By increasing your local SEO, you will rank higher, bring in more customers, and get more visits, calls, and sales.

In order to do this, we will be using two platforms – Moz and Google My Business. We have spoken about the Google My Business platform on past Momentum Monday blogs. Chances are if you are looking for specific information regarding GMB, we have a blog about it!

The next platform we will be using is called Moz. This platform makes it easy for small business owners to send out the same information about their business across the internet to create relevance.

Are you ready to optimize your local SEO? Let’s go!

Read more to learn about what Moz is, how to optimize your Google My Business listing, and how to take advantage of Moz’s local SEO tools to rank higher locally.

 What is Moz?

Moz is SEO software. Rand Fishkin created the platform in 2008.

Moz is a great tool that can help your business with things such as site audits, keyword rank tracking, backlink analysis, keyword research, and more.

This platform isn’t just helpful for improving SEO on the local level, it can also help your business’ SEO nationally as well.

Moz’s local software is syndication software. This means that Moz will push your business’ information across the internet, to Google and other search engines, so that those platforms know more about your business.

This allows your business to easily update business information solely on the Moz platform. Moz will then blast the information out for you across the internet. This cuts down your time and allows you to manage all of your business information in one, simple spot.

So, the Moz local SEO process functions like this:

This not only legitimizes your business in the eyes of the internet, but it ensures that no matter where people are searching for your business, that they are receiving updated and correct information.

Some of our favorite Moz Local functions include:

• Location Data Management syncs all of your location data through Moz
• Automated Duplicate Deletion identifies any duplicate content, confirms that the information is correct, and deletes any duplicate content or listings
• The Review Management feature helps you stay up-to-date with what your customers are saying about your business

Location pages through Moz will allow you to easily create individual landing pages for each of your locations

Create a Moz Account

To create a Moz account, go to Moz.com

Once on the page, navigate to the top toolbar and select “Moz Local.”

Side note: if you are using any other SEO tools, let us know which ones! We love discovering new SEO tips, tricks, and tools.

If there is a specific tool you would like to learn more about – leave that in the comments below as well so that we can write a blog about it!

Next, you will want to sign in to your Google My Business account at business.google.com

If you don’t have a Google My Business account, read our step by step tutorial on how to create a Google My Business account.

Optimizing Your Google My Business Account

The first thing you want to do to optimize your account is to add basic information about your business. This information includes the business’ website, phone number, the hours of operation, etc.

This information is also known as local information. In order to begin working on local SEO, determining your local information is important.

As you go through the complete fields in your Google My Business account, we recommend saving the information in a document so that you can easily use it later.

Once complete, you can move on to auditing your local SEO.

Navigate back to the Moz platform to begin auditing your business’ local SEO.

To begin your local SEO Audit, simply click here.

Once on the Local SEO Audit page, fill out the country, company name, street and number, and ZIP/Postcode boxes with your company’s information.

Insert your information and select the yellow “Check Now” button to get your Local SEO score.

To calculate your score, Moz will check your business’ information against the information that popular search engines/directories have for your business.

Moz will compile your business’ Local SEO score. Your business will receive an online presence score.

This score consists of 3 major areas:

• Missing – this is content that is missing regarding your business
• Incorrect – this portion is the percentage of incorrect information about your business across the internet
• Correct – this speaks for itself. This percentage is how correct the online presence of your business is

To learn more about Moz’s ranking factors, check this out.

The Results also show you the listings where your business is appearing and pulls the actual business information from those listings. It will also check that your business has business hours and photos posted on each of the listings.

It is always good to cross-examine your results with the actual search directories. Moz is good – but there is always room for small errors.

Once this is determined, Moz’s goal is to help you improve your business’ online presence by increasing your local SEO.

Choosing to improve your business’ local SEO with Moz Local is optional, of course. For the sake of this tutorial, we will be opting into improving with Moz Local.

This means that you will give Moz permission to send your information out across the internet to all online syndicated directories. It does cost a fee, but, sometimes, as a small business owner, you have to weigh the cost of the service vs. the cost of your time.

After clicking the “Improve with Moz Local” button, you will be redirected to a page with all of their pricing options. Pick the best option for your small business’ budget.

Review each package’s perks carefully (you can even compare the packages here). If you are solely looking to optimize for Local SEO, the only feature that you will need is the “Directory Management.”

