Why Customers Cannot Find Your Local Business Online
Ever since I first placed the title of SEO on my LinkedIn profile and told the world of my occupation I've been inundated with questions on how Google works, thinks and where they get all the information. One of the most frequent questions I get asked is why can't I find my business when I Google "Insert Service/Product + Location", for example, Kitchen Renovation Cape Town.
While the answer is by no means a simple one and I could ramble on for hours on how Google decides on what to rank I thought it wouldn't be beneficial to most of you. Having given this question some thought, I wanted to focus on what you as a business owner can do to encourage Google to rank your business for these location-based queries.
One of the search engines key indicators for ranking local business-related searches is a little thing called NAP.
You may be sleeping on your NAP
NAP stands for name, address, phone. NAP refers to the company name, address, and phone number you use on any site where you appear. A businesses NAP is essential for ranking well organically when a customer or potential prospect conduct a local search.
Your NAP encourages your listing for geo-targeted searches
Search engines use the name, address, and phone number information to decide which listings to show in a geo-targeted search. If you don’t include this information on your website and social media profiles, search engines won’t know to display your business when someone conducts a local search, near me search, or location-based search for your products or services.
Consistent use of your NAP helps verify your businesses legitimacy
Search engine algorithms aren’t public knowledge, but a ton of research and guesswork has gone into helping build best practices for assisting rankings to improve. Many SEO experts believe that major search engines like Google cross-validate the legitimacy of businesses by cross-referencing a business’s NAPs as they appear on multiple websites.
The bottom line is authenticity and consistency, and search engines won’t prioritize sites they don’t believe are legitimate. This is why NAPS are also crucial for SEO and local search queries because matching NAPs signals legitimacy and thus increase the likelihood that your business ranks well.
Additional benefits of accurate and consistent NAPs used appropriately within an SEO strategy include:
- Better organic search rankings
- More traffic to your websites from local searches
- More leads
- More business
From nowhere to near me
So why are geo-location searches so important to your local business? Well, these are people closest to you, they are consumers physically in your area or looking for businesses in your area of operation. "Near me" searches have been on the rise globally and South Africa is no exception. Over the last 5 years, we've seen an explosion of near me searches and the trend will only continue to grow. If you are not doing everything you can do to encourage listing for local searches then you're missing out on potential leads.
The growth of "near me" searches in South Africa over the last five years
Most popular "near me" topic searches in South Africa
These are the most popular topics South African's search for using the near me keyword over the last five years
- Restaurant
- Retail
- Delivery
- KFC
- Pharmacy
- Cafe
- Beauty salon
- Nando's
- Take-out
- McDonald's
- Liquor store
- Dentistry
- Sushi
- Steers
- Pet
- Hardware store
- Pet store
- Gynaecology
- Car dealership
- Wimpy
- PostNet
- Automated teller machine
- Car wash
Most improved "near me" topic searches in South Africa
These topics gaining popularity in South African for searches using the near me keyword over the last five years
- Liquor store
- Sushi
- Steers
- Pet
- Hardware store
- Pet store
- Gynaecology
- Car dealership
- Wimpy
- PostNet
- Automated teller machine
- Car wash
- KFC
- Pharmacy
- Nando's
- Take-out
- Dentistry
- Delivery
- McDonald's
- Retail
- Restaurant
- Cafe
- Beauty salon
- Café
- Beauty salon
Most popular "near me" queries in South Africa
These are the actual search terms South African's used along with the near me keyword over the last five years
- restaurants near me
- shops near me
- jobs near me
- food near me
- mall near me
- restaurant near me
- delivery near me
- pizza near me
- kfc near me
- pharmacy near me
- atm near me
- game near me
- dentist near me
- spa near me
- doctors near me
- things to do near me
- woolworths near me
- salon near me
- spar near me
- sushi near me
- nandos near me
- garage near me
- debonairs near me
- breakfast near me
Most improved "near me" queries in South Africa
These actual search queries gaining popularity in South Africa for searches using the near me keyword over the last five years
- jobs near me
- delivery near me
- kfc near me
- pharmacy near me
- atm near me
- dentist near me
- things to do near me
- spar near me
- sushi near me
- breakfast near me
- steers near me
- fnb near me
- hardware near me
- clinic near me
- food delivery near me
- clicks near me
- mcdonalds near me
- salons near me
- doctor near me
- dischem near me
- guest house near me
- spur near me
- clubs near me
- hardware store near me
- postnet near me
How to wake up your business from its NAP
Since your NAP is derived from all mentions, Google can successfully crawl and index online it means you need to make sure every single digital asset has the correct information. Having personally done NAP hunts in the past I'm well aware of how incorrect data can turn up in the strangest places. To make sure you've covered all your bases I suggest you make sure the following NAP's are on your checklist.
