Craft has the same value that it had centuries ago, and a delightful fact is that people still prefer to buy craft items from the local stores. It turns out that if your craft store or brand isn't visible in the local search results, then you can lose a plethora of customers who'd be attracted to other local shops. The only escape route to exit this situation is hiring professional SEO services. However, if you are interested to know the strategies that best SEO service recommend to rank your store higher on local searches, check the information given below.
Strategies by the Best SEO Services to Top Local Search Rankings
What Are Local Search Rankings?
Before we start with the strategies, you need to understand what local search rankings actually mean. Google is a worldwide search engine, collecting information from all over the globe. When you enter a search time like 'buy shoes,' it will display popular shoe brands and e-commerce stores. However, if you search locally like 'buy shoes in (city name),' the results will bring you a map and a short listing of all shoe shops and stores present in that city. The order of those business listings is what we call local search rankings. In brief, the position at which your website link appears in a search engine when a user enters the local search query is referred to as local search rankings.
Without much ado, let us began with the strategies:
#1 Create a My Business Account
When you hire any professional SEO services, the first step they will make to get your business online is to sign up in Google My Business. It is Google's official business listing platform from where you can compete with other businesses. The steps to get working with My Business are:
Step 1: Check out all the My Business guidelines on this page
Step 2: Visit www.google.com/business
Step 3: Sign up and enter all the details as referred in the guidelines
Once you sign up and create your My Business account, always remember that now it is open to public reviews, ratings, and photos. Some common mistakes that you don't want to make while signing up is to enter the incorrect open hours, contact sources, and address.
#2 Filter Public Reviews Smartly
You want your business to be rated the highest by users with genuine reviews to be listed at the top. Google is smart enough to understand if you delete negative public reviews or upload fake ones. If your My Business listing does not look genuine, Google obviously is going to drop its position. To prevent this from happening, you can use smart filtering:
- Do not remove negative product reviews. A few negative reviews about a missed button or problem with the zipper aren't going to decrease people's trust.
- Reach the customers who uploaded negative reviews and try to resolve their problems. Once resolved, you can request them to edit their review, stating how you helped them resolve their problems.
- Delete abusive or obscene reviews. If you don't do that, readers are going to believe you don't give much heed towards managing your business.
According to BrightLocal, around 87% of customers read Google reviews before making a significant purchase from an unrecognized local store. It is why implementing all the steps given above is important. Also, keep in mind that a 5-star rating with 50+ reviews can be easily identified as unoriginal. So simply stay away from false ratings and reviews.
#3 Increase Your Online Presence
People spend thousands of dollars looking for the best SEO services to boost their online presence. Apart from listing your store on My Business, expanding your online presence is important to make Google notice your brand. You can do this by:
- Creating a Business Website
Create a business website for your store, stating your work, products, services, contacts, and more. Do not forget to use local keywords with your city's name to secure higher local search rankings.
- Create Social Media Handles
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. are a perfect way to showcase your products and get leads. By linking these handles to your website, you can further sprout your online presence and make Google notice your business.
- Start Blogging
Business blogs are the key to increase rankings everywhere. People say the businesses who blog are more trustable. They are constantly showcasing their knowledge and information about their niche.
#4 Run Competitive Analysis
Competition is everything that matters online. As your aim is to rank higher than other local businesses, professional SEO services pinpoint a clear recommendation for competitive analysis. You need to study the reviews, ratings, websites, and patterns of your competitive businesses to know what have they done so differently to achieve higher rankings.
- If their ratings and reviews are more, you can request your customers to review you on Google.
- You can print 'Review us on Google' on your carry bags
- Hang a signboard on your store requesting the customers to review
- Keep a 'review us' touchscreen monitor at your cash counter so that your customers can review at front of you
- If the images are less, add more images to your My Business account
- Review your competitor website's keyword optimization and optimize your website better to meet their standards
Using these four strategies mentioned above, you can improve your rankings in the local search. If you need help in improving your SEO rankings, contact our digital marketing experts at Kindlebit Solutions. We provide one of the best SEO services in the world and are available 24/7 to streamline your business. Get in touch with us now to clear your queries and doubts.
