kind of traffic if they hope to be successful.
So how can you do it?
Optimize Google My Business
Google My Business is a service from Google that allows businesses to appear on the company’s maps feature, either in search results or on the mobile app. The way the service works is simple: you tell Google you’re a real business with a valid address, and they’ll send out a PIN via snail mail that you then type into your Google business account to confirm your location. Once Google is satisfied that you have a real location and that you’re a genuine business, you’ll appear in search results whenever a person types for “[your business] near me” with their location turned on. Then all you have to do is wait for them to read a little more about your firm and then, hopefully, show up at your door.
Gain Real Reviews
People want to know what other local people think about the services in their area. Businesses, therefore, need to gain genuine reviews. Google displays reviews alongside things like location and opening hours, helping customers decide whether they want to visit your establishment. The better your reviews – and the more you have – the more likely they will be to choose you over a competitor.
Consistent Business Citations
A full business citation is your company’s name, address, and telephone number. Google keeps track of what you call your business, where you say it is located, and the contact information that people can use to get in touch with it. If these things aren’t consistent, then the search giant may take a dim view and push your company down the ranks for fear that you aren’t a genuine business, or you’re too disorganized to offer its users a quality service. Google uses citations to verify the accuracy of the information that you give it. If it thinks that you’ve given it the wrong information, then it could punish you.
Google’s Algorithm Continues To Make Hyper-Local SEO Powerful For Small Business
When Google released its Pigeon update several years ago, localized SEO went mainstream. Since then, the company has made several changes designed to help its users pinpoint a business location precisely. Now Google is creating intelligent local SEO categories that reflect user intent, using a combination of location data as well as what they write in the search box. “Restaurants in Philadelphia” is less helpful to a customer, for instance, if they’re located in Doylestown, so the service will show them places to eat in Doylestown.
Want to learn more about SEO?
As a premier digital marketing agency, we stay on top of the Google updates daily. Our team is consistently looking for new ways to optimize the web for each industry to increase our clients visibility online. If you are looking for a SEO Company in Philly give us a call or email us.
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