Stamping your authority

Whether it is your domain or your location, for effective SEO, authority with both is vital to ensure your business appears as high up on Google’s and Google Maps search results as possible. Location authority is what Google Maps looks for when choosing which businesses to display to the searcher. The higher your location authority, the more preference Google will show to your business.


What is location authority?

When undertaking local SEO you understand the importance of location to your target customers. If they are looking for a certain good or service in a particular area, town or suburb, then local SEO can get you noticed. Google wants to make sure that they are sending their searchers to the right place and a business with high location authority in a particular area will signal to Google Maps’ algorithms that this is a good search result and your business will see an increase in digital or physical traffic.

The difference between domain and location authority

In many ways location authority is very similar to domain authority; domain authority will see you move up Google’s standard search results, whilst location authority is all about Google Maps. With mobile technology becoming a necessity in our modern lives, and 77% of smartphone users making use of a navigation app and 67% of those users choosing Google Maps, location authority is the emerging power authority.

You want to ensure that your business is in the “map pack”, the MVP of Google Maps’ search results. Google Maps will show a user the top 3 results for their search and that is where you want to be. The number of Google Maps users is increasing, the number of searches is increasing and there are only 3 main spots up for grabs, you need to make sure you are in that top 3. The higher your authority, the higher your chance but also the radius where your business will show up in results will also increase. This will increase your exposure and hopefully drive sales.


Boosting your location authority

Now you know you need location authority, let’s look at how we can increase our location authority.

  1. Fully utilise what Google offers you – find, claim, categorise, complete fully, and maintain your Google My Business page. This is crucial as this is what Google is telling us that they want to see, and they will show preference to those businesses who have completed this. This includes adding your location address, opening hours, what services you offer and what goods you sell, and much more.
  2.  Ensure your website is compatible – this can be done in a number of ways: ensure your site is fully mobile responsive, that your contact page has Google Maps embedded, you have local telephone numbers rather than generic or tracked numbers. If you have multiple sites across the country make sure that you have a landing page for each of the sites and that each page has local keyword rich content.
  3. Reviews – although the thought of a negative review can be daunting especially for a small business, it is increasingly important to increase your number of Google reviews. According to a study in the US, 87% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses in 2020! Google knows that people trust reviews and they want to send users to places that their users will enjoy as the association with Google and a good service/good is how Google has maintained its dominance in the search engine market.

This is enough to get you started but if you really want to see those conversions skyrocket, the Sierra Six team is here to assist.

Contact our team of SEO Experts for more info.