Own website
This should be your first stop and one of the easiest to correct. If you own a website make sure all mentions of your own name, address and phone number is correct. Review your sites contact page, its footer and any pages that may contain this sort of information.
Social media accounts
Second, on your list would have to be your social media accounts only because of its sheer ease of updating. Check your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Linkedin and any other niche social media sites you utilise to promote your business and correct any inconsistencies you may find.
Google my business
Third and probably one of the most heavily weighted in your favour is your GMB (Google My Business) listing. Since Google draws data directly from this submission to populate branded knowledge graphs and geo-related queries, it's important to make sure that your GMB listing information is correct
Third party listing sites and directories
Since many local businesses aren't necessarily creating regular content and attracting visitors to their site, it's a good idea to have your business listed on third-party websites and directories. Since they do the heavy lifting on their side to attract traffic for various searches and then refer those users to you, making sure your information on these directly listings is correct will make sure you don't miss out on referrals business and that Google can aggregate all these mentions to your business.
In most cases, this is under your control with sites having their own user dashboards and self-service tools while other directories may not and you will need to mail the admin to have your listing updated.
Blogs and online mentions
If you've done some outreach in the past or you're lucky enough to have a site cover your business in a blog article or news article, then this will also need to be reviewed. These articles will stay up for as long as the site is live and incorrect information, especially on sites with high domain authority, will give you a welcomed boost. Should they have the correct NAP information and, it wouldn't hurt to link to some of your business assets like your website or social media pages.
Awake from your digital slumber
Google may be smart but getting smarter by the day but feeding it incorrectly or inconsistent information is not going to do anyone any favours. Now that you're aware of the mistakes and inconsistencies that would see Google ignore your business its high time you to take corrective action. Hopefully, it won't take too long to undo the damage and Google will begin to place your business in front of local customers more often.
If you have any questions or tips you'd like to add, share them with us in the comments section, we'd love to hear from you.
Source: nichemarket
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Excellent post and I did not understand the NAP Concept or the "near me" idea. This is really helpful with great examples. I will link it to couple of places I know for local businesses in FB groups :)
Thank you so much! I really hope it does help small business owners, they are really not getting the mentions they deserve in search Because paid ads and bigger businesses can afford to have specialists like myself optimize their sites and digital assets for them!
Glad you found it helpful
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Thanks for the tip! We are starting our own small business so this is certainly a good thing to know for when people search for us. (Not sure if we will ever advertise it on Steem here)
What’s SEO? Search engine..?
I’m assuming that the NAP doesn’t mind if we use a post office box instead of our home address correct?
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No problem happy to help! Yes SEO is search engine optimisation and no NAP doesn’t mind that you don’t provide a physical address it just looking for a way to attribute your brand name and product and service keywords to a location close to the searcher this can be a PO Box but I would recommend you include a city or neighbourhood that is applicable if you’re not comfortable with providing a home address
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Hi, I am going to write a article in my website about "You will get more traffic with a text with facts and information than a selling-text" Do you agree?
That Google will get the article higher if you write good information about it instead of "this is awesome and wonderful and perfect product"
BUT also that you get better longtails with an informtiontext than only sellingpoints.
Agree? Or maybe you do not understand my idea...
Yes I agree, if you’re just going to write generic content Google isn’t going to rank you because you can only pad for so long
But if you take the time to write detailed personal experience it will be highly unique and Google will reward you and customers will appreciate the effort
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Thank you so so much for sharing.
It’s a pleasure lol people ask me questions and I think making blogs out of the answers is the right way to go
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It is good since it is partaining to your skills and field.
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