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Jul 14, 2022
As an entrepreneur or a small business owner, your goal is to make it easy for people in your area to search for your business online. More importantly, you want the information they find to be accurate.
But why is it important to have the correct business information across the web?
Your address, contact details, opening hours, and other essential information are specifics that customers need in order to choose your business over others.
When information about your business is inaccurate, you're confusing both search engines and users. As a result, customers might end up calling the wrong number or going to the wrong location.
They can leave a bad review or rate you poorly because of this experience, which can negatively impact your ranking in the local search results.
To boost your local SEO in Miami and provide a positive experience to customers and prospects, you need to ensure that your business' information is being presented correctly on the internet.
But with new directory listing apps and websites being created every day, how can you keep up with claiming your business on each of them, especially if you have multiple locations or you’re constantly moving business locations? There has to be an easier way.
This is where Yext comes in.
Yext is a data management tool that allows you to keep track and manage your digital presence across numerous online directories, web pages, apps, search engines, social networks, and maps in the Knowledge Network.
This software allows you to sync the following:
Yext provides you with the ability to instantly update all your NAPs and other location-related information on both your local listing and your site’s location pages.
When this information matches across all online directories, it signals to search engine bots that you're legit, which boosts your local SEO in Miami.
This improves your chances of ranking well on the local search results and allows customers and prospects to find essential information about your business quickly.
Yext automatically audits business directory listings to see if there is any inaccurate information about your business. It then corrects inaccurate listings right away. It also identifies additional listing opportunities.
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One of the best practices for local SEO you need to observe to rank high on the local search results is to ensure that your business information is displayed correctly on all third-party directories.
These listings are called business citations or NAP (name, address, and phone number).
Yext helps strengthen your SEO and local marketing strategy in Miami by making sure that your NAP is controlled, secured, and easy to access across all listings.
It boosts your visibility online even if you don’t have a website and drives foot traffic to your store or office through online leads.
What’s even more amazing is the quality of traffic you can generate through local SEO.
Since these leads are from people within your area specifically looking for the products or services that your business offers, they're also more likely to convert.
Another reason why it's crucial to manage your business listings online is the fact that many businesses lose potential customers because of the wrong information shown on the search results or whatever directory a searcher happens to be using.
Yext eliminates this problem by updating and syncing all your information across the web.
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Make sure to claim your business across all local search directories possible. If your business is listed online but hasn't been claimed, search engines will try to provide the best information about your business.
The problem with this is that it isn't always accurate or people may enter the wrong information and confuse customers.
Unfortunately, numerous online directories and local search engines don't allow businesses to claim their listings directly on their website.
Yext allows you to claim your local business listings on more than 30 local search sites almost instantly!
Search engines use several factors to determine the relevance and quality of a local search result. One signal for this is having consistent business information across the web.
Make sure your business information online is accurate and consistent. Any minor difference in any local business directory can impact your local search ranking in a major way.
Yext allows you to determine how your listings appear online so you can update and make the necessary changes.
One of the most effective ways to attract customers and compel them to visit you is to provide them with as much information as possible, including photos of your business, products, and services.
A few shots of your store and your different offerings will allow searchers to get a feel of your business and entice them to visit and give your products or services a try.
As long as your photos are clear and of high quality, you don’t need to hire a photographer. Good lighting is key!
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To get people to click on your local search result or listing, offer them an irresistible deal!
Some incentives to offer searchers are freebies, discounts, cashback, bonus upgrades, free trials, and free consultations.
Reviews are very compelling when it comes to convincing customers. In fact, 93% of consumers rely on customer reviews to inform their purchase decisions.
That’s why it’s one of the top three factors for higher rankings in the local search results.
Whenever you get a review or rating (both positive and negative), make sure to respond to them promptly. When your customers see that you’re reading reviews and replying, it motivates them to leave feedback and rate your business.
Your responsiveness to online reviews also shows that you pay attention to your customers and care about providing the best products and services possible.
As a result, consumers are likely to choose you over businesses that don’t respond to reviews.
If you're not getting many reviews, make it easy for your customers to leave one by using QR code technology, popup surveys on your site, and polls on social media.
Instead of using a toll-free number, use a local landline number for all your business listings instead.
This makes it easy for search engines to determine the location of your business and present it in front of relevant searches.
Using a P.O. box for your business address makes it difficult for search engines to determine your exact location and present your business in front of relevant local queries.
Instead of using a P.O. box, use the actual address of your office or store. If you’re operating from your house, it’s better to use your home address.
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It can be tempting to post fake reviews to try and boost your local SEO in Miami, but please don’t do this.
You may be able to get away with it at first, but search engine technology is getting incredibly advanced by the day and is becoming quicker to detect fake reviews.
If you're caught red-handed, there will be penalties, which can mean not ranking for the local search results for a long time. Poor rankings mean zero visibility, zero visibility means no traffic and no customers.
You may think that adding a location to your business name will help boost your visibility but search engines are smart enough to figure out if you’re relevant to specific search queries.
Doing this will only confuse search engines and result in inconsistency in your NAP. Keep your business name consistent across the web. It's the best way to rank high on local listings.
Nobody has the time to do manual citation building. To make sure you’re present across numerous online business directories and make it easy for customers to connect with you, use Yext to your advantage!
At Digital Resource, our team of local SEO specialists in Miami can help you with Yext to update your listings quickly, respond to reviews right away, and update your NAP information across multiple online directories.
As search engines advance and evolve the way they present business information to users, it's crucial to keep up with the latest developments by using the right tools to stay on top of the competition.
Contact us today for a free SEO audit!
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