Local SEO Updates in 2017

Have you been following this past year’s local SEO updates? If so, there is one thing for sure that you’ve noticed. And that is the fact that SEO changes 100% of the time. In fact, it may be more important now more than ever to get your off-site and on-site SEO strategies optimized for customers and clients looking for you, locally. To put it another way, knowing all the 2017 updates will definitely be to your advantage!

1. How well you know your business is a ranking factor for local SEO

When it comes to local SEO, how well you know your business, counts.. In the world offline, some places are more prominent than others. A few search results do try and indicate this in local ranks. Also, your online prominence is based on what info Google has about a company from across the web, such as information gathered from directories, articles and links. When it comes to local rankings, Google review score and count are factored into how high you rank. Your local ranking will be affected by your position in the web results. Applying local search optimizations is one of the best SEO practices to apply in this case.

1. Distance

How far are potential search results from the location terms used for searching? If users don’t specify searches, Google will do a distance calculation based on what they know about where a business is located.

1. Relevance

This refers to how well local listings match the search that someone is doing. Working hard on creating a relevant listing will help your business rank higher.

1. The right keywords still count

When it comes to local SEO updates in 2017, the right keywords can still make or break your campaign. Selecting the right words to focus on the pages of your website can take effort and time. However, it is needed to get higher ranks on the search engines. Find out how to select the right keywords once and for all now that 2017 has come around the corner.

1. Use structured data mark-ups

Sometimes called schema.org mark-up or schema mark-up, structured data mark-ups can be added to the code of your site to provide information to search engines about your services or products. Information can include services you offer, reviews you’ve collected and products you sell. Spiders determine better what the content of your site is about, so Google wants you to use structured mark-up for data. There is even a tool offered by Google for you to proper implement this.

1. Reviews online still matter

Finally, now that it is 2017, businesses now realize how important reviews online happen to be for potential clients. People trust reviews online as if it was recommended to them by a friend. Most customers will leave reviews for businesses that ask for it. You can manage, track and proactively try to gain more reviews by using many different software and tool options. These include Vendasta, Trust Pilot, Get Five Stars and Reputation Loop. Using Tiny Torch and Hootsuite, which are platforms of social media also let you get alerts and monitor mentioned brands. Using these platforms give customers the impression that you care about what people think about the products you provide, which can only be good.

1. Online citations and directories

Google says that about 4 out of 5 consumers conduct local searches using search engines. At the same time, so many smaller businesses have not claimed local business listings online. This is an opportunity not to be missed. It is important to get your business correctly listed and on top of directories consistently. Some examples of great listings you can do for free include Citysearch, Merchant Circle and Yelp. Get your business listed on respectable local directories to see if you can get a good listing. Make sure all your important contact details and information are seen.

1. Meta description and title tags still matter

Meta description and title tags are elements of html that are customizable to reflect web page content. Your description tags and title tags have text that display in search results. This needs to be a carefully drafted mini advertisement, so to speak. In the world of SEO, writing descriptions and titles is considered to be an art. In an ocean of competing results, text that is not descriptive, compelling or unique will simply not make the cut. Your rate for click throughs will then suffer. Plus, an extra word in the descriptions does not look professional, since it will inevitably end in an ellipse. The lesson to be learned is that every character counts, when it comes to titles and descriptions.

1. Google Analytics is essential

When you are running local SEO, it is tempting to simply skip the analytics tool of Google. Admittedly, it can be scary and even a pain to get analytics set up. However, it is still necessary for the long term success of your site so you can comprehend exactly how your website is doing. Get to tract the data related to your own site using Google Search Console/ Google Analytics. This tells you which pages are mostly visited. This will show you which pages to maintain, to promote and what to keep doing, or what not to keep doing, for that matter.

Conclusion: When it comes to the 2017 SEO updates, ranking higher is still the objective. While not many SEO techniques made it all the way to 2017, many other tested and proven methods still work. This includes finding the right keywords, using Google Analytics, paying attention to what works, joining local search directories and most of all, updating your website to become as relevant and prominent as possible. After all, no that 2017 has come around the corner, people are already familiar with what works and what doesn’t. Taking the time and effort to keep what works and getting rid of the rest will make a real difference in the way you rank on the search engines of Google’s pages.

