Writing Effective Local SEO for Your South Florida Business

The Importance of a Local SEO Consultant

If you're a local business owner in South Florida, you likely already know about how vital it is to represent your brand well on Google Search. With the move from Google My Business to Google Business Profile, the need for an effective business listing in Search and Google Maps is likely to grow even more important. Knowing these two important truths is great, but what's the best way to truly drive sales through the roof with local SEO for South Florida Business (and beyond)? Read on to get the fundamentals broken down and stay tuned for more articles and videos soon as I fully address this crucial topic going into 2022.

As you are likely familiar with from searching on your phone, when you search Google for a 'business (of whatever kind) near me' it returns a variety of results, including the 'Local 3 Pack' of the three top businesses representative of your search team. Without getting too complex into the various factors (that we know of) that impact the businesses presented here, this article will help you lay the foundation for appearing at the top of local search results for South Florida (and even farther if it makes sense for your business).

No matter the type of business you own, or brand you're trying to build, the place to start is with Google Search. Simply type in the name of your business into the search bar and wait for your profile to show up. When it does, claim the listing and begin to follow the steps below. If it doesn't, don't panic. You can still access Google My Business (for now) and create a new account from scratch.

Once you've found your Google Business Profile, what comes next? The vital first step will be verification of your business, something that Google does (perhaps a bit ironically) using the humble postcard. That's right, just claim your business and

ask for verification by mail, and a card will arrive from Google within days. Open this card and enter the 5-digit code shown, and your account will now be verified. Congratulations, you're now ready to get to the 'good stuff of Google Business Profile, setting up your South Florida business for local SEO success!

When considering what to get detailed with on your profile, I would suggest that adding anything potentially of interest to your customers can be worthwhile, and is often worth a try to see the results that might come from unexpected methods. That being said, there are without a doubt several areas you want to carefully plan out on your Profile.

Factors Making Your Google Business Profile Rank

While I'll go into greater detail over the course of coming posts, suffice to say that 'Services' and your 'Service Areas' as well as the general descriptions of both your business and the individual services it offers are a ranking factor for Google. Be sure to fully describe both your services and take up all of the 750 characters for General Information as well, stuffing it with as many (pertinent) keywords as applicable to your brand and/or niche. The same applies to the Services offered themselves, go into as much details and keep them as closely matched to the keywords you hope to rank for and you can't go wrong!

Another important piece of Google Business Profile real estate (and we South Floridians know how valuable that is!) comes directly from your existing clientele in the form of, you guessed it, 'Reviews'.

While many of us occasionally leave reviews for local business and brands, in South Florida local SEO cultivating an engaged audience is particularly valuable, especially when concerning Google Business Profile Reviews. You can obtain a link easily on-site, and send it to your past customers that would be appreciative of such an effort. Not only are the Reviews themselves important for local ranking, but your responses also weigh heavily when Google decides to rank local SEO. And if a negative review appears, don't panic, respond rationally (and briefly) and suggest a direct point of

contact to discuss correcting any grievance.

How Can I Geotag for South Florida Local SEO Success?

A final point of note (for today's posting anyway) concerns the 'Photos' section of your Google Business Profile, which visually forms the first impression of many people searching out your brand or related terms. Although it may seem difficult, it is deeply important to create a good representation of your space, offerings, and the visual character of whatever it is that makes your brand. And once you've got the still images (and videos if you're able) ready, take a pause and consider the importance of geotagging your images using this link.

Geotagging you say? And I don't blame you, its an sort of industry piece of jargon for adding labels to your image file that identify its exact geographic origin. And, whether they should or not, such bits of information about location attached to your image files can give you a significant boost in local SEO ranking, as it 'attaches' your business in the eyes of Google to that specific address. Just use the map and the free (five daily) images on the tool linked to above, and add whatever keyword tags and keyword-laden description you see fit before uploading the photos your profile and, just like that you've helped your Google local SEO status considerably, and are on your way to 'Local 3 Pack' fame!

Keep it Local, Make the Sunshine State Your Focus!

From the shores of South Beach to Boynton Beach, our digital marketing consultant team has the tools you need for local SEO success! Let us help your Sunshine State brand grow into the next local favorite with the help of our digital marketing expertise... and contact us now for a no-cost consultation that will give you an outline matched to your future goals.

Stay tuned to this space for more information on optimizing your South Florida brand for Local SEO ranking results, including more detailed information on the exact ways to help SEO results with local knowledge that only you have.