These 2 tips will boost your ranking in the local 3 pack and your neighbors will be glad you did. Driving traffic to your local business starts by getting found.
Especially on google maps. So, you had better have your Google My Business (GMB) completely filled out, claimed and verified.
We have seen many businesses not even claim their listing. You may never get listed on the local 3 pack without GMB.
Another area you should concentrate on is social media. You can get a lot of engagement using the top social media site called Facebook. Build a Fan Page for your business. It’s a great way to communicate with your audience.
Next up is video. Video may be the strongest way to send a message to people using smartphones. It is also a good way to grab some organic search ranking on Google. Don’t forget to add a couple of videos on your google my business page.
Facebook is another great place to use video. People are on the go these days and video is a great way to get your message out. Short commercial style videos. No need to buy any fancy equipment to get you started. You can use a nice smartphone and get the job done.
Speaking of video, you can also use it to send email to your customers. They are more app to watch a video than read an email. So since we are on the email subject that is another way of communicating with your customers.
Build a list of customers. It’s a great way to bring traffic into your place of business. Email marketing should be part of your marketing strategy. It’s also a great way to use coupons.
You can send folks coupons through your email marketing campaigns. Coupons are also a great way to get reviews.
Boost Your Ranking In The Local Three Pack
As you can see there is a lot of different things you can do to get more customers.
Videos, email marketing, coupons, social media and don’t forget your website. That should be the cornerstone of your online business.
You should have noticed that google my business now includes a place for you to build a simple website. Nothing fancy but it will give you a start. You can also design your own website with a company called Builderall. They cover the hosting and you get many other tools that you can use.
This is for the DIY small business person. We can give you more information about that by contacting us. Then there are a lot of small business owners that just do not have the time or maybe knowledge to accomplish this task.
You can always contact Mobile Biz Buzz and we will be happy to help you out.
It’s hard to believe that 1/3 of small business do not even have a website. The number one reason is time. They are too busy running their business. So take a little time and get a hold of us or a local SEO expert in your area.
We only provide service for businesses in the USA. Now for the 2 tips.
1. Reviews For Boosting Your Ranking In The Local 3 Pack
Reviews are one of the best ways to boost your ranking in the local 3 pack. Your business should always ask for a review. It doesn’t matter what type of business you have. You could be in the plumbing business, auto repair or own a restaurant. Ask for a review.
People don’t shop, eat, or get their car fixed any more without looking at a review. Think about it. Looking for a hotel, you’re looking at the reviews, wanting to buy a new stove, your looking at the reviews and reviews play a big part in getting you ranked in the local 3 pack.
Be creative when you’re asking for reviews. Use a coupon in your email to get a review. Ask for reviews when you send out an email. Train your employees to ask for a review. Ask for reviews for your Google My Business page.
Don’t forget to get reviews for your social media site. Your Facebook fan page is the place to put reviews. You can have multiple places to have reviews. The more the better.
Respond to all reviews quickly. It does not matter if they are good or bad. People look at that type of stuff. Next up local link building.
2. Citation Building Will Boost Your Ranking In The Local 3 Pack
Before we get to heavy into the citation building you should review your directory and citation business name, business address and business phone number.
These 3 things have got to be exactly the same as you have listed on your Google My Business account. Exactly. Exact and they need to match. Everything even a dot.
We are not going to explain the benefits of local citations because Moz has already laid out a great explanation on this subject matter. Moz also has a category citation listing for every type of business your business should be listed in.
You should try and get listed in your top places for your category for your type of business.
It’s very important to get listed in the proper category. Example a plumber doesn’t need a listing in Edmunds. It has to do with cars. You get the message, right?
There are other directories that you may already be listed in. The more citations that you have the better. Just make sure every listing is exactly the same. It’s called your NAP as we discussed above
It just seems we cannot stress this enough. We have worked with many business owners and from us working with them, this was always the biggest ranking factor that slowed their ranking down.
3. Bonus Tip – Website Speed
Stay on top of your website speed. Never take for granted that your website is maintaining its speed and it looks good on all browsers. You should look for updates once a day to keep your site running smoothly and without any glitches that might have come up during an update of your plugins and theme.
Immediately after updating conduct a website speed test from Pingdom. Check site speed from different locations. Washington DC. San Francisco, or the UK. We like to test where our audience is coming from.
Find the nearest city that your audience hangs out at and see how fast your website performs for those folks.
You need to be loading faster than 2 seconds. Some folks can’t even wait that long. Site speed can affect your bottom line. Each page or post has it’s own separate loading time.
So as soon as you finish a blog post you should perform a speed test. Catch any problems or delays before it becomes a problem.
Video: Why Fast Hosting Matters By CEO Shane of Thrive Themes. They only recommend WPX Hosting. It’s the new name and new brand. They keep getting better.
Don’t Let A Second Take Away 40% of Actual People Trying To Look You Up
The faster you can get to a one second load time the fewer customers you will lose. 2 seconds seems to be the standard that most are going for. A 3 second load time could cost you big time.
You could possibly have 40% of the users moving on to another site.
That is bad for your bottom line. You’ve got the traffic but you just need the speed to lower those numbers.
In order to have a great website speed, you need a great WordPress theme or one hell of a pixel-perfect builder. Yes, you also need to have specific hosting for your WordPress website. You need a company that has the power to boost your speed. WPX hosting is the solution.
They not only have blazing fast hosting but their customer service is super fast and awesome as well. Any problem or concern is immediately handled by the excellent staff.
WPX hosting is rated number one on the trust factor website. Thrive Themes only recommends the best. They built their themes for speed, functionality, and a conversion focused website.
Don’t settle for cheap hosting it can cost you a bundle. You also want security and a reliable company. WPX has you covered in all areas.
If you want to have blazing fast website speed then go with the best, WPX hosting. Yes, it’s an affiliate link. But website speed increases profits. You got people coming to your site, so keep them there, with super fast site speed.
4. Bonus Tip #2: Look At Your Website On A Mobile Device
You’re updated your plugins, theme, and any edits that you wanted to make. Then you checked the website speed. One quick check is to grab your smartphone and look at your website.
Is it simple and easy to navigate your site? Does your site attract the visitor within the first 10 seconds?
Is the font the right size for mobile devices. Are you using click here labels? What about control? Can you operate the site with good thumb, and finger control?
Are the social buttons to close to each other? These are a few little things that you should always consider your mobile visitors.
Is your phone number clickable? Having a clickable phone number increases your engagement opportunities. The more we can engage with our potential customers the better odds we have at closing a sale.
Plus you should consider it, great customer service. One other thing, add a menu to your footer. It will increase your dwell time and mobile customers demand it.
Your mobile audience is constantly growing with the explosion of smartphones. It may be wise to check out some other mobile marketing ideas to help you acquire more customers.
Staying up on new technologies is important so you can keep up with potential customers. It’s part of growing a business.
It’s A Work In Progress
You should ways find more ways to give your business more exposure. The more you have the more opportunity for people to find your business. Getting ranked in the local 3 pack can give you a boost in customers.
Just work what you can and when you can. If you find that you cannot get your business ranked in the local 3 pack, read this article, local SEO ranking factors for a small business to give you a helping hand.
Another area you may want to look at is the keywords you are using. This is explained more in detail in the article that we talked about above. Also, work your social media. Especially your Facebook fan page. Stay active and post often.
We hope that gives you a little guidance and wish you the best of luck in increasing your ranking score. We also provide local SEO service for small businesses. Mobile Biz Buzz gets your biz buzzing with more customers.
Real informative and great structure of content, now that’s user friendly (:.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it.