Downtown View with Traffic | Melissa Merriam Online Marketing Consulting
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SEO algorithm updates from Google, we’ve seen them define a remarkable change in how online users perform queries and move ahead with results. The new set of local tools add another set of dimension in how search engines crawl, index, and rank pages; and how website owners can effectively leverage the engines to drive traffic to your websites.
The Digital Future of Canada 2015
According to a leading 2015 industry report by comScore, which examines the latest trends in how Canadians consume content across PC, display, mobile usage and more, following are some trends, on how things are currently shaping up the Canadian digital marketplace.
- Canadians continue to be leaders in online engagement, with users ranking highly in time and page consumption metrics, over 35 hours per month online, as compared to other nations.
- They spend 5.1 more hours watching online videos than their American counterparts.
- Mobile subscribers grew by 5% in Canada, year over year, to more than 24 million.
- Smartphones now reach 4 out of every 5 mobile users in the country.
These are reasons powerful enough for you to increase brand awareness and generate new leads.
Read More: What is Local Search and how you can Score With it
Take Advantage of New focus, the LOCAL SEO way
The way Local search queries are different from conventional searches is that – you’re adding a ‘where’ dimension, i.e. an address, a city or a zip code to your product, service or website that a user might me searching for. This is the eveloution of how your local organization will be searched for and accessed for the majority of your audience.
Local searches are a great resource for many sites battling the search engines for local attention. While Google is still dominant, the landscape has changed: in addition to Yahoo and Bing.
Moz also reports a list of local search ranking factors to build your presence,
Now is the perfect time to roll out a local SEO strategy –
- Local + Page: Google places, Yahoo and Bing provide you with a better chance to rank for location when your full business address is listed with proper category associations. It is important to use a local area code and not no.s starting with 1-800. Claim and verify your local page and add photos, including your location I your description.
- Business Name and Location on Website: You have a good chance of ranking for location when your full business address is in the location. List your NAP – Name, Address and Phone details on every page of your website and make sure it matches how you are listed on Google or local pages elsewhere. Use a product, or keyword, or location keyword in website URL.
- Structured Citations: These citations are mentions of a business name and address, including phone number on internet yellow pages (IYP) or various directory websites. They typically appear in a pattern that is easy for search engine bots to read. The more your site appears in various listings, the better it is for your rankings in Local Search. Make sure that your Nap on your citations exactly match the same on your local page and your website.
- Review Signals: Reviews that include product/service/location keywords help in ranking on local results. Third party reviews include on sites such as Yelp, Businessreviewcanada, Merchant Circle, Kudzu and many other. Its best to research reviews sites that are relevant to your industry and market.
- Social Signals: The number of adds or shares on Google+ affect your local search rankings. The same is true on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or check-ins on sites such as foursquare etc. also affects impact on search results.
- Mobile- Is your site ready for the next algorithm update on April 21, 2015? Google announced the importance of mobile and the effects on local search. Some marketers are referring to this update as “Mobilegeddon”
Going forward, you can expect local cues and rankings in Canada to be more impacted by signals such as domain authority, inbound links and other factors that typically affect local results.