Local SEO Singapore – Google Map Ranking

Another piece of content on SEO is like a drop of water in the ocean. It doesn’t make a difference at all. So which SEO method works these days?

At Novatise, we don’t believe in adding content for the sake of writing it. Right here today we have an SEO strategy for Singapore that is underrated and not spoken about often.

It’s Local SEO Singapore – Google Map Ranking

A brief prelude

Google, up to this point have been feverishly focused on organic listings. They’ve pushed update after update to push the best content for a particular search query. But there’s one aspect, they have missed out on.

The world is infinitely different with people from different cultures and languages and races. Showing the same search results for two people from different parts of the world does not make sense.

In a push to change this, they started focusing on Google localisation. This meant users from a particular region would get search results that are more tweaked to that particular region.

So if you searched for a service, you would see results with businesses, not from your location (This still happens). But at the same time, they showcase a map with all the possible businesses that cater to the needs that are close to you.

So the first result anybody sees is a map with all the local businesses.

Current scenario

Businesses were under the impression that, they couldn’t do anything in terms of SEO to improve their SEO rankings. This is a false assumption and has led to many businesses miss the bus on this.

But it’s not too late because it’s still early days of local SEO and everybody has a fair shot at the top prize.

Importance of Local SEO in Singapore

Singapore is an even more important market for local SEO because of one simple reason. Everything is really expensive here. That includes advertising as well. Google Advertising and Facebook Advertising charge exorbitant rates to display your ads to the public. When you take advertising out, you are left with organic search results like local SEO.

What kind of businesses should do Local SEO – Google Map Ranking?

Every business under the sun.

If you have a registered location, then you should push your local SEO listing. Even if you are a service like a wedding photographer, you should try to rank on local SEO because many clients are looking for professionals close to them. Somebody who can meet them personally and give them a little pitch.

Boosting Local SEO

Just like any SEO effort, there is a process for local SEO. We’ll get to them briefly in this article.

1.Name, Address, Phone Number

If local SEO had a bible, it would read Name, Address, and Phone number. Wherever you mention your business, you need to mention your Name, Address, and Phone Number. This includes the website, you’re My Business Page, on directories and elsewhere.

Make sure the information is consistent across all channels and take every opportunity to mention your NAP online.

2. Google My Business Page

First and foremost, get your own My Business Page on Google. What is this?

https://www.google.com/business/

Google let’s each and every business verify their own identity on their search engine. They do this to make sure there are no inauthentic results.

Once you start the process of verification, they send you a letter with a unique code on it to your registered office address. When you register this code, your My Business page is made.

There is a caveat to this. From the moment your my business page is live, people will be able to review you on Google. You have no control over the reviews. So if your business is having customer service issues, then you need to address them before the reviews go out of hand.

3. Listing on directories

The next effort you can take to boost local SEO is listing on directories. There are ample online business directories where people search in.

These directories sometimes are industry-specific or generic and some are paid listings.

A few examples of directories are Singapore Yellow Pages, SME Toolkit Singapore, inSing, Times directories.

Here is a list of Top 10 Singapore Local Citation List

4. Your online reputation

Google always want to give their best to the customers. This means the businesses with the best reputation are propelled on top of search results.

But how does one get a good reputation?

The answer – reviews. Reviews are the lifeline of the internet. They separate the great from the good and the good from the poor. People rely on each other’s reviews to come to a decision.

Reviews are not present only on Google but on other platforms like Tripadvisor, HungryGoWhere and other specific websites based on each niche.

People love to read reviews before they make the point to contact you or make the purchases outright.

Google’s algorithms look through all these websites and gather base data on the reputation of a company. They prop up a company that has decent ratings on other platforms because it guarantees it’ll be consistent on Google reviews as well.

5. The Basic GMB Optimisation

One of the other factors that boost local SEO is the basics. Titles and descriptions still play a very important role. Business services add to the readability of the content that improves CTR’s and the title has the keyword that you want to rank for.

6. Technical SEO – Local Schema Markup

The local schema is a set of code or structured data, that lets search engines understand your NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) data better. The best part about Local Schema Markup is a lot of businesses don’t do it. If you do it, your rankings will go higher.

The annoying part about it is, it requires some technical/coding knowledge to implement.

Google Map Ranking is not as simple as it seemed

Local SEO isn’t rocket science. It requires consistent effort, great customer support and constant reviews along with good old SEO chops to rank high. Local SEO is still picking up in Singapore and it’s the perfect opportunity to push your efforts in this direction as it is neglected by a lot of businesses.

If you are centrally located, in an area with a large population, then local SEO can literally turn your business from hundreds of thousands worth to millions, just with the sheer power of Google search.

If you are keen to explore our proprietary ways to help you to rank up on Google Map Listing, give a shoutout HERE.

Check out Novatise Local SEO(Aka Google Map) Services.