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Digital Location Service Checklist

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Location SEO Techniques

Date
13 Dec 2021

Author
Jonathan Ward

Before most of your customers step out of their homes they will likely already know where you are, how to get to you and whether you’re open right now and if you have what they want. If you have remembered to update your information, that is!

As much as we all like to do our shopping online, we are willing to bet that there will still be significant footfall on the high street this. For physical, brick and mortar stores around the country, that means it is time to make sure your location based marketing assets are up to par. 

Nearly a 1/3 of all mobile searches are related to location. Furthermore, 90% of consumers have used the internet to find a business in their local area. With contextual search quickly becoming the standard for search engines around the world, location is for sure, one of the presiding factors in whether or not people will find your business online. Before most of your customers step out of their homes they will likely already know where you are, how to get to you and whether you’re open right now and if you have what they want.

If you have remembered to update your information, that is!

GPS Location Pin Point

Keeping everything in check can be a bit of a pain when it comes to location services, so Reach Studios have put together a checklist to give you a helping hand. 

Update Your Google Business Listing 

With Google getting the biggest slice of cake in terms of the worlds search traffic, your Google Business listing is perhaps one of the most pivotal pieces of the location puzzle. Sign in to Google and make sure your locations, business name, phone number, and description are all correct and up to date. 

Add Business Hours

This is a significant one for retailers as people will want to know if you are open and whether or not you are open late for holidays. Make sure they are listed correctly and are updated for any upcoming bank holidays etc. 

Check You have a Contact And About Page

These things are essential for any visitors to your website (be they human, or robot!) Google cross-references information on your contact and about pages with information about you elsewhere on the internet. If everything matches up, Google will know you are unlikely to be a spam business and will make sure you appear in the search result pages. 

Activate Your Geo-Location API

If location is integral to your business you are going to want to know where visitors to your site are accessing from. By using a GeoLocation API you can track any available location data dropped to you by incoming IPs, thus giving you useful insight into your web traffic. 

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Enable Click To Call On Phone Numbers 

Picture the scene. You are debating whether or not to make the trip down the high street to pick up that Paw Patrol Play Set for your niece or nephew. You decide to check the store’s website first  to see if it is in stock, but……eurgh, you have to manually type in the phone number, nobody has time for that. “Screw it”, you say “I’ll order it on Amazon”. Don’t let this happen to your business. 

Add Listing To Third Party Sites

As we mentioned before, Google finds it helpful to confirm, your business’ details from multiple sources. The more third-party location sites you are listed on the more likely you are to be found by both people and by Google. Create listings on sites such as Tripadvisor, yell.com, Yelp and Foursquare.

Check Everything For Name. Address, Phone (NAP) And Category Consistency

It is important to search results that your business details are consistent. No matter where they are mentioned. Remember, it is a machine that ranks your website, not a person. So, even a slight difference can cause confusion. For example, make sure you are using Road, instead of Rd., that your phone number always has an area code. Finally, check your descriptions, for instance, if you own a flower shop, make sure everywhere describes you as a flower shop, not a florist. 

Customers Shopping In-Store

Taking all the above into account and providing you have everything in place, we are confident you will stay on the map this year. We hope you are ready for the shoppers! 

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