Almost 50% of shoppers start on Google.com. If your store is not ranking well there, you're going to lose business. Shop Local offers a suite of free tools to members to help them increase their ranking.

While many steps can increase a business' Google ranking, we suggest that a store concentrate on the steps below. The steps below are free and easy to perform using your Shop Local Store.

1. How does Google work?

The honest answer is: no one knows how Google's algorithm exactly works. Google keeps that secret to prevent businesses from ‘gaming the system.' We do know what general ingredients impact your placement. These include: what's on your web page, the number of links leading back to your page from outside sites, reviews, social media, what actions a visitor takes (e.g. do they click a lot, leave immediately, etc.), and how unique your content is vs. other sites.

2. Measurement: Google Analytics

You will need to measure your traffic and what shoppers do once they arrive. Google's Analytics service is a leading choice to measure this. You can add the Google Analytics tracking code for free to your site. Please visit Google Analytics to get your unique tracking code.

3. Increase Your Ranking

We know what Google looks at in general to rank your site, and we know how to track it in Analytics. Now, let's get to work. There are two main areas in which we can group the needed steps: increasing content and increasing traffic.

A. Increase Your Content.
More content helps meet a few of Google's guidelines. To increase content, follow these steps:

1. Add your top 10 keywords to your site.
2. Add all of your brands to your website.
3. Add fuller product descriptions.
4. Collect and output more reviews on your site.
5. Add more news and events.
6. Add more products. To accomplish this, you may choose to use Shop Local's Product Syncing service.

B. Increase Your Traffic.

1. Increase the number of links pointing at your site. Ask brands that you sell to point back to your site. Your Shop Local account has built-in tools to expedite these requests.
2. Increase backlinks ~ part II. Gift registries are great for increasing backlinks. Registries are a triple bonus: they produce traffic, content, and reviews.
3. Encourage reviews. Get people to visit your site and share their experiences. Reviews are a double bonus: they produce traffic and content.
4. Motivate shoppers to complete abandoned carts.
5. Setup domain masking for your site. This makes your content more unique and adds SSL to it. Google gives value to both of these factors.

4. SEO Case Study: Shop Local Retailers Beat Big Box Stores in Google

Using Shop Local's features and tools, Shop Local retailers rank highly in Google.

Bridge studied how Shop Local retailers rank compared to big box stores. Shop Local retailers ranked above Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Dillard's in Google's results when searching for gift registries by state.

Bridge conducted this study by using Google 'Incognito Mode' to search for:

• South Carolina Gift Registry
• Alabama Gift Registry
• Georgia Gift Registry

Bridge stores compared to big box stores when searching for registries by state. Bridge's stores are highlighted in green, Target in orange, Dillard's in purple, and Bed Bath & Beyond in pink.

5. Your Physical Store, Your Online Store, and Google

To understand Google and SEO, a helpful process is comparing your physical store to your online store.