Local SEO – search engine optimization is not a nice to have anymore, but a must have if you have a website and you want to use it as a business tool to help you reach your goals. With more people starting to use their mobile devices (phones, tablets) to browse and interact with the online world, it makes business sense that you should optimize your website for local SEO.

When your visitors arrive on your website and they see that you are displaying your address prominently on your pages, it puts a level of trust in your business. It also helps  your organic rankings for local searches as Google can distinguish that you are local by looking at your address.

Local SEO tips

Trust and credibility: It’s a fact that nobody wants to be scammed online so people are vigilant with doing business with anyone new online. When you display your physical address on your website, it ads a level of trust in your business as this can show that you have a real location and not just floating online.

With Google Maps, it’s easy for anyone to vist your business online. They can add your address or business name in Google Maps and view with street view where you are located.

Local SEO: People are usually looking for local results when searching on a mobile device. Optimize your website to display your address in the footer of your site so that it’s visible on every page of your website. If you have multiple locations, add a separate page for each location with the address on it.

Google and all the other search engines are getting more aggressive with penalizing websites that are spamming the web with irrelevant or low quality content. Focus on providing value to your visitors and display your address on your website, add a Google Places listing, and make sure you are visible on Google Maps. This will pay off for local SEO.