Local SEO / Google Mybusiness

In Local SEO, you use your Google MyBusiness profile together with structured data to optimize local visibility in Google search. In many sites I audit, this is really a big quick fix for your SEO! If you have a Joomla website that targets a local audience, like a shoe shop in your hometown, you have an excellent way of using your location as a niche to target your SEO. There is no need at all to rank nr. 1 worldwide for the keyword combination shoe shop. Your site will simply become lost within the big online shoe retailers who spend millions on promoting their sites. Using the location of your shop, you should focus on targeting local results, optimizing the keyword combination shoe shop your-town, which is much easier to target. Your rankings for the keyword combination shoe shop will probably go up as well, for users that are located near to your shop.

You can optimize for local results by using your city on strategic places in your site, just like for "normal" keywords. So use your town in your page title, headings, alt-image text, etc (without stuffing of course). It may not only make you rank better in the web-search results but also on the Google Maps listings. Definitely make sure to optimize your contact page!

So first, you should make sure to focus on your on-page SEO, which is fully under your own control: include your location(s) as one of the main keywords to target. But there is more you can do,

Use structured data for your location

Especially here, the use of structured data can be very efficient. Search engines love them because they can understand the data so easily. An idea could be to repeat your location on every page in a footer region, including microdata. You could do so using a custom HTML module, using the following piece of code as a template:

<div >
   <span itemprop="name">Your business here</span><br>
   <span itemprop="streetAddress">Your address here</span><br>
   <span itemprop="addressLocality">Your city here</span>,
   <span itemprop="addressRegion">Your State here</span>
   <span itemprop="postalCode">Your postal code here</span><br>
   <span itemprop="addressCountry">Your country here</span>
</div>

Currently, Google prefers JSON-format structured data (in the <head>-section of your HTML. You can easily generate the code with microdatagenerator.org. But there is also a nice Joomla extension to add your address in JSON format: Google Structured data Markup by Tassos. Then, you get something like this:

<script type="application/ld+json">
    {
      "@context": "https://schema.org",
      "@type": "Restaurant",
      "image": [
        "https://example.com/photos/1x1/photo.jpg",
        "https://example.com/photos/4x3/photo.jpg",
        "https://example.com/photos/16x9/photo.jpg"
       ],
      "name": "Dave's Steak House",
      "address": {
        "@type": "PostalAddress",
        "streetAddress": "148 W 62nd St",
        "addressLocality": "New York",
        "addressRegion": "NY",
        "postalCode": "10019",
        "addressCountry": "US"
      },
      "review": {
        "@type": "Review",
        "reviewRating": {
          "@type": "Rating",
          "ratingValue": "4",
          "bestRating": "5"
        },
        "author": {
          "@type": "Person",
          "name": "John Doe"
        }
      },
      "geo": {
        "@type": "GeoCoordinates",
        "latitude": 40.761234,
        "longitude": -73.91234
      },
      "url": "https://www.example.com",
      "telephone": "+12122459600",
      "servesCuisine": "American",
      "priceRange": "$$",
      "openingHoursSpecification": [
        {
          "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
          "dayOfWeek": "Saturday",
          "opens": "16:00",
          "closes": "23:00"
        }
      ],
      "menu": "https://www.example.com/menu",
      "acceptsReservations": "True"
    }
    </script>

Google My Business

Registering your site with Google Business is the next step (a must!) to put your site higher up in the rankings for your local shoe shop. It does require you to have a physical address of course. You then have a great chance of showing up on a result page with a marker on a Google Maps image, like this example for iPhone stores in New York:

The top-3 map results are often shown on top of the other organic rankings. They are also listed independently from the organic results, meaning you can have a map ranking PLUS an organic ranking! But as the map ranking is so prominent, it is really the target you should be aiming for.

So, you can register your shop at google.com/business. You can further enhance your Google Business account listing with additional data like opening hours, your logo, etc. Make sure the data in Google Business and your site match (phone number, address, etc). Also, make sure not to create duplicate listings. When your business moves, update your existing listing, do not create a new one. Note that in order to keep your listing active, Google advises you to sign in at least every 6 months.

By the way, Bing Places is also available in many countries, and this could be a nice addition: www.bingplaces.com.

Other means for local promotion

For local SEO there are quite a few opportunities that you can easily use to promote your site. While usually link building can be very hard work, there are many resources specific for business listings that you can quite easily register for, giving you a link. Sometimes this is a nofollow link, but mostly a real do-follow link. If you search the web for business directory, either globally or restricted to your country, you will usually find many.

The best known one is often the Yellow Pages site. You will have to pay for this one, but there are also many that offer free listings, or a basic listing. These listings are often referred to as citations. Just a few to get you started (mind that some of these are only US based):

Bing Places
Yellow Pages
Yelp.com
Local.com
Hotfrog.com
Superpages.com
Mapquest.com
Angies list
Manta.com
Foursquare.com
And many, many more, see this list on the www.whitespark.ca site (recommended, also per country!)

If you prefer not to maintain these listings manually, you could sign up with the people from Moz.com. They provide the Moz Local service, which automatically sets up some of these services for you for a yearly fee.

Next to these general listings, you can also look for business-specific services. An example for hotels and restaurants is Tripadvisor, but there are many more for other specific businesses.

Consistent NAP Details

If you have registered on multiple of the above-mentioned services, make sure to create them with consistent NAP Details, consistent with the details on your website. Inconsistent NAP Details devalue the use of these services. Correct them yourself, or contact the owner of the service to correct them. Correct use of NAP details can even make citations that do not even link to you assist your local SEO efforts.

Get reviews and citations

Finally, getting reviews on either your own site or the sites of the citations is crucial. They are considered one of the top factors in having a good local presence in search engines. From your business profile, you can copy a link to send to your customers so you can ask them to review your service:

Similarly, citations can also help. citations are simple mentions of your company or brand. This does not even have to be a link!