Local SEO Strategies for 2014

Making local SEO work for you in 2014 is starting to become less and less of a mystery. We’ve come across a variety of best practices that if used sensibly, will return great results quickly! Let’s take a peek at what’s working for ranking your local pages.

How to do local SEO for 2014

• Optimized Google+ Local page – It is a must-do. Not only will it help you rank highly for this specific location, your pages are going to be indexed nearly immediately, and Google features these search listings, especially on mobile.
• Make certain that citations, NAP and your site serve the same data – Your NAP (name, address, phone number) citations might be the most important ranking factor outside your Google+ page. One simple way to make this work for you is to ensure all your details are consistent wherever it is found.
• Optimize local pages for local keywords – This is something of an art to weave in location geo-modifiers into your copy and make it sound human. The payoff is worth it however. Make sure your primary page keyword, brand name and location is in the title tag, the first third of the page, and the description tag.
• Business directory listings – Make it a point and claim your listings in all of the local directories. These will turn out to be the easiest citations you’ll acquire, and will also be of great benefit in terms of SEO, search rankings and traffic.
• Great testimonials and reviews – The easiest way to do this is to encourage your existing satisfied customers to leave reviews for you on your Google+ Place page, or third party sites. You can help them by providing the means to get there easily on your page! In no event should you write fake reviews or otherwise cause these to be created. They will be found out, and you will suffer for doing it.

Performing local SEO on your sites is not nuclear physics anymore, and only requires one four-letter word: work!