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3 Mistakes Small Businesses Make When Implementing Local Search Engine Marketing Services

When implementing local search engine marketing services there are several easy-to-make (but easy-to-prevent) mistakes you can make that will have a negative impact on your local SEO results. Here are three of them:

1 – Inconsistent NAP

NAP stands for Name, Address and Phone, and having a consistent NAP is critical to make sure that your site is seen, especially for local SEO. Why? Because even a slight difference of how the NAP is seen on different websites may make Google unsure if your business is a “real business.” These mistakes might be as simple as spelling out the name of your state (Michigan) instead of using the state abbreviation (MI) on some sites and directories. Or spelling out “Street” instead of using the abbreviation “St.”

It really doesn’t matter which method you use for your NAP info, as long as you keep it consistent everywhere. Starting with including it in the footer on every page of your website design and making sure it is the same throughout all of your professional directory listings, social media profiles and review site accounts.

Local search engine marketing services Charleston, SC

2 – Not Claiming Your Google My Business Page

With Google phasing out Google Plus here over the next couple of months, the only true “social media-like” presence for Google right now is Google My Business. Google My Business is the lynchpin for your local SEO program and if you have not claimed your GMB–or you’ve claimed it but not done anything with it recently–it will show in your local SEO results. Make sure that you also frequently create posts for GMB to make sure that Google continues to see your business website as a “noisy” or active site that needs to be tracked and ranked higher as a result. For more details on how to better optimize your GMB page, check out our 2-part blog series on Local SEO Marketing Strategies: Optimize Your Google My Business Profile.

3 – Not Responding to Online Reviews

As we’ve mentioned before on this blog, one of the best things you can do to improve your social media marketing for your business is to ask your customers to leave reviews on your GMB page (as well as on your other social media platforms such as Facebook and Yelp). But don’t stop there. Be sure to reply to each and every review with a response of some kind. Even if it is just a simple, heartfelt thanks for a 5-star review, or reaching out to a customer that did not have a good experience with your business and possibly find a way to turn that negative review into a positive customer experience.

Replying to your online reviews is part of keeping Google seeing your website as being interactive and noisy, which results in increased rankings for your site. If you need help getting your customers to leave Google Reviews for you, check out this blog post: Get Customers to Provide Google Reviews the Easy Way.

Need Help with Your Local Search Engine Marketing Program?

Let us provide you with a free SEO website audit to help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your local search marketing program. Give us a call at 888-842-9033, or email us at sales@searchmarketingresource.com to get more information.

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