Now that you know the local SEO updates for 2017, here is how you can use it for marketing and brand promotion:

A common strategy for marketing, brand promotion is intended for increasing awareness of your product, sales, competitiveness, customer loyalty and overall company value. Promotion is used by businesses not just to show what is good or different about them and what they are selling, but also to keep images alive for consumers. Usually, there is a focus on elements that stand that time test.

Promotion is approached by the company with a system comprised of 3 tiers. The first tier is SEO. Next are channels that are brandable such as Vine, You Tube and Pinterest. Last in the tiers are outreaches that are brandable, which is where you go to interact where the customers are such as in social media, paid advertising, press releases and forums.

The main objective of online business promotions is to increase the awareness that people have of your brand. This is the measure of whether or not people know about the services, products or philosophy of the company. Basically, the idea is that folks out there are not going to be able to purchase what they do not realize exists. For a company to compete or expand, it needs to promote its messages out in the public.

Tier 1: SEO

Online, there are millions of websites and with this comes a lot of competition for positions on pages of search engine results. In addition, there is a regular battle that top businesses go through to make sure that their own site stays in pole position and even they need to struggle against their rivals. In marketing strategies and brand promotions, big companies plough big money annually to remain in top billing. It goes without saying that businesses that are not as big will usually have a hard time going against this type of competition.

One thing that several small and big websites need to consider is whether experts of SEO need to be employed to make sure that they win the SEO ranking battle. Many big companies can include experts in SEO on payrolls. On the other hand, companies that are not as big do not have the same spending power and will need to decide whether or not they will hire an expert.

Before anything else, you need to realize that your rank determines how well your business does. More customers will check out your website the higher your ranking is. With a ranking that is low, you might expect to have traffic that is less than a big business. If you do not get on a search engine's first few pages, you may actually own a website that won't earn money.

Once you come to terms with how necessary SEO is to your company, you will most likely realize that you won't be able to manage without them. It helps to understand that search engine programs called 'bots’ count your rank as they scour key words on web pages to determine your position. What this means is that when you connect links to your site from other websites and include keywords, as well as in videos, you will increase your chances of getting up the ranks further when the bots check.

To be successful, make sure that your website is strictly linked with SEO. For instance, ensure that search engine website can is able to index your content productively. When you guarantee that every subject matter on your site 'counts’ by increasing SEO amounts, you push your rank higher up. This is why you will likely agree that SEO is the foundation of every effort online.

Tier 2: Channels

Promotions can also be done through channels such as a Vine, a You Tube video, a podcast or through Pinterest images, among other methods.

For example, when 6 seconds is all you have, you can promote a brand, service, product or idea through Vine. This is the latest Twitter video-sharing app, which is a faster route towards promotion and marketing. This service for sharing video through a mobile phone lets you make videos that loop up to six seconds to share on Facebook, Twitter and the Vine Network. This may be hard to believe, but it also happens to be social media marketing’s hottest new promotion method.

No matter how entertaining your YouTube video happens to be, this will not automatically mean you will gain new customers. You will still need to do video promotion in other ways by spreading the word. To promote your company through YouTube, make sure that the link of your website is in the description that actually links back to your site. Adding a description with all your main keywords will help SEO optimize your video. Add a title that is optimized as well as this will help you get higher ranks in the long run. Sharing your video on Pinterest and on Facebook is your next step. Remember that the goal is to get word out about your company as much as you can.

The engagement and traffic that Pinterest is generating happens to be spiking, and promoters want a piece of this. After you launch your brand, pin your items for sale on Pinterest to promote sales. Make it easy for others to follow your pins on Pinterest. Nothing drives sales more than walls of photos and testimonials. Creating a pin that focuses on positive customer service stories, testimonials, seasonal promotions and product categories for your business will translate to increased sales for your company.

Tier 3: Outreach

To interact with customers, you need to go where they happen to be. This means finding social media sites, paid advertising, press releases and forums that are populated with potential consumers of the product or service you are providing is something you need to do. In the social web, doing this will help you gain momentum that is significant. Before you promote your brand, make sure the message you are putting out there is solid. What information resonates best with a social media audience? Understanding which of the social channels will best match the conversion optimizing process of your website. It is a pretty straightforward approach and the first step is to identify social channels where your target market hangs out. Start participating in these forums. Remember that the goal, ultimately, is to create steady streams of consumers for your company.