The Importance of SEO and Business Listings

I thought the best place to start with showing the benefits of SEO and Business Listings optimisation would be this very own website.  At the time of writing this 31/03/2021 this website is almost 1.5 months old.  It went live on 18th February 2021, so it’s still very new.  For SEO I’ve been pumping out content and tweaking the website on an almost daily basis and using tools such as Ubersuggest and Bright Local to measure the changes.  For the business listing I’ve been using Google My Business and Bing, as well as GeoImger for geo tagging images.

SEO and its Importance

First off, this is the hardest task as Googles algorithm is always changing, there is a lot that goes on with SEO as it’s not just what’s on your website that matters.  Once your website is ranking on the 1st page though the benefits out way the costs tenfold!  The numbers of potential customers contacting you and seeing your business when they’re searching for services you provide are exponential.  For example, the front page of Google for the search term “Plumber in Bristol” generates over 4000 monthly visitors for the number one spot in organic listings.

In the image below you can see that even after only 1.5 months of the website being live it’s already starting to generate some organic viewings.  Which means people are already finding it on search engines and clicking on the website link to view more.  The end goal is to have the organic listings generating more.

The best way to improve your search engine rankings are the following steps;

• Produce plenty of interesting content on your website.  Don’t just put a gallery with some pictures because although it might be nice for customers to see the finished product, Google doesn’t read images and the Alt Tags for each image isn’t enough for Google to really take notice.  If you want people to see your finished work use it as a way to generate some written content.  The best example of this would be a step by step guide or a detailed description of the work involved including important keywords .
• Ensure your content is optimised for Mobile devices.  This is very important as more people are searching using their phones rather than their desktop or laptop.  So a website that is mobile friendly is essential.  Depending on what platform you’re building your website on will differ how you optimise, so check to see what you need to do.
• Make sure that you optimise your written content correctly.  By this I mean check you’re using the right H1, H2 etc headings and all your images have Alt Tags.  Make sure you have internal and external links on each page and you use your focused keywords or phrase regularly.
• Build back links to your website.  This isn’t a case of the more the better, as some back links can harm your search results if they’re coming from a bad site.  Get high quality back links that improve your websites search visibility and Domain Authority.  Your DA is very important when it comes to website ranking and is something I am now focusing on improving, so we’ll update this in a month or two with those results.
• Keep going!  Keep your site up to date regularly.  The more Google sees you updating your website the more it is going to think your site is relevant and still live.  This sounds stupid, like Google is a person … or is it?? but the more you’re “seen” to keep your site up to date the better.

Business Listings and their Importance

The easier of the two.  Getting your business listing in the organic ‘map pack’ you’ll be seen by local consumers who are searching for your services before any organic websites.  The Map Pack is a group of 3 local businesses that come up in a search just under the paid ads but above the organic listings.

This is a great tool if you provide a local service such as a plumber, electrician, shop, cafe, restaurant etc.  Think of it as a form of social media, keep it up to date and keep posting photos as these will be seen when people are searching for anything you provide.

Think of this screen as your businesses analytics for local searches.

Follow these steps to get your business to the top of Google Search results for local searches;

• Optimise your listing to include your NAP details.  Name, Address & Phone Number.  It is very important that these details match any other business listing you have.  If there are any variations of different details this can confuse Google.
• Make sure to take full advantage of your business description and business categories.  Fill up your allotted allowance and make the most of your listing.
• Geo tag your photos to your location to get the most out of local searches.  I use GeoImgr to geo tag.
• Post regularly and fill as much of the content out with rich keywords that people are searching for.
• Keep people up to date with your offers, events and sales using Google My Business.
• Add products that you sell onto the platform and even put links to your websites e-commerce page if you have one.
• Use the free Google website tool as this updates with every photo or post you update and can also show key information to potential clients.

For more info on Google My Business or for SEO Services provided by The Successful Tradesmen click on the links.

Update : 19th April 2021

After working on the account for the last couple of months I thought I’d update you with some new figures on how well it’s growing. Below is a recent screenshot of the analytics for our Google My Business page. As you can see it’s jumped considerably again to over 728%.