The first thing you should do to find local clients for your business is to make sure all your listings are updated in all local directories. Some of these are listed below, so take note of them and then go check them out. You may never of listed your business in a  directory yourself, but chances are you will be there. If you have a white pages listing or even yellow pages, you will be in most directories, this is just the nature of the internet these days. Local Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is based on google or other search engines giving you points for the accuracy of your listing in that directory. The examples I have listed below will give you an idea of what to look for and although not every local listing directory is here, the main ones to start with are.

Google My Business

This is the new edition of what was known as Google Places. This is the first and most important from my point of view for you to check on and then take ownership of if you have not done so already. Make sure you can add all the information that you possibly can as each piece is important in its own way. Use keywords in your pages that include the area that you want your business to reach. As you know, doing a service search will bring up a list of businesses that offer that service and google decides are local to you. Make sure your business is on the first page, if it is not then decide how you can get it there. Just think about yourself, how many times do you look past the first page when looking for something. Make sure your contact numbers and emails are all updated correctly. One important thing to take into consideration is that you have Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) for your website as google has given importance to this and you may be marked down if you do not. This began on the 1st of July 2018 and will continue into the foreseeable future.

Other Search Platforms

The next checks are done on other search engine platforms like Yahoo and Bing, make sure your listings are updated on these by the means offered by the service.

Now the other main directory services in Australia

Get on linkedin.com and make sure your profile is about you and updated. Then create a business profile and make sure your personal one is attached as a member. As with other listings, take particular care to ensure all details are updated correctly.

You may think Pinterest and Facebook plus Twitter are not for you type of business, but once again these are strong platforms that command strength to your local search position. It does not mean that you have to become a social media guru, but create your presence on there and make sure that includes your business details where applicable.

Next I would be going to Yelp and foursquare.com to update business details and taking ownership once again if you have not done so already.

True Local is another place you will probably find your business listed, so take ownership, correct all details and add some images to improve the look when someone ends up there.  They have paid add on services, but I would still with the standard listing, just keep it updated and change content about every six months.

You will already be in the whitepages, and if you pay for it, also in the yellowpages, make sure the details are correct.

If you do not maintain your own website, ensure that you web developer does all the basics for you including:

• Title Tags and Meta Descriptions
• Images are optimised for speed of loading
• Images have alt tags

Testimonials and Reviews

Make sure you list testimonials from previous customers and keep adding them as you can, it is comforting to read thoughts from a sites previous customers and find they had a great experience. Also, many sites  like Word Of Mouth and True Local have a review system and this can make you or break you depending on your reviews on here. Try to keep these at the highest level possible, being a 5 star system, a 5 star rating is what you want. In the case you gather a bad review, being your fault or not, it then becomes very important as to how you address the problem and answer back on the review system for everyone to see what you did or if not your fault, how you resolved this with the customer. Whatever you do, don't let bad reviews appear without you answering them for future clients to see.

There are many other things that go into improving you listing to make the first page of google when your business offering is searched for, but if you follow the guides above, this will give you a starting point.

Do You Know Google?

Google is using hundreds of different ranking factors to rank results: There seems to be no clear single formula, with them mixing the order depending on the search query. Some of the things taken into account when a search term is entered into google:

• anchor texts of incoming links
• content depth
• page load speed
• mobile responsiveness
• social signals
• keyword in URL
• keyword in content
• keyword in title
• website age
• content freshness
• quality of page source code
• user experience
• quality of inbound links
• number of inbound links
• contest of inbound links
• website authority
• number of internal links
• content quality

It is important that you take all these into account when creating content for your webpage. As can be seen in the pie chart, some are weighted more than others, but everything counts and you can be marked down by missing out on some things. This is not done for cleverness but so that the user gets better results for what they are looking for. Creation of your content is very important also taking these things into account, you need to make sure any keywords you use are included in your content, but only in a way that makes the content normal conversation. Gone are the days of loading up keywords or creating backlink farms, google is all over this and will penalize anyone trying these dated techniques. We here at BizzDesign like to use professional content writers to produce the text needed for our client websites. If you would like to create your own content, then please take all these things into account.

 What is Online Marketing?

In simple words, it is a plan to ensure your website and social media platforms work and bring more customers in your doors. It ensures that you have a website appealing to the customer, easy to navigate and is a brand that they can trust. Social Media helps inforce your brand and it is important also to manage your online reputation (feedback from your customers).