With search engines now using more and more data to fine tune their results, a local focus can help bring your website to the forefront and rank above your competitors. Location is now a much more important factor when it comes to searching for businesses online, with 70%* of users including local terms in their searches. To help you capitalise on this shift in focus, there are a number of changes you can make to your online presence.
Local content appearing in a search.
On Your Website
Wherever your property appears online your URL, business name, address and phone number should be identical; on your website, Facebook page, Google+ page, marketing channels and beyond. This enables Google to verify an exact match for your business identity, each source counting as an individual strand of credibility. Your web developer can also include location data in your website’s metadata to ensure that search engines like Google can easily identify your business’s exact location, helping your website rank in relevant local searches. Embedding a Google map tagged with your location in your location page also helps.
Your website should also be mobile and tablet friendly. Where generic searches are automatically related to a location using the phone’s GPS this is especially important. Over a quarter** of web searches are made on a mobile phone or tablet; and our own stats show that 40% of our customers availability calendars and booking pages were accessed via a tablet or mobile device between 01/03/14 and 12/05/14. Ensuring that these users can access and use your website from their mobile device is important.
Map search on a mobile phone
In Your Content
Create a local eco-system by working with other local businesses to put together a guide to your area and add value to your website. This unique guide to you, the area, local life and events could include any attractions or complimentary businesses; when you link to them it’s likely they will return the favour and link to you as well. Concentrate on other businesses which are already proactive online and are creating influential content. Try to vary how you word your guide to reflect the different ways a guest may phrase a search for your business. Putting in this extra effort to help inform your guests will help the search engines to identify you as a key influencer, and you will be rewarded for this.
Setting a location on YouTube
In Other Media
People act differently when they carry out a local search than they do when they make a wider search. They are more likely to look out for maps, reviews, images and videos. Hopefully you have plenty of photos and some video of your property online so your guests can visualise where they’ll be staying. Geo-tagging your media’s metadata can help contribute to your goals of local influence. If you upload a video to YouTube you can do this in the video manager area; you can also add locations to your Tweets and Facebook posts and photos, it all counts.
Ultimately, when it comes to maps a verified listing on Google+ is absolutely key. These listings get a lot of prominence in Google searches and may propel you above similar businesses in your region. Good luck!
* http://ezlocal.com/blog/post/some-useful-local-search-statistics.aspx
** http://searchengineland.com/report-25-percent-of-search-clicks-now-from-mobile-devices-146083