The Moz Local – Listing Plus package best suits our business, so that is the one we will be going with.

Between us, you will really only need to do this once, so we suggest to pay upfront for the year and then reconsidering before repurchasing.

Once your payment is submitted, you will be able to insert your business’ information. For this, you will want to make sure that the information is exactly the same as it is on your Google My Business listing – down to the periods, spaces, commas, etc.

In Moz, you will also be able to determine your business’ business category. You are only able to choose up to 5 categories – so choose wisely.

Once this information is inserted, submit it for Moz to create your account.

After the account is created and the page reloads, Moz will pull information from the internet for you to confirm about your business. Go down the list – that includes information like Website, Email, Operating Hours – to confirm that all of the information is correct.

Once you fill out the basic information, you are good to go. However, there is the option to insert additional information in order to boost the quality of your listing. You can update this information and it will be syndicated across the internet.

Connecting Your Google Account 

The first additional thing you will be able to do is to connect your Google My Business account to Moz.

You can do this by clicking on the blue “Connect Google” button on the pop-up window.

To connect the accounts, simply sign into the Google Account that you are using to manage your Google My Business listing.

On your Moz dashboard, you will see a “Profile Completeness” score. If you are fully optimizing your business’ listing, you will want this number to be as close to 100% as possible.

Once your payment is submitted, you will be able to insert your business’ information. For this, you will want to make sure that the information is exactly the same as it is on your Google My Business listing – down to the periods, spaces, commas, etc.

In Moz, you will also be able to determine your business’ business category. You are only able to choose up to 5 categories – so choose wisely.

Once this information is inserted, submit it for Moz to create your account.

After the account is created and the page reloads, Moz will pull information from the internet for you to confirm about your business. Go down the list – that includes information like Website, Email, Operating Hours – to confirm that all of the information is correct.

Once you fill out the basic information, you are good to go. However, there is the option to insert additional information in order to boost the quality of your listing. You can update this information and it will be syndicated across the internet.

Connecting Your Google Account 

The first additional thing you will be able to do is to connect your Google My Business account to Moz.

You can do this by clicking on the blue “Connect Google” button on the pop-up window.

To connect the accounts, simply sign into the Google Account that you are using to manage your Google My Business listing.

On your Moz dashboard, you will see a “Profile Completeness” score. If you are fully optimizing your business’ listing, you will want this number to be as close to 100% as possible.

Adding Additional Business Information

To view your Moz profile, select the word “Profile” from the top toolbar.

Scroll down on your profile page until you see the category “Keywords.” Here, insert keywords, or words you believe that people would search for in order to find your business.

By inserting these keywords, you let Moz, and the rest of the internet, know that those keywords are important and related to your business. In this section, you can only add 10 keywords or key phrases, so make sure you are choosing the most relevant ones.

Next, there is a “Short Description” section. In this section, describe your business in 200 characters or less. It would be wise (and make your life easier) to use the same business description that you did for your Google My Business listing.

After, there is an opportunity to insert a “Long Description.” This section allows up to 1,000 characters.

Lastly, there is an option to insert an “Imprint.” Imprints are only required for German and Austrian businesses, so if your business is not located there, you can ignore this option.

You can scroll back up to the top of the information page to locate a toolbar with the additional profile options – Rich Data, Photos & Videos, and Suggestions.”

Navigate to “Photos and Videos” to upload media to your business listing. You can choose to upload a new logo, a square logo, or additional photos.

View “Suggestions” to see what other suggestions Moz has to optimize your listing.

To save your changes and automatically sync it with your other business listings across the internet, scroll back up to the top of your profile page and select the gray “Sync Now” button in the upper right-hand corner.

Navigating Moz’s Directories

Once you save your profile information, navigate over to “Directories” located beside “Profile” in the top toolbar.

Here, you will see a dashboard of different directories Moz can send your business’ information too.

Profile Completeness 

Once you have reviewed the directories for your business’ listing, navigate back to your dashboard to check on your Moz profile’s completeness.

Tend to any outstanding notifications and try to complete as much of your Moz business profile as possible.

Once your profile is where you would like it to be, save your information to update it across the internet!

Just like that – your local information has been updated across the internet! This will help you increase your local SEO and rank higher in search results.

We recommend going back into your Moz profile periodically to check on the information and update anything that may be outdated.