If you have just set your foot across the digital marketing frontier, then you still might find Google’s term snack pack or local stacks a little absurd. A local snack pack is the top three business listings box that pops up on any local business organic search result. To be specific, if someone searches for a restaurant in Sydney, then this what should appear:
When it comes to dominating your local SEO, there is nothing more powerful than being included in the snack pack of a Google local search result. A snack pack listing gives you substantially higher leads and helps you outrank your competitors.
But getting one of the coveted three spots is harder than one might think and takes more than just having an optimised Google My Business. We see the value of local SEO for businesses, especially for those who are trying to stand out to a much larger and more competitive audience. But in most cases, local businesses are failing to capitalise on benefits of a localised digital marketing. Below are some of our observations that you could also avoid or start working on for your local SEO strategy and start dominating Google’s snack pack.
Mistake No. 1: Incorrect Category and Business Information
Google My Business is a powerhouse platform for your local business. You have ultimate control of the information you want your viewers to see and which location you want your listing to appear. But most businesses are not fully optimising the data on their page, adding incorrect categories and inconsistent business information. It is highly important that everything showing on your Google My Business is all accurate and updated. Most businesses fail to realise that everyone can suggest edits to your GMB listing, including your nearest competitor. Here at DigitalMaas, monitoring and updating our clients’ Google profile is one of our highest priorities, ensuring that only the facts show on Google My Business.
Mistake No. 2: Not Managing Google Reviews
Google reviews are the bloodline of a local business. It helps businesses establish their credibility online through the help of their customers and influence potential ones. Your reviews serve as a sneak-peek of what they can expect from you based on previous customer engagements. Not managing your reviews can be damaging to your business’ reputation. No matter if how bad it is, responding to a negative review can help your cause to maintain your reputation in tack.
Mistake No. 3: Not Prioritising Citations
A local citation massively helps your business in a lot of ways, especially if you want to jump the search engine rankings quickly. One of which is the referencing authority you get from major listing providers such, Yelp, Google Maps and Yellow Pages. But managing your local citations can be a complex ordeal, and most local businesses are misguided by how this is done. One important rule in administering your local listings is to ensure the consistency of your NAP on every directory service you sign-up to.
Mistake No. 4: Not Performing Backlink Audit
Nothing gets passed by Google’s scrutinising ranking process, especially if it is a major factor they consider. Link building remains a key component in Google’s algorithm and one that is hard to manage; that is why business owners sometimes ignore or avert altogether without realising the repercussions bad backlinks to their websites. Bad or poor backlinks are irrelevant and harmful to the search engine performance of your website. It is bad when something that you can’t control hurts your efforts, reason why we recommend a regular quality audit of all your external links.
Mistake No. 5: Lack of Social Presence
It is already a known fact that social media helps strengthen your digital marketing strategies. Neglecting this can be detrimental to your goal of being included in Google’s top selection of business listings to be featured in Snack Pack for a related search. Signals coming from your various social media channels directly impact a business organic ranking through the sharing of your web content. When your content is being consumed from these platforms, it increases your chances of being recognised by Google as an authority.
Google My Business can get you in front of your customers fast and helping you reach a more locally targeted audience. But with more businesses living up to their potential and soaring through digital marketing as well, local online marketing has become a very competitive playing field. An effective local SEO focuses on improving every vital facet of your campaign and making sure that all of your strategies are being implemented accurately to drive in reliable and consistent results.
Do you need assistance with your local SEO? DigitalMaas is always here to assist you with your digital marketing needs. Sign-up to our platform today and see how we can improve your local online marketing for your business.
