Local SEO services in Brighton
- Local SEO can greatly increase your online visibility.
- Do you need advice on how to optimise your business for local search?
- Are you looking for someone to carry it out for you?
- Does your business need to resolve problems that are affecting its local search potential?
Local search has never been a more effective driver for businesses. The first step towards local success is realising this. The second is making it happen.
I can provide the results you need. I am a Brighton-based local SEO specialist with more than 15 years’ experience in online marketing. Take a look at my client testimonials here. You’ll see that as well as offering local SEO services I also offer the following:
Friendly advice and insightful comments are offered free with every enquiry. So, get in touch today and start putting your business firmly on the map.
“The three biggest factors in local listings appear to be the number of citations, the number of reviews (primarily on your Google Places listing, though other places do count), and how positive the reviews are overall.”
Sam McRoberts
The local search optimisation service highlights
If your business has a local audience you need to optimise your site for them. That’s what local SEO is: it makes sense doesn’t it?
If your business has several branches, and several local audiences, it is even more important to ensure you can be found wherever you offer your products or services.
All you need to place yourself on the map is a physical location and a bit of know-how. The next time someone in your area types in a relevant search you will be no more than a click away.
The good news is that local SEO is refreshingly straightforward…
Forget the complexities you may associate with traditional search engine optimisation. Simply get your business listed in authoritative directories using a consistent NAP (Name, Address and Phone number) and category and half the battle is won.
…The bad news is that it’s ongoing
Nothing is ever that simple is it! You are also going to need to get customers to post positive reviews about your business online, and you need to do this regularly.
Don’t worry though, I can show you ways you can build this into your everyday work without even breaking a sweat.
The good news is that onpage changes are minimal…
Usually a quick review of your meta tags, the addition of your NAP to your site footer and, possibly, the creation of a local page or two are all that is needed to send the right local signals.
…And offpage activity can slot into your existing online marketing
By slipping your NAP into guest posts, forum posts, press releases, social media profiles, listings you have with professional bodies and anywhere else you appear online you can strengthen your local search rankings further.
- Does it work?
You bet it does.
- Is it expensive?
It certainly isn’t.
- Is it painless?
Pretty much so.
- Could you do it yourself?
You probably could.
- So why do you need to buy in local SEO services?
Local SEO is simple and effective when carried out correctly. It is time-consuming and complex, however, to rescue misguided optimisations which have damaged the local online visibility of your business.
Get it right and you can reap the rewards. Get it wrong and you will rue the day.
Contact me to find out more about how local SEO can make a real difference to your business.
“Consistent NAP information is essential to getting more citations
and improving search engine rankings.“
moz.com
The lowdown on local SEO
Let’s not get confused. Local SEO is not just about optimising for long tail, geographically-specific searches, such as ‘electrical contractors Brighton’.
Type any search into Google from your laptop, tablet or mobile and you will be delivered some results that are based on your location. You don’t even need to use you location in the search itself. So, a search from your mobile for ‘restaurants’ whilst walking through the North Laine will return a map of Brighton restaurants and listing of the websites of Brighton restaurants.
The easiest way, and by far the most cost effective, to reach your local audience is to use Local SEO to target it.
Mobile search and local SEO
Local SEO has grown massively in importance over the past few years. Smarter search engines and searches on smartphones are the reasons why.
- Search engines use your location as a clue to the intent behind your search and serve up results with a local bias.
- Smartphones have given us the ability to conduct searches whilst we are out and about.
Here are some statistics about the importance of mobile and tablets in today’s online landscape.
- 60% of all online traffic now comes from smartphones and tablets.
- At least half of this traffic is driven by aps.
- In terms of organic search more than a third is conducted on mobile devices.
- Four out of five people use smartphones to look up local information.
- Two in three people take direct action as a result.
- One in three people go on to make a purchase.
(Sources: comscore.com, brightedge.com and brandongaille.com)
As smartphone usage increases, and it becomes easier to stay connected, local results will become more and more important for businesses. You need local SEO simply because location is a key determinant of so many search results.
How can you optimise for local search?
No search is an island.
To an extent how you perform for traditional searches will impact on how you perform for local searches. It is definitely not a case of either/or.
There are distinct differences, however, in how you optimise for traditional and local SEO.
You could be penalised under Google’s Panda updates for having too many similar text links that lead to your website. But you will be rewarded for having exactly the same citation in every directory that lists you. And what is a citation? It´s nothing more mind’blowing than a mention of the Name, Address and Phone number (NAP) of your business.
Similarly, if links to your site are of crucial importance for traditional SEO, your local ranking factors focus on citations that do not have to link to you, but must include the same pieces of information.
Although local SEO has certain ongoing elements (such as achieving positive reviews online) it can usually be carried out, and show results, much faster than traditional SEO campaigns.
To optimise your business locally you will need:
- Consistent citations of your business and its branches in authoritative directories and elsewhere online.
- Consistent categorisation of your business and its branches.
- Citations across all your social media platforms.
- Listings on Google My Business for every business location you have.
- Positive, spontaneous reviews that are freely and regularly posted online by customers.
You should also consider:
- The inclusion of your NAP in the footer of your site where this is relevant to your business.
- Following the advice of Google’s Matt Cutts and creating a separate, optimised page that includes the NAP for each branch of your business.
- Using semantic markup in your code to ensure your local signals are clearly understood by search engines.
- Using local signals and keywords in onpage copy and your meta titles.
“The good thing about local search is that it’s mostly under your control.”
Neil Patel
Put yourself on the map
Local search is critical to any local business and an increasingly important part of the search landscape.
If you want to put yourself on the map give me a call today to start claiming your territory.
