Category: Local SEO

According to some estimates, more than half of all consumers searching online look for local businesses. When you also consider that many mobile customers use various devices to conduct local searches, it’s easy to see the importance of knowing how local customers search your business. Saba SEO, a leading online marketing company in San Diego, can help fine-tune your online marketing efforts with respect to the following local search tools.

Search Engines

There’s a reason why Google listings for a business are based on the location provided by a PC or another device. Nearly 70 percent of online consumers are looking for local businesses based on results they get from a search engine.

Business Websites

Many local searchers look for some added incentives when picking a particular business. This is why many of them check out websites before making a decision. If you engage in local business, it may be a good idea to design your site so any current deals, specials, or unique selling points are prominently featured to encourage conversions.

Mobile Devices/Apps

The good thing about targeting local customers using mobile devices is the ability to convince them to stop by in person. Customers also appreciate the convenience of being able to place an order online or pay for a service ahead of time. If you explore geo-targeting, you can even send out texts when local customers are close to your business.

Directory Pages

More than 30 percent of local customers head to online directory pages. You should confirm that your business info (business name, address, and phone number) is accurate anywhere it appears online. Remove info from pages you no longer consider relevant or update anything that has changed since you created the listing to avoid confusion.

As a trusted search engine marketing company in San Diego, Saba SEO helps businesses target specific geographic areas, take advantage of local demand, and optimize their content to attract local traffic. Whether you’re running a restaurant, auto repair shop, clinic, real estate agency, or any other business, our team can find the most effective way to boost your online rank and drive more online traffic. Call us at 858-951-1717 to schedule an appointment.

 

Local SEO strategies are excellent for increasing traffic to your business. The better your local search engine rankings are, the more likely customers will be able to find you when they need you. Saba SEO, a trusted SEO company in San Diego, shares a few tips for successful local SEO rankings.

Make Your Website Responsive

More and more people switch to their smartphones for Internet browsing, so having a responsive web design is essential. If someone is already in your area and does an online search for your product or service, your responsive website will adapt to the size of the phone screen so the potential customer can see all the information.

Include a Map

Always include a map on your website to help potential customers figure out exactly where to find you. If customers don’t know how far away your store is or how to get there, they’re likely to look for another comparable business.

Keep Your Name, Address, and Phone Number Consistent

To avoid giving incorrect information, search engines look for businesses that have consistent information. If you’ve ever moved locations or switched your phone number, make sure all the information is updated on your website and on any online directories or other sites.

Focus on Reviews

A large portion of search engine users check reviews for the businesses they look up. Review websites like Yelp rank very highly, and potential customers are much more likely to visit a store with good reviews. Encourage your customers to post reviews, and reply to as many of your reviews as you can.

Get Local Links

Local links are a great way to boost your search engine rankings. Try to have your business listed in local directories, and use your social media accounts to link back to your site. Collaborate with other local businesses to get links from their site to yours.

Whether it’s higher local SEO rankings, mobile app development, or pay per click services, San Diego businesses and those in other parts of the world trust and rely on the online marketing experts at Saba SEO. Give us a call today at 858-951-1717 to see how we can help your business thrive.

New studies show 9 out of 10 consumers read reviews before making a purchase or visiting a business and almost 75 percent of consumers will only move forward if they read a positive review. Most people know online reviews can affect business, but not everyone knows they can also affect local search results. Saba SEO, an SEO company San Diego businesses trust, examines a few of the ways customer reviews impact local SEO.

Local Reviews Create Unique Content

Local reviews are a great way for your business to generate unique, fresh content. It packs an added punch if the reviews are good, which encourages readers to visit your site. This user-generated content is more influential, and users typically hit on the long tail keywords your target audience would use when searching for your product. Reviews help you attract a target audience that is more likely to take action.

Google Likes Highly Rated Sites

Along with other local factors, such your business name, phone, and address, Google prefers sites with reviews. Google rewards favorable reviews with a better position in the rankings because they give your business credibility and authority.

