For marketing a local business, our previous generation would give out leaflets or flyers. 

Days are gone! Today people are too much dependent on mobile. So are the businesses. 

If you have a local business you can reach out to hundreds of new customers daily by local SEO. 

Call us today at +8801324738600 to speak with a local SEO expert in Bangladesh or keep reading to learn the top 5 local SEO ranking factors (and how to optimize for them).

1. Google My Business

For local businesses, the ‘Google My Business’ setup is a must! If done correctly many people will find your services for the first time. 

Open A Gmail Account

Although you may have a personal Gmail account, it’s better you create a dedicated Gmail account for your local business only. This is important for many reasons that I’ll tell you later. 

Set Up Your Google My Business (GMB) Page

First thing first, visit Google My Business (GMB) page here https://www.google.com/business/, and log in with your newly created Gmail ID. 

If your business is already listed on Google map you may find it in the search bar “type your business name”. Also, you may use the search bar if you are not sure if your business is listed on Google map. 

Alternatively, you may click ‘Add your business to google’ below the search bar to add your 

• Business name, 
• business category, 
• business address, etc 

Once you give all the required information, you will be shown a Google map to locate your business. You are almost done!

Proceed to the next steps and follow the instructions to complete the setup. 

HOW TO OPTIMIZE YOUR GOOGLE MY BUSINESS LISTING FOR LOCAL SEO

Once your setup is complete, it’s time to optimize your GMB listing for local SEO. Here is the checklist that you will need to optimize:

1. Try to include a keyword in your business name: While the normal rule is to use only the business name but you can also include some extra words or phrases to include the main keyword.
   
   For example, if your business name is ‘Royal Restaurant’ you can name your business name ‘Royal Restaurant – Breakfast, Lunch and Biriani’.
2. Add Business Logo and Profile Image: Adding the business logo and profile images is important. They give your business a vibe of the brand. The logo should be square, preferably 250 x 250 pixels.

   You may also add additional images to draw the attention of people who are seeking for a similar business like yours. They include interior photos, exterior photos, photos at work, etc.

   Attractive images increase the chances to click on your business listing. Also, images are an important ranking factor in Google map listing.

3. Give Detail Information About Your Business: Try to give every single information asked from you. These include your business address, contact info, business hour, website address, business category, company introduction etc.

   When people search for similar businesses they usually pay attention to this information. If they don’t find, they will jump into another business listing.

4. Reviews: Customer reviews are one of very important ranking factors. Request your customers to put a positive review.

   When your business will achieve many good reviews Google will recognize your business and list you higher in Google map results. Also the language of the reviewers matter.

   For example, when they mention your services and products or your location in the review, they help your listing to rank higher. 

Reviews help people to make a decision. The more detailed information the reviews provide, the more confident they’ll be to buy your products or services.

2. User-Friendly Website

A user-friendly website gets higher ranks on Google and other search engines. Many people make their website cheaply and they don’t get minimal impression on Google. So, whenever you make a website pay attention to the quality. It should be visually attractive and user-friendly at the same time. 

3. On-Page SEO Elements

When your goal is local SEO you have to take special techniques while making content. Your title, meta descriptions and landing pages should focus locally rather than targeting broad group of people. For example, rather than optimizing your landing pages for Bangladesh, you may create several landing pages for different cities. 

4. Technical SEO Elements

You should have full control of your website technical elements. For example, you should know how to control your 

• permalink structure, 
• the robots.txt file, 
• the sitemap, 
• the categories and tags, 
• different type of redirections, 
• Canonicalization etc. 

Your website should follow the correct set up with these technical elements. If you fail to correctly set up and control these elements Google and other search engines may find your website difficult to crawl and you will not get ranks.

You can easily control these technical aspects when you build your website with a common CMS system like WordPress or Shopify. This is because CMS like WordPress and Sopify have so many resources over the internet and you will easily get solutions with a simple Google search. 

5. Social Signals

Interestingly Google may gather your business information from your social media channels as well. Moreover, many people use Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube as search engines. So make sure you create your business page on those channels and update them with the required information periodically.

Moreover, when people search your business on Google and they see your social media profiles in the search results your brand reputation goes higher. 

Ready to improve your local SEO?

If you’re a small business owner and trying to improve your local business SEO, feel free to ask us any questions by dropping a comment below or contact us online or call us today at +8801324738600. We look forward to hearing from you!