Improve Local SEO With Google Plus

Google Plus might not be the used social media platform, but it is definitely one of the most
important in your overall online marketing strategy, thanks to the business’ pages showing up in search results. Showing up for the right searches will have an impact on the overall amount of new incoming customers.

Regular Updates
Accounts that post frequently are much more likely to rank on searches than an account with few updates.
Updating a page provides users with fresh content and Google rewards that. Businesses should update their Google Plus page at least every 72 hours. The more, the merrier.

Local Phone Number
Start a connection with a potential local customer starts from displaying a local phone number.
This comes with many advantages such as increased walk-in traffic, more phone calls, and better rankings on social searches.
There is no doubt that users would rather call a business in their proximity than a business using a 1-800 number because they can’t be sure whether they business is local or not. Calling a local number feels more personal and makes conversions much more likely. The benefit of using a local phone number is amplified by the use of a local address.

Opening Hours
Make sure to indicate the proper opening hours in your Google Plus page. If you have the wrong opening hours on your page, you might not rank when you are open because you indicated your business was closed.
As a rule of thumb, the more information you add to your Google Plus page, the higher you will rank.

Reviews
Google ranks businesses with reviews higher because they provide more value to the search of a user. Posting a page without enabling reviews will hinder your chances of your Google Plus profile appearing in the right-hand column of a Google search.

Keyword Relevant Tag Line
Taglines are fundamental to helping your page rank for specific terms. This is the information displayed below your profile photo, and it plays a key role in determining whether Google considers your business relevant to a search or not.
It is a practice to perform a local keyword research and find terms that are relevant to your offer with a decent search volume. Then create a tagline which includes these words.

Make a Collection of Products and Services
Google Plus collections are created to group your posts by topic. Collections show up below the Google Plus header of the newly launched interface and therefore have a premium page location.
Businesses should use collections to break down their products or services and offer users the opportunity to find more about what they are interested in.

Hashtags That are different to Google Plus
Hashtags that are popular on Twitter might not be as good on Google Plus, and vice versa. Businesses should think about keywords when posting status updates and use a hashtag to see what keywords are suggested for a specific word. Google will suggest the most popular terms that are likely to increase the reach of the post.

Localize Keywords for more & more Businesses
Businesses with multiple locations should create one Google Plus page per location to maximize their performance on search engines. Multiple pages are extremely useful because they allow businesses to use local addresses, phone numbers, and keywords to increase the opportunity to trigger different pages in the local search results.

Conclusion
Ensuring your Google Plus page is optimized is very important. Google Plus pages are simple to optimize, just provide the most information you can and choose the most relevant keywords. These eight best practices will give you a leg up on your competitors, and better yet, they are super simple to implement.

Source:searchenginejournal

Peter Zmijewski is the founder and CEO at KeywordSpy. His expert knowledge on Internet Marketing practices and techniques has earned him the title “Internet Marketing Guru“ He is also an innovator, investor and entrepreneur widely recognized by the top players in the industry.