Search engine optimization is an in-demand service in 2020. With the internet being used now more than ever, people turn to content when dealing with businesses. Offering products and services isn’t enough, as it has been shown that content is what drives people to make decisions about purchasing things online. Additionally, the visibility gained by a website that invests in a great SEO marketing agency’s services is unparalleled. 

SEO is not a plug-and-play tool that works by merely throwing money at it. There are plenty of mechanics and techniques that must be followed and utilized to gather the results you want. While it can be quite a simple task for businesses that only operate in one location, owners who run various offices in different locales have additional challenges to undertake. 

Local SEO Mistakes Businesses Make

Digital marketing for a single-store business is easy due to creating content for a single location. If, for example, your company is an SEO company in Massachusetts, you will likely only incorporate elements that push for Massachusetts-based clients and businesses. Some businesses that are more established can have offices all over Boston to serve clients in these areas, which can be tricky to manage. 

Here are 5 common mistakes made for local SEO and GMB practices:

1 - Using Fake Office Locations

Some businesses set up Google pages for their locations that do not have a physical office. Some use the P.O. box address, employee’s home addresses, or addresses of other businesses. Google My Business allows companies to open up a page provided there is an address present. 

The mistake here is that owners think this technique allows different local areas to contribute to higher rankings. When caught, this will ruin the search engine results scores for all your business locations and listings. Scamming the system is a big no-no by Google, and their algorithm will pick it up one way or another. 

Taking shortcuts will only result in more damage to your business, so play fair and put in the work for SEO, and you will be rewarded. 

2 - Spamming Keywords in Your Google Business Page (GMB)

Google’s earlier years of their Places platform were rough around the edges. Marketing agencies discovered that keywords in large proportions were enough to bump up profiles of Google My Business on search results pages. Nowadays, Google’s algorithm is too smart for that and will catch you one way or another. Keep your business name free of keywords to stay within parameters of Google’s SEO ranking algorithm. 

3 - Placing Only One Phone Number for All Locations

Only having one number for all locations is not ideal, as Google typically lists each location as a separate entity. You will need to provide a specific number for each office you have to ensure that SEO scores for your business locations are consistent. The algorithm will read repeated numbers as duplicated and incorrect information that can decrease rankings for your local offices. The best way to do this is to get a unique number for each office to track online leads, which will allow easier tracking of callers and texts from those within the immediate vicinity. 

4 - Buying Links To Gain Backlinks

While it's true that google tends to rank sites that have a high amount of websites linking back to it, it can harm your rankings long term if you are purchasing link building services.  The majority of these services use PBN's or private blog networks that have low quality sites and often result in toxic links.  Toxic links can cause major problems over time which can result in seeing your organic listings decrease. 

The best way to create backlinks is to consistently create quality content, expose your content through social media, google search and by conducting custom outreach to gain guest posting opportunities. 

Simple way to think about this - create and expose useful content that provides value to others. 

5 - Not Leveraging Page Titles and Descriptions

Perhaps one of the most important parts of ranking is optimizing page titles and descriptions to include the main keywords within each specific page.  For example, If my main service was web design in my local area of Western Massachusetts - it may be good to title my web design page to be: Web Design Services in Western MA   The Stack Group.  Keep in mind your page title should be around 50-60 characters.

In addition to the page title, include your top keywords inside the meta description of each page.  You have more room, approximately 120-150 characters to optimize your key word content. 

Practice Long Term SEO Techniques that grow your organic traffic

More established businesses will naturally have more requirements for SEO and digital marketing to deal with various clients. Avoiding these five SEO-damaging mistakes will ensure that your offices in a single location or in different areas maintain an excellent rank standing over time. A proper digital marketing service in your area will assist with managing content and overall rankings at a larger scale. 

About The Stack Group

The Stack Group is a digital marketing agency in the USA that assists small businesses in garnering tangible growth results. Specializing in SEO, web development, and other social media management services, we tailor our methods to what your company needs. Contact us to know more about how we help business owners thrive in today’s ever-evolving sphere. 

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