World domination is the ultimate goal of ecommerce – Amazon isn’t in your industry just to provide a community service. But while Amazon are the brand you may measure yourself against, the most successful ecommerce businesses start by nailing their regional markets. Local SEO can help your brand do just that. (And it’s cost-effective too).
Below I’ll explain how your ecommerce brand can get the most out local SEO and set you well on your way to global domination…
Get your title tags and meta descriptions right
Your title tags and meta descriptions are organic advertisements for your business – they should tell your customers that your ecommerce brand has all the right answers. They’re super simple to tweak and change, and most SEO audits start with them as there is a lot of value to be had from even minor adjustments.
Meet the meta
Your meta description is the 160 character summary of each and every webpage. The objective of your meta descriptions is to convince your customer to pick your ecommerce business over your competitors. Simple? Maybe not — it’s quite common for brands to automate or ignore their meta descriptions. It’s a shame as they are a simple and quick way to increase local relevancy, and improve click-through rates. Try to end yours on a call to action.
The example below shows how words that are in the search query are highlighted in the meta description as well:
What’s in a title?
The title tag (UK English: page title) is the single most important on-page factor that you have control over. A title tag is the headline displayed on in the results of Google (or the search engine that your customers choose to use). Each and every single page should have a unique and niche-relevant title tag.
You can use your titles and meta descriptions to make the most of local SEO by:
● Including the name of the city and area your business is based in
● Incorporating keywords used in local searches into them
● Including location-specific calls-to-action & offers.
Utilize local schema markup
Schema markup is also known as structured data markup. You simply add it to the code of your site in order to provide Google and its peers more information about your brand. That information usually goes into more detail about your business and products, and includes things like reviews, pricing, timings etc. For ecommerce brands, it’s a great way to make the most of highly-targeted local searches and search queries.
In the example already used above, you can see that the structured data for reviews has been picked up, and is showing as a star rating and review count:
By highlighting the parts of your site that you want Google (and users) to see, you are more likely to be featured in featured or rich snippets – these are extracts of data from your site which Google uses to demonstrate users that a site has the answer to their query/queries.
Use structured data to increase and improve your local search real estate. Google has a very handy Data Highlighter that allows you to mark up your site’s content — then you just need to add the correct code to your site. It’s as easy as that.
Schema markup might sound technical, but it is a tool that; when employed as part of your local SEO armoury, can help you cut through the ecommerce competition.
Local content for local people
People use different languages in different countries, different dialects in different regions, and different words in different localities.
SEO is no stranger to this principle and taking note of it to produce content that attracts local searchers, is another way for your brand to make the most of local SEO.
How to create local content for local SEO
There are many different ways you can create local content draw in more local searchers. Some of the best ways you can produce and benefit from local content are:
● Lists and guides – find an angle for your business and work it into a local list or guide. For example, if your Lyon-based ecommerce business specialises outdoor clothing you can write a guide on the best places to go hiking nearby, or the 5 best walks in region. You can add in the importance of dressing appropriately, and link to your hiking business
● Local keywords – using Google’s Keyword Planner you can find out what keywords are being used in your locality. Once you have done this you can add them to your ecommerce site in a way that is natural, engaging, and relevant
● Guest posts – guest posting is one of the best ways to help improve the local SEO for your site. Find some relevant local sites, ones that have crossover with your ecommerce brand, and then contribute a guest post to their site. This will help you to build up your local presence and get your brand’s name out into the local business community
● Write about local events – there will be plenty of events going on in your area — they represent an opportunity to make your brand’s name synonymous with your locality. By covering these events and adding the write-ups to your site, your brand will feature in more and more search results for your local area (and you will probably score a mention or too)
● Local PR — by being involved with the local business community and taking part in local groups and events, you will naturally pick highly relevant backlinks to your site. This helps increase your site’s authority and relevance.
Local searches are becoming a more prominent in today’s frenetic mobile-first world, and ecommerce brands need to make the most of local searches. As well as saving on shipping, you stand to gain a lot when it comes to increasing your local standing.
By putting the lessons of this article into practice, you can give your ecommerce brand an advantage over your local competitors. Once you’re ahead of you local rivals, the next step are your global competitors, and world domination…
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