Every serious businessman searches for the best way to attract as many new customers as possible. And, the days when shop windows did all the marketing are long gone. Nowadays, most people use the internet. Thus, it became the best place to find information, get services, and of course, buy things. That is why, modern marketers, especially those who own local businesses, need to deal with the online presentation and to work on the local SEO. But what is search engine optimization, and why NAP and user experience are crucial to local SEO? Those are exactly the topics we are about to discuss today.
Entering the world of online marketing
The first thing you’ll definitely need to do is to create a website for your business. After you do the technical part, there comes the one that requires more time and energy. You should learn how to deal with website optimization and how to promote your services the best, in order to get more satisfied customers. This isn’t easy at all. Especially for the ones who are new in the world of online marketing. Luckily, with a team of experienced professionals by your side, everything can be done trouble-free.
A few words about local SEO
Search engine optimization, widely known as SEO, deals with the question of website traffic. Simply speaking, SEO helps your website reach a higher position among search engine results. And, although there’s a difference between organic and local SEO, both of them will make your business more visible to your potential customers. Logically speaking, when it comes to local businesses, the main focus should be on local SEO. It works on improving the business’s visibility in a particular area, the one it encompasses.
Why NAP and user experience are crucial to local SEO
Search engines like Google, Bing, or Yandex take care of how trustworthy is the information they offer to their users. That is why they use various ways to check websites’ credibility. Therefore, since there are so many things that can ruin the site’s reputation and thus influence its ranking, website owners need to be very careful and have a good marketing strategy. Now, let’s see why NAP and user experience are so important for local SEO.
The use and importance of NAP
NAP is an abbreviation that stands for Name, Address, and Phone number. Those are the very first information a user will get about your business, among the first things you should write in your citation. Not only they serve the purpose of the presentation, but they’re also the main source of your contact information. Therefore, the least you can do is to provide precise and accurate information at this point.
It is easy to respect this rule if you are listed on only one or two websites. However, the problems begin when your business starts appearing in numerous different places. In most cases, this can be tough for business owners who don’t devote enough attention to small details. Making even a slight difference while typing your business’s name, or address, or failing to upload potential changes to every single website where you are listed, can mislead your customers. Once they come across some inconsistency in the information you provide about your business, they’ll immediately give up your services, and consider you unprofessional.
But, that’s not all. Do not forget that inconsistent NAP can have some impact on your ranking position, as well. Search engines don’t like providing misleading information. That’s why they pay a lot of attention to the quality of what they show up among the top search results. The moment a search engine spots a mistake, your business will be considered untrustworthy and it will affect your online visibility and cause some issues for your local SEO.
The crucial role of user experience for local SEO
The user experience, shortly UX, refers to the way a user interacts with a certain product or service. Simply speaking the better experience users have with your business, the more likely you will catch their attention. A good user experience would mean:
- Users receive a good answer to their questions. This means you understand completely what is the initial problem that prompts the user to ask something. Only if you understand the search intend will you be able to give an answer in the appropriate form and with the appropriate content.
- The answer comes fast. The speed of delivery is what matters a lot nowadays. Researches have found that users are not willing to wait for more than a few seconds to get the search results. That’s why you need to make sure your page loading time is as short as possible. There are various practices and tools that can help you meet these standards. Make sure you employ them all since the speed of your answer influences the user experience a lot.
- That the site is easy to use. No one wants to waste time with some complicated pages. So, in order to improve the user experience, you need to create a well-structured page, with a clear navigating system. Also, make sure to provide good readability by using lists and by avoiding walls of text.
Nowadays UX became an extremely important factor that may influence ranking position. Engines tend to give the users exactly what they want. Therefore, everything that a user considers too complicated, useless or confusing, won’t appear among search results, and that affects local SEO.
Looking into the future
Making it clear why NAP and user experience are crucial to local SEO, is the first step forward in creating a strong basis for your local business. Everyone who fails to understand the importance of these factors fails to give a positive and professional online impression to the customers. So, don’t neglect it just because you don’t care about online marketing. A digital area came, and we just need to adapt.
