Want to get more customers from your website? Here are a few easy steps to take to take to your web designer make your website more visible to people who search for you on Google.
1. Website – NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) and City
- You’ll want to make sure your NAP is prominently placed on your website. At the top right in a large font is ideal.
- You’ll also want to make sure you use schema.org markup to make your NAP visible to search engines. Here’s the code for your web developer to add to your website:
<div itemscope itemtype=”http://schema.org/LocalBusiness”> <p itemprop=”name”>COMPANY NAME</p> <p itemprop=”address” itemscope itemtype=”http://schema.org/PostalAddress”> <p itemprop=”streetAddress”>ADDRESS LINE 1</p> <p itemprop=”addressLocality”>CITY</p>, <p itemprop=”addressRegion”>REGION</p> <p itemprop=”postalCode”>POSTCODE/ZIP</p. <p itemprop=”telephone”>PHONE NUMBER</p> <meta itemprop=”latitude” content=”LATITUDE” /> <meta itemprop=”longitude” content=”LONGITUDE” /> </div>
You want to fill in all the items in bold. This lets search engines automatically associate all of your information with your business in their search listings.
- On the front page of your website, have your web developer use this phrase, or phrases similar to it: [MY CITY] Auto Repair / Auto Service in the following places:
- Site Title
- H1 Tag
- Page URL
- Page content
2. Claim your Google My Business listing
(https://www.google.com/business/)
This allows Google to show visitors pictures of your shop, your hours, and various details about your business. It looks like this:
Some of the details to include are:
- Business description – highlight your unique strengths
- Address
- Phone number
- Hours of business
- Your business category
Google uses all of this information to help people find you on Google Maps, call you on mobile, etc.
3. Local Reviews
The more positive reviews you have, the better you will look to Google and web searchers.
- Have a sign in your shop asking people to review you on Google and Yelp.
- Add a page on your website that shows your visitors exactly how to review your site on Yelp and Google. Google uses these ratings when people search for you.
4. Mobile-friendly website
Half of your customers are finding your business on their smart phone.
I’ll repeat that:
Half of your customers are finding your business on their smart phone.
Make sure you have a mobile friendly site, also called a “responsive” site.
5. Links from local blogs
- Do a search for blogs and directories about your hometown, search for terms like “[MY CITY] business directory”, “[MY CITY] blog”, “[MY CITY] events”
- Write emails to these people and ask if they can link to your website, or better yet, get them to do a story about something that makes your shop special. The more links, the more customers to your site.
