Kick-Start Your SEO Plan – In 6 Steps!

By Bassem Ghali

Bassem Ghali is a 2-time winner of the Canadian Entrepreneur of the Year award and a digital marketing strategist with over 20 years of experience working with companies such as Canadian Tire, Vistaprint, Remax Canada, Alpha Laps, Xplornet, and Toronto Star.

Analysis has shown that 43% of all search queries have a local intent and more than 40% of offline transactions start with an online search.

This demonstrates that the potential to attract new customers via local search is enormous. Don't forget to view our SEO company packages!

Kick-start your SEO Plan with these 6 steps:

1. Improve Website Citations

Citations are ‘online mentions’ of your business name, address and phone number (NAP) on other webpages. Citations from well-established and reputable websites (such as Industry Canada) help search engines determine the accuracy of your business information (NAP). Examples of citations include directories such as:

Local Search Engines: Google Maps, Bing Places
Local Directories: Yellow Pages, Yelp, TripAdvisor, Canoe
Local business or industry associations: Chamber of Commerce, Industry Canada Business Listing, Canada 411
Social Media: Facebook Places, LinkedIn, SlideShare

2. Create a Google Business Page and Link Your Website & Content

All businesses should complete a Google Business page in its entirety, including business information, products/services, images, links to blog articles, etc. Maximize the benefits of Google page and outran your competitors on search engine result pages and appear in a unique and attention grabbing manner. Need help? Checkout Green Lotus Digital Marketing Services for Small Businesses!

3. Get Business Reviews:

Business Reviews are a major factor in local search engine ranking algorithms. The goal is to provide users with the most accurate and relevant local information. Have a social media presence and gaining business reviews – and boost your search engine ranking!

4. Improve Your Website Local Relevancy

Search engines have issues indexing pages that have conflicting information, such as a business location page that has 6 offices listed across Canada. In order to maximize the benefits of Local SEO it is vital to create search engine friendly pages and:

Include the full street address and phone number in the footer of each webpage
Create separate landing pages for each business location
Create separate landing pages for each city your business serves
Use location-based keywords in Title and Body Text
Create unique, fresh geo-focused content for readers.

5. Make it Easy for Users to Spread the Word

Adding social sharing buttons for sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ is a great way to encourage site visitors to share your content through social media. Add these buttons to every page on your website. Don’t miss these helpful tools: AddThis & ShareThis

6. Use Micro-Formats

Micro-formats embed data in website code and provide search engines with basic information about a website such as Name, Address, Phone Number, business categories, and associated social media accounts. There is a simple hCard creator that will generate the code needed. View hCard Creator Tool!

The Latest Local SEO Strategies & How To Effectively Allocate Your Marketing Budget! (Presentation)

Want to Learn How to Dominate the First Page of Google?

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