Local SEO — a term you’ve heard thrown around conference rooms and conference calls too many times to count. If you’re like the masses, you refer to this as a “buzz phrase”, one that is used only to capture the attention of a search algorithm rather than adding helpful resources for those sending in such queries.

By definition, Local SEO is essentially the process of optimizing your business’s website and various listings around the web in order to be positioned as relevant and at the top of a local search engine results page (SERP). In order to rank higher, businesses can utilize the optimization of their local SEO to be placed above the fold of a Google search, particularly on mobile. The visibility of a mobile phone’s SERP is much smaller than that on desktop, as the screen is much smaller; allowing 2-3 listings above the fold.

According to Moz, 71% of clicks on a Google SERP happen in the first page.  Therefore, if you’re not landing on page one, or are near the bottom of page one’s results, you may want to think about optimizing your local SEO presence.

To get placed on the SEO radar of your specific location, you’ll want to be relevant to those searching for your particular type of business or company, and provide some sense of recency in your online listings. A great way to do accomplish both of these feats is by collecting feedback from your clients and customers on a rolling basis.

This way, you’ll have reviews coming on regularly, thus placing you on the map for recent tips and feedback for local businesses on platforms like Yelp and TripAdvisor. With ReviewPush, you’ll never miss a review or keyword to market off of, as every word being mentioned about your business will be sent directly to your user dashboard.

In addition to ranking on a local search due to having collected numerous reviews that are both recent and relevant to the queries being performed by numerous consumers daily, prominence must be factored in, as well. If any online feedback is left for your business or there are backlinks from other websites, businesses or publications singing your business’s praises, this raises tour prominence.

Prominence is something Google has started tracking more recently than not, and it’s essentially a reference to the quality of the business providing a recommendation, or the popularity and trustworthiness of a local writer who reviews companies such as yours. Become relevant and generate authentic and recent reviews, and your prominence will begin to rise.

Attaining qualified backlinks and streaming recent reviews on your own website from a platform such as ReviewPush — the solution that not only tracks and manages your external reviews, but also allows you to gather internal feedback — will put you on the fast track to becoming locally and organically relevant in the world of SEO.

Maintaining, updating and growing citations — any place the name, address, phone number and website URL for your business is located — should be something that’s monitored daily. BrightLocal found that 68% og consumers won’t do business with a local company whose information is incorrect online. Accuracy and the ability for consumers to communicate with your team could not b more important as we move through Q3, and that’s what we’re here to help with.  For all of your online feedback and reputation managements needs with your customer’s experience in mind — there’s ReviewPush.

Lee McNiel