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With the release of Google’s ‘Pigeon’ update back in 2014, local SEO suddenly became a lot more important for webmasters and developers. Optimizing a site to pick up local searches was no longer simply a good strategy, it was suddenly an essential way to ensure online success.

Fast forward to 2017. Today, there’s no question that without local SEO is like having your shop in the middle of the desert. With nearly 60% of the searches being achieved on a mobile device, Google is able to match the place of the searcher to the most relevant business within their local area. If you miss local SEO then you are missing out on that ‘ready to spend’ local customer.

With that in mind, we at Network Handlers have compiled the most essential tips for how you can make the most of Local SEO in 2017 and increase your revenue. With these tips, you can rise above the local competition and command a higher online presence amongst local customers who are looking for products and services like yours.

1. Claim your ‘Google My Business’ AND ‘Bing Places’ Listings If You Haven’t Already

First things first, if you haven’t claimed your ‘Google My Business’ listing yet to ensure that your organization is locally represented, then it’s time to do that now. This is one of the essential building blocks of local SEO – it’s easy to do and will set the platform for your local SEO efforts.

2. The Best Practices for On Page Optimization for Local SEO

As one of the most important parts of SEO, it is very important to make sure that all of your on page factors are optimized to give the best chance to rank locally. Below are some tips on what you need to do.

  • - Local Keyword research– it is imperative that you research the keywords properly to make absolutely sure that you are focusing on the right phrases to get local ‘ready to spend customers to your website. For example, if you are selling furniture in Long Island you will find out during your research that you can focus on the different terms relevant to your business like “outdoor furniture in Long Island” or “outdoor rattan furniture in Long Island” and plan the rest of your onsite optimization moving forwards.
  • - Optimizing Title Tags– Without question this is one of the most important onsite aspects. It is the text that appears at the top of your website’s pages and also as the title of your listing in the Search Engine results. Search engines place a lot of importance on the keywords that you add in your title tag and it helps them to understand exactly what the specific page is about.
  • For Example :-
Local SEO Long Island
  • - Optimising Header Tags – This is another element of a webpage that helps search engines and users understand the context of a page. You can look at it in the same way as a Newspaper article and the headings should be structured properly throughout in the most relevant way. Use your primary keywords and locations in the H1 tag of the website to build up relevancy in the eyes of Google and the other major search engines.
  • - URL Structure– A good URL is to use keyword with the local location in your URL
  • - Optimizing Images– Search Engines are not able to reliably read or understand images, so it is important to get the information of what an image contains in other ways. We can use what is called an Alt Text Tag to describe what the image is about./li>

3. Use Schema.org Markup for Your Website

This should be a huge part of the onsite optimization practices that we have mentioned about and we’ll go into a bit more detail here.

Also known as ‘structured data markup’, this bit of code makes it easier for search engines to crawl your website and make inferences about it. It allows these web crawlers to learn more specific information about your business’ products, reviews, services and location.

4. Citations

Citations are very significant when it comes to your Local SEO. They are mentions of your business on websites showing the name of your company, where you are located and your phone number.

  • - NAP– Simply, Name, Address and Phone Number. Consistency is hugely important here to make sure that you are giving search engines and users the correct information about your business.
  • - Citation consistency– As mentioned briefly above it is imperative that you have consistency in the information of your business on your citations. If you have incorrect or contradicting information it can affect your local rankings in a negative way and also present the wrong information to your potential customers.
  • - Where to get started with Citations– below you will find some great examples of powerful citations for you to get started

Some of the examples of citation websites Four Square, White Pages, Yellow Pages, Yelp

5. Getting the Power of Online Reviews

Enabling online reviews for your products and services is a good idea even if you aren’t worried about local SEO.

We hope that you loved this article and please share if you need any help or you have any other topics that you would like us to focus on in the coming weeks.

If you are ready to start your Local SEO contact us today. We are leading Local SEO service provider in Long Island

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