If your business relies on face-to-face interaction and physical products, one of the most vital areas of your online presence is your ranking when it comes to local SEO. New York has a large number of businesses and services just waiting to be discovered. You need to make yours stand out from the rest.
Here are five tips to improve your local SEO and attract more business:
Maintain Your Accuracy
When thinking about your local SEO in New York, keep this acronym in mind: NAP. It stands for name, address, and phone number. You might even add a W at the end for the website. Far too many businesses allow their listings in online directories to become out of date, which practically negates the point of having a listing at all.
Maintain Your Consistency
The information you submit in local online listings must be consistent across all listings. In other words, what you have listed on Google My Business must be the same as what you have on Yelp, and what you have on Foursquare, etc. It’s crucial to keep track of every online citation and to update them whenever your business’s information changes.
Fill Listings Out Fully
The more information you can provide about your business, the better. For instance, when searching for a business or service on Yelp, you likely want to see the ratings or reviews they have, the form of payment they accept, their prices, the hours of operation … all sorts of pertinent information that will help you decide whether or not you want to give them your patronage. This is the same for any business listing – including yours. The more info, the better chances of having your listing noticed and acted upon.
Build Your Social Media Presence
Yes, having a website is important. But with increasing frequency, web users are referring to a company’s Facebook page or other relevant social media account as their default destination when looking for information. So ensuring that your social media profiles are completely filled out and represent your business accurately improves your chances of attracting new business.
Make Reviewing Easy
You can’t force customers to provide reviews, but you can remind them and make it easier for them to do so. For instance, businesses can leave a sign at the door asking for reviews. They could put a QR code in strategic locations making it easy for customers to scan and leave a quick review. They can also offer discounts in exchange for reviews. The important thing is to put the idea in the customer’s mind.
This is a lot of work, of course – which is why an increasing number of businesses are hiring SEO specialists every day to stay on top of it for them. With this in mind, don’t let your local SEO in New York fall by the wayside.