Reviews Are Proof

Reviews are essentially social proof that people do (or don’t) like your company or product. Most people need reassurance before making a purchasing decision, and user-generated reviews are often one of the best sources for consumers. For instance, if two restaurants show up in a Google search, but one has 3 stars and 500 reviews and one has 4.5 stars and 300 reviews, the one with more stars is still likely to be chosen over the one with more reviews and a poorer score.

Other Review Sites Hold Weight

Reviews on Google are not the only ones that count. Customer reviews on sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, and OpenTable can also impact local SEO. Having positive reviews on all these sites can help your business dominate the search results.

To learn more about the importance of local SEO and other aspects of search engine optimization, get in touch with Saba SEO at 858-951-1717. We are a leading provider of San Diego PPC management services and many other crucial SEO services. Get in touch with us today to find out the many ways we can help your company grow.

Over the years, search engines have become smarter in figuring out a searcher’s search intent.  For instance, when customers search for a business or service on google.com using a geo location in their search query such as “San Diego SEO” or “SEO Company San Diego”, the intention is to find a nearby firm that offers seo services. Local SEO could play a vital role in the success of business. Any business that gets its clients locally, such as a restaurant, doctor, or dentist needs to rank high on search results and so it needs local SEO. Local SEO is particularly important for brick and mortar businesses that have one or more physical locations.  In general, the following types of businesses need local SEO:

Service Companies

Any service-based business such as a restaurant, a salon, a hotel or a bank, which has a physical location and relies on local customers, needs to improve its local search engine ranking. If the business appears near the top of local search results it is likely to draw in more traffic.

The great thing about local SEO is that it is a great equalizer. Your family-owned nail salon may not be as big as a nail salon that is part of a global franchise, but if your local SEO is in place, it could attract more traffic than the local franchise. Your nail salon may not turn up on search results worldwide, but if you are a family-owned business with a single outlet, you don’t need customers from other countries anyway.

Franchises and businesses with multiple locations

Even franchises, such as McDonald need local traffic wherever they are located. Big global franchises with multiple locations should work on local SEO to benefit from improving their local rankings.

Locations that house multiple businesses

Office buildings that house several businesses, buildings with private clinics or law offices and malls with many stores all need local traffic and can benefit from local SEO.

Agencies

Any firms that provide services to local business, such as advertising agencies, website companies and marketing firms will benefit from local SEO.

More and more businesses, big and small are realizing the importance of online presence. As the trend shifts to more geo-specific searches, ranking for local search queries will become instrumental in making local businesses stand out. If you own a business that relies on local customers, you need to ensure that your business is found on Google or Bing when searchers are searching for your products or services locally. Want a strong presence in local searches? Get in touch and talk to one of our experts. We know how to help.

With approximately 60 percent of consumers using Google to find reputable local businesses, there’s no denying the power of local search. Understanding Google’s latest search updates can give digital marketing agencies in San Diego upper hand over competitors and help you tap into a customer base increasingly searching for what matters most to them within their current geographic area.

No Google My Business Description Edits

Changes to your business description can still be made on Google+ but not on My Business. Go to aboutme.google.com to edit your business description through Google+. It’s been suggested the change was made to discourage spam and keyword stuffing.

Category Adjustments

Google also made a bunch of category deletions and adjustments to the bulk upload form. “City” is now “Locality,” “Alt. is now “Additional Phones,” and “Email,” “Fax,” and “Payment Types” are among the deletions.

New My Business Metrics

Google+ metrics have been replaced in the Google Dashboard by enhanced GMB profile stats. You can now get info on:

• Whether customers come across your business with a normal search or via Google Maps
• A breakdown of actions browsers are taking during website visits
• Requests for driving directions
• Phone calls
• Photos

‘Critic Reviews’ and ‘On These Lists’

“Critic Reviews” will now be included with local business search results on Google. The new feature will provide access blurbs from reputable review sites, including Google-owned Zagat, plus links to those reviews. No ratings will be shown. An “On These Lists” feature will provide access to articles mentioning the searched business.

