The Importance of Local Business Listings for SEO

There are so many facets to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and every company does it a little bit differently. There are the basics that you need to accomplish on your website to get it ranking in search engines and then there are the bells and whistles that can supercharge your business online to make it appear above competitors and for more search queries. One of the pieces of SEO includes optimizing and correcting local business listings. While some companies are calling local business listings and the management of that data Local SEO, it is only one piece of the SEO puzzle.

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO relates to any strategy whose goal is to get a local business higher in search results. This usually incorporates keyword research, content, backend optimization on your website, and link building in the form of local business listings. A true local SEO strategy incorporates research and optimizing every part of your website to include your geographic target. There are other pieces of this strategy that can help you rank in multiple local locations, but this is how you start with local SEO.

Local Business Listings Management vs SEO

There is no doubt that local business listings do help improve your overall online presence, but that is only one small part of SEO. However, there are multiple digital companies who are packaging their management of local business listings as local SEO, claiming that is the only thing you need to do to appear in search results. But here is the key difference.

Local Business Listings Management corrects and changes your business information in hundreds of online directories such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yelp, Better Business Bureau, Angie’s List, Manta, YP.com, Local.com, Foursquare, Manta, and more. This involved ensuring your name, address, phone number, business categories, products or services, and more are all correct across the internet.

SEO involves a multi-faceted strategy that serves as the base of your online presence as well as an integration tactic for your digital marketing. SEO involves keyword research, content optimization, backend website optimization, link building, blogging, and constant monitoring to improve your rank in search engine results. One of the pieces of an SEO strategy include local business listings management.

How Local Business Listings Help SERP

You may be wondering why local business listings management is considered a part of the local SEO strategy. Why does your business information have any effect on your website rank? It all comes down to your overall quality score with Google. Google will look at every place your business is online and assign you a quality score via a complicated algorithm. Our job is to optimize your online presence to make the Google algorithm happy.

One way to help improve your quality score is to make sure everywhere your business is mentioned is correct. Even things like adding a comma in the wrong spot or missing a suite number can knock your quality score down in Google’s eyes. Also, having your business listed on these hundreds of authority online directories is considered a part of link building. SEO link building can be very tricky to please the Google algorithm, but one surefire way to build links is adding your business to online directories.

Even though it can be confusing, local business listings is only part of how you can improve your local SEO rank. You need a developed and customized SEO strategy to help you appear above competitors and for more search queries.

If you have any questions about our Digital Marketing Agency in Kansas City, contact 816-537-7950.