4 Mistakes to Avoid When Optimizing for Local SEO

Optimizing for the local SEO can be an intimidating task. Google employs various elements when ranking a site for local results. When operating a local SEO promotion, many businesses unknowingly do many things that are not right. The fact of the matter is, it is a common belief with most of the businesses that their strategies are the perfect strategies. However, that does not actually stand true.

The SEO experts at San Diego SEO have outlined 4 major mistakes that need to be avoided when doing local SEO. By avoiding these mistakes, you can easily improve your local SEO campaign.

Failing to List the Business Correctly with Google

This is one of the most common mistakes that businesses make. They fail to list themselves correctly on Google’s My Business Page. If Google doesn’t know and understand what exactly your business is about, it will not be able to index your business when a user searches for a particular genre. Instead, your competitor will have an advantage and thus, will be listed in the SERPs.

Solution: Register Properly

When you are registering your home page with Google’s My Business Page, don’t forget to mention the genre of your business and the categories it belongs to. It will make it easy for Google to locate you.
Inconsistent NAP/Business Citation

The most humongous mistake committed by businesses according to various SEO professionals, including those managing San Diego SEO, is their inconsistency in NAP information while optimizing for the local SEO. NAP information consists of the name of your business, your address and phone number. If this extremely important data is inconsistent, then it will definitely affect your ranking.

Secondly, to promote your business, it is essential to optimize your NAP data in Meta descriptions and title tags.  However, it has been observed that NAP data is often underestimated by businesses when they are doing on-site SEO. You have to remember that this info is extracted from title tags and Meta descriptions by Google for the local searches.

Solution: Cite the NAP Data Properly

Add the NAP date in title tags and Meta description. However, mentioning a phone number is optional. You can add it if there is a need.
Asking Poorly Reputed Companies for Citations

To rank higher in the local SERPs, it is important to have quality citations. And ‘quality’ is the key here. If quality links can help your website rank higher, then low-quality links can have a very negative effect on the rankings as well.

Solution: Don’t Beg for Citations from Ill-Reputed Companies

Do not ask ill-reputed websites which themselves do not have higher rankings for citations as it will hurt your website’s ranking in the SERP instead of benefitting it.

Deserting Your Listings

Creative experts and professionals managing San Diego SEO insist on being active with your listings. Google likes those businesses that keep updating their listings and don’t abandon them. Adding new updates like new photos and the latest information is essential for your website.

Small businesses usually tend to ignore this important aspect because it takes up a lot of time and they don’t give much importance to it either.  And that’s the message that is being sent to Google as well. If you don’t give much importance to the content on your listings then according to Google, your business is not important either.

Solution: Add New Info to Listings

Regularly visit your listings and update any information that you have. Add new images of your products and services to send a positive message to Google.