Nearly 200 billion local searches are performed each year, with the majority of those efforts initiating from a mobile device, so clearly it makes sense for Google to embrace the shift towards all things local. It also presents an opportunity to present a more detailed glimpse of what you offer to increasingly click-happy browsers seeking enough info to make a confident decision.

Saba Inc. is a leading San Diego SEO company that helps businesses tap into their local customer base, connect with their audience, and drive conversions. For more information on how we can help your business, give us a call at (858) 277-1717 and schedule a free consultation today.

Right now, Local SEO is the hot topic in internet marketing. As more consumers have mobile access to the internet and seek out the professional products and services that they need on the go, the market for local search is bigger than ever. In order to help you better understand local search and effective search engine optimization, here are some things to keep in mind.

1. Consistent, Accurate Listings

You need to ensure that you are listed in the right directories, not just any directory. Also, be sure your company information, contact details, and other provided information is uniform across various listing directories. If your basic contact information is different on each directory, you’re hurting your SEO efforts and losing valuable exposure. Plus, having incorrect or missing information just looks unprofessional.

2. Maximize Information

You need to fill in as much of the directory listing as possible with optimized content, local keywords, and other useful information. Every listing is different, and not every directory will require the same information. Make sure you utilize each directory to the fullest extent to help build brand exposure.

3. Social Media Marketing

You need fully implemented social media accounts. If you have to outsource to a San Diego SEM company, that’s fine. Just make sure that you are actually creating effective social media accounts and have a solid social marketing strategy in place. You can’t just put up a Facebook business page and walk away. You need to maintain an active social media presence at all times, and on the right channels to reach your targeted local audience.

4. A Space for Customers to Leave Reviews

Having reviews from other customers or colleagues can help your credibility with local customers. People like firsthand insight about a business, so the more reviews you have, the better.

5. Get Hyperlocal

Neighborhood search is still evolving, as Google can’t quite figure out how to incorporate neighborhoods and areas that locals might know, but that aren’t relevant to the rest of the world. Feel free to start integrating local keywords and neighborhoods into your website content, blogs, and other content to optimize for hyperlocal search once it becomes a full-fledged tool. Even if Google doesn’t know that Bird Rock is an area in San Diego, your audience probably does. Capitalize on that.

Want to know more about optimizing your site for local visibility? Reach out to Saba, Inc. and schedule a complimentary website audit and consultation with one of our online marketing experts. Call us today at (858) 277-1717. We look forward to hearing from you!

While many people may not realize it, having a company’s NAP properly displayed on their website can make a huge difference when trying to optimize for local SEO. NAP refers to a company’s name, address, and phone number, and this information is highly important when people are trying to find a company both physically and online. There are a number of ways that companies can use their NAP to assist in local search engine optimization.

• Include NAP on Every Page of the Website

  Including the NAP on every page of a company’s website is crucial for search engine optimization. When search engine spiders evaluate a site, they will rank it above others in the results page when it is very clear exactly where a company is located. One of the best ways to do this is to include the NAP in the footer that is displayed on every page.

• Display Nap in Text Format

  It is important to remember that search engine spiders are only able to recognize the NAP when it is displayed in text. Do not put your company’s name, address, and phone number in an image that crawlers cannot read. Basic HTML will work fine, and website owners can stylize the text with CSS if they wish to have it match the rest of their site.

• Don’t Overdo It

  While it is important for the NAP to be displayed on every page, note that it is best for the NAP to only appear once on each page. Including the NAP multiple times can make it appear like keyword stuffing, and this can have a seriously negative impact on SEO.

• Keep Other Website Listings Consistent

  When your NAP is listed in other places on the internet, such as your Google+ or Yelp pages, it’s important that all of the information is consistent. For instance, if Street in your address is not abbreviated on your website, it should not be abbreviated on any of your other listings on the internet. Consistency leads to higher chances for ranking in SERPs.

When utilized properly, a company’s NAP can help turn website visitors into clients, while also assisting people in reaching a larger audience. For more information about local SEO or other online marketing tactics such as pay-per-click advertising in San Diego or website design and development, call (858) 277-1717 and request a complimentary, no-obligation consultation with one of our internet marketing experts.