There has been a lot of chatter in the search engine optimisation community over the last week over Google’s “Pigeon” update. I have put the word pigeon in inverted commas because as of the time of writing Google have not given a name to the update.
A number of sources have chosen pigeon because it starts with a “P”, just like the previous Panda and Penguin updates and because pigeons are good at direction finding. This latest update to Google’s algorithm is connected to improving local search results. The results that are primarily affected are those for Google Maps and also Google Web Search results.
At this stage it has only been applied to queries in the US but it will undoubtedly be rolled out in the UK in the coming weeks or months and so I thought this would be a prudent time to talk a little about local search. Here are four tips to help you reach the top of Google for local searches. These tips sort of build on each other, so do read through to the end of article.
Include Your Address on Your Website
This one might seem obvious but you would be surprised how many websites do not include a postal address for the organisation that they represent. By having an address in the header, footer or contact page you send a signal to Google about where you are based. Google are pretty good at figuring out for themselves which is your contact page, so that helps them to deduce the geographical location of your business. Content in headers and footers tends to be repeated on every page, so if the same address is repeated time and time again then search engines can figure out that the address is where you are based.
Include a Local Telephone Number
Having a 0800 or 0845 telephone number can be great from a customer service viewpoint but they do not give any indication as to where in the country you are based. If you do have either a 0800 or 0845 number then I would recommend having them in your header and contact page but put your actual telephone number in the footer. Google is fully aware of the various dialling codes that are used around the world and they can then use this to help identify your location.
Use Schema.org Structured Markup
Now we get to the really juicy stuff the Schema.org website is a great resource for learning about structured data. You may have a website that includes a page that lists the 200 branches that you have nationwide. How would a search engines decide which is your head office? The answer is with structured data. In the same way that you can HTML tags to denote whether a page element is, say, an image or a paragraph you can also add tags that explain to search engines what the data actually is.
Let me use TPW as an example. Our contact details are:
TPW Design Consultants
Suite 305
India Mill Centre
Bolton Road
Darwen
Lancashire
BB3 1AE
01254 777111
By using structured data we can tell search engines which is the company name, which our address and which our telephone number like this:
TPW Design Consultants
<div class=”site-address”>
Suite 305 India Mill, Bolton Road
Darwen
Lancashire
BB3 1AE
</div>
01254 777111
From the extra markup search engines can clearly identify the company name, address and telephone number. There are schemas for all sorts of data entities and you might want to use such as people, events, businesses etc. so explore the schema.org website and find what is best for your business.
Register With Google My Business
Google My Business is a free service from Google that allows you to register your business with Google Maps. It also means that when relevant search queries are made in your area then your business is one of those featured on a map on a Search Engine Results Page (SERP). It allows you to add details such as your address, telephone number, opening times and reviews. Being on Google maps can be a great way to boost your rankings if you are not already on the first page of results for your search terms. The listings are labelled alphabetically according to a number of factors that include the proximity to the geographic location of the area being searched and the number and quality of reviews. Below is a screenshot for the search term “coffee shop Blackburn”:
I hope that you have found these tips informative and that they will help you to improve your own organisations search rankings.