Getting business these days means that you need to rank well on Search engines. But if you’re a small company, a startup, or just lagging behind your competitors in the marketing budget, you’re going to struggle. Companies with more ‘online presence’ and better SEO are always going to rank higher than yours. So what can you do to alleviate this? Simple: it’s time to boost your local Searches.

Local searches are simply searches made by people in your local area. Have you ever typed something general like ‘accountant’ or ‘coffee shop’ into Google? It’ll use your general location to find nearby accountancy firms or coffee shops that you can actually get to. Local searches are one of the best ways for underdog companies to rise to the top of search rankings, provided you play the game right. Here’s 5 proven ways to boost your local searches.

Make Sure You’ve Claimed Your Name

If you want to rank at all for searches made locally, you need to claim your business’s name on Google. Google My Business handles the whole local search process, and if your company name isn’t claimed by you, you won’t be appearing on anybody’s searches. Make sure your company description and other details like images represent you and your company as best as possible.

Get Onto Local Directories

Another basic step that’s sometimes missed, adding your company to local business directories is a must. Google, Bing, Yahoo!, Yelp and the Yellow Pages are all options.

Master the HTML Elements

Title and meta description tags are HTML elements that you can customise to reflect the content you’re producing. The text of your title and description tags is displayed in search results. Making these titles and metadescriptions unique and tailored to local searches doesn’t take much effort, and can boost your local SEO greatly.

Boost your Local Presence

On the link-building side of things, content is your most powerful weapon. Reach out to local publications, media sites, and copywriting services to create content that hits the pain points of local consumers. You will not only get coverage and reach new audiences, but you will also garner relevant backlinks that push your site up in local searches.

Structured Data Markups

This one’s a bit more complicated than the other methods, so it’s recommended to bring in the experts for this one. Google uses a system called Schema, while most social media sites use Open Graph. These systems are what allows the search engine ‘crawlers’ to interpret your website and rank it. Adding Local Business Schema to your site with Google Tag Manager can allow you to tailor your content and your site for a perfect local search ranking.

Local searches are becoming more and more important even as the ‘global village’ shrinks. If you want your company to succeed in the global marketplace, you need to succeed in your home turf too.

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