1) List yourself in all local listing services. List your business in all local listing services like Yelp, YP.com and Google My Business. List yourself in as many of these as you can find, because the more listings you have, the higher your search engine rankings will be when users search for local businesses of your type. If you prefer not to do this and focus on other things in your business, this is where PrimeView’s LOCAL SEARCH campaign can help.
2) Make sure your business information is accurate across all sites. Make sure that your business information like your address and phone numbers are accurate and consistent across all of the sites that list you. Different information on different sites will drop you search engine result rankings.
3) List more than your address and phone number whenever possible. When polled, customers want to find a map of your location in relation to common landmarks, hours of operation, and methods of payment you accept.
4) If website design isn’t your business, hire a website designer. Have an expert design your site. They have the latest information about customer usability and mobile display. Make sure you hire someone who knows how to optimize your site for web searches. Budget to have this person tune up your site at a minimum of 3 times per year.
5) If your business offers more than one service, do a page for each service within your website. For example, if you are a freelance writer and you do image editing, your home page should link to both pages that display your writing samples and image editing work.
6) When thinking about keywords for your site, think about the words the customers use when they inquire about your product or services. For example, if you own a florist shop, use keywords like “bouquet” “dozen roses” and “boutonniere”. Resist the urge to use terms that customers rarely use, like latin botanical terms for your flowers.
7) If you have more than one location, do a page for each location. Remember earlier we established that you should have a page per service as well. That means that if you offer 9 services and you have 2 locations, your website should be made up of a minimum 18 pages, with a page for each service at both locations.
8) Put your contact information on every page of your site, not just the “Contact Us” page.
9) Be sure to use photos on every page of your site. Do not use generic photos. Use photos of your shop and you and/or your staff interacting with clients and products. If you’re a baker, for example, make sure you have photos of everything you sell throughout your site, with captions labeling what each picture shows.
10) Don’t be afraid to add a blog if you will use it. Blogs are a great way to engage customers in a non-threatening way. Your posts don’t have to be long -in fact, short is good in the blogging world. A good example would be “Making extra almond scones for the Lions Club brunch today -hope to see you there!” along with a picture of the yummy item being mentioned.