Switchfast Blog: The Future of IT
Siri and Local SEO
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 by Michelle Hartley
Siri is the convenient new voice recognition app built in to the
iPhone 4S. Whether you own one or not, as a small business owner,
it is important you learn about it now.
Siri allows iPhone users to get directions to the nearest
library, check the weather for the next 10 days, or help find an
Italian restaurant for dinner. If you are a small Italian
restaurant who is using paid search to generate new business, are
you getting the top results when Siri is searching for the keywords
you are bidding on? The short answer is probably not.
In the US, Siri is using Yelp.com's database to generate a list
of businesses nearby. This could cause problems for small
merchants. First, areas where Yelp is not widely used, its database
can be skewed and incomplete. Small businesses can also be at the
mercy of angry customers and incorrect or negative reviews.
The question now is what can small businesses do in the mean
time to make your site accessible to Siri and for mobile?
Optimize your website for mobile.
Optimizing your site for mobile browsers has been a suggestion
to businesses of all types for a while now. Smart phone users are
constantly on the go and depend on their phones to find the
information they need quickly.
If it's within your budget, add a mobile site template to your
site. Users depend on maneuverable mobile-friendly sites that make
content easier to read.
Your location and phone number should be prominent on the first
page. Additionally, if you are offering a specific special that
day, highlight it on the first page, not buried three pages in. The
most important information you would like your consumers to see
should be the easiest to access.
Establish a presence online outside of your
website.
Verifying your website on Yelp and Google Places can have a huge
impact on local SEO. It might seem obvious, but it is important
that information in local directories is identical. For example,
for a long time Switchfast's name in Google Places was "Switch
Fast". Google's local search looks at dozens of local directories.
If they are inconsistent, Google is not going to include your site
in relevant search results. Spend some time making sure local
information is correct in local directories like Citysearch,
Superpages, Yellow Pages, Local.com, and Dex. For restaurant owners, dining sites like Urban
Spoon, MenuPages, and Yelp can help you reach a wide audience.
Apple's use of Yelp places adds an additional emphasis on the
service and its database. Love it or hate it, merchants have to
deal with Yelp. They have built an extensive, accurate database of
restaurants and retailers that consumers have come to rely upon.
Maintaining the business end of Yelp will help you keep consumers
updated and show them you are involved in the space.
Until next time -
Michelle Hartley
Switchfast Technologies
Chicago IT Support &
Consulting
DC IT Support &
Consulting
Outsourced Marketing Services
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