10 top tips to improve your Google Local rankings
The web is getting more and more local, is this a good thing?
Defiantly… When I search for accountants, or lawyers I want the accountant that are based just down the road, not one 100 miles away, or in a recent search I made one in Sydney Australia!
Here are 10 top tips on how to optimise your website to improve your Google Local rankings:
- 1. Book a country specific URL. So .co.uk is best for the UK
- 2. Host your domain in the UK. Google looks at IP locations to determine the location of a website for local search.
3. Sign in to Google Webmaster Tool and set your preferred geo location [tools > overview > Set geographic target]. This would give a clear indication to Google Bot about where you are located.
4. Submit your site to Google Local Business Centre and also submit your site to other local directories like www.freeindex.co.uk or your local government business listing.
5.Publish your address on the contact page along with a Google map showing the exact location of your office or business centre.
6. Promote your blog or site in your locality. If your local newspaper has an online publication, try to get a link from there.
7. Influence people to visit your website directly via Ads and other methods – if people from a distinct place visit a website directly in huge numbers, it would send a clear sign to search engine about the relevance.
8. Get links from websites with same URL – so link to other .co.uk’s
9. Use the name of your locality along with the main key phrase as anchor texts for incoming links. For example, if you are a Guildford based accountancy, say ‘Accountancy – Guildford’
10. Optimise page content around your locality, but make it readable and don’t keyword pack!
Implement the above rules and you will be well on your way to the top of your locality for your search term.
