Written by Emi Melker, CEO of 101 Management

My favorite SEO client is a local one. There is always so much room for growth within local markets and I enjoy seeing the success my clients have from our services. Today, I’ll share with you my top 3 tips for helping your local business succeed with SEO.

1. Directory Listings

These online resources help users locate, navigate to, and get all of your business’ information without having to dig too deep. The top directory listing, Google Maps, does this without many people even realizing. For example, you type in “Fashion Boutique” or “ENT Doctor” into the search, and Google automatically pulls your location and shows you a map of every result that matches your inquiry in your area. And just like that, you have a new customer! The same can be said for Yelp, Yahoo, Bing, and the hundreds of other important directories on the web. It’s important to keep your company information streamlined across all of these listings and up to date. Make it a point to check them periodically.

2. Reviews

Reviews for your local business are of extreme importance for SEO. Google and Yelp, among others, give priority to those businesses with a higher volume of positive ratings. This shows users that your business is established and of high quality, putting their mind at ease that they will get a great product or service from you. Here at 101 Management, we have a software that aggregates all of your reviews together in one place. This allows us to manage reviews, analyze results, and strategize ways to get more reviews, which in turn helps to grow your SEO.

3. High Quality Backlinks

The mystery of high quality backlinks is a thing of the past. It always makes me cringe when I see a client show me a proposal from other “SEO experts” promising links from questionable websites which they keep confidential. These “black hat” techniques are frowned upon by search engines and should not be used to increase search engine rankings. We use a technique that is great not only for SEO, but for Social Media content and branding as well. It’s called blogger outreach. First, we research and analyze your local market and community’s online presence. We then compile a list of very influential companies with blogs and reach out to these people introducing your brand and asking if we can share content on their blog. And there you have it, a legitimate backlink to your website and a great piece of PR content to share on your Social Media channels. This should also bring their Social Media fans over to you, once they also share the blog. Great exposure!

There are over 200+ important factors involved in SEO for websites. These 3 tips may be the most important for your local business, but each case is different based on the stage your business’s online presence is at. I’d love to review yours and give you a personalized analysis to help you succeed.