What Attributes Influence Local Business Listings?
There’s a number of factors that influence local business listings, and you’ll need to know about them in order to optimize your online properties for local search. Take a look here at the most important ones.
Choosing the Right Business Name
The first thing you must do is choose the right name for your business. The name must be relevant to what the business offers. So for example, if you’re selling bridal dresses, it’s essential you include the word “bridal” as opposed to having customers assume you sell all kinds of dresses. That said, beware of adding too many extraneous keywords to your business name as this can cause inconsistency in your local search results. Your business name should be as concise and accurate as possible.
Business Name Consistency
Another important factor for ranking well in local search engines is having a consistent business name throughout all of your listings. If your business is listed as “Angie’s Bridal Shop” in some sources and “Angie’s Bridal Dresses” in others, Google and other search engines may think these are two separate businesses. So pick one title and stick to it in all of your social media profiles, listings, websites, etc.
Reviews and Ratings
Because reviews and ratings tend to be displayed differently across the different search engines, the verdict is still up about whether these can influence rankings in search engine results. That said, reviews and ratings can certainly influence whether a customer chooses to do business with you or not. Therefore, business reviews and ratings should still be viewed as important listing attributes for local businesses.
As a business owner, your priority should be to engage customers so they leave you a positive review on their preferred search engine. Moreover, you should acknowledge both positive and negative reviews. For positive reviews, make sure you reach out to the customer and thank them. For negative reviews, you should still reach out to find out what caused the bad experience, and see if there’s anything you can do to change their opinion about your business. Many people are happy to update their negative review if the problem is reconciled.
Photos and Videos
These days, visuals trump wordy ads. People react more to compelling images that evoke emotion and define a lifestyle more than they do to a series of dry facts. Although posting photos or videos doesn’t necessarily affect your ranking directly, it does influence potential buyers to click on your listing. In fact, attractive photo and videos posts have already shown to increase the number of clicks a particular listing gets. That increase in clicks can lead to a direct increase in sales.
Social Media Efforts
Social media can definitely affect your local search results. That’s why it’s important to learn who your audience is, how they behave, and what the best way to interact with them is. Once you answer these questions, you can use social media to boost your online marketing and improve your local search engine results.
NAP
Perhaps the most important is to make sure that your NAP information (business name, address, phone number) is consistent across every online property and make easily available to any person searching your business.
Final Thoughts
These are just some of the many attributes you should take into consideration when it comes to improving your local search results. Consistency and accessibility online will not only improve your rankings and boost sales, but it will also help establish brand trust online. People trust brands that they can research, connect to, and interact with. Trust is the foundation of a long-term customer.
Share:
