If you are a business that offers courses (or services) to locals, you probably want to be showing at the top of results in Google searches. And if you don’t want to be top-ranking, you are in the wrong place. With better local SEO, you are more likely to show up for people who are searching for what you offer. Additionally, you will receive more click-throughs and appear more legitimate than those near the bottom.

For example, if a person searches for “best motor vehicle training in Asheville,” local SEO will show the pages that contain these keywords first, with locations and ratings. Avoid these easy-to-make mistakes so your business can make its way to the top of results:

1. Overuse of Keywords

When choosing your keywords, be specific in those you choose for content and categories on Google. When people search Google, they are usually looking for something in particular. Using the motor vehicle example mentioned above, notice that Asheville is included which will lead to specialized results in the area. The same person searching this may also want motorcycle courses – and this hypothetical business offers them! Though the headline of your page may focus on “motor vehicles,” it is important to include “motorcycle classes” or something like within the page content as well. Doing this will lead the searcher directly to you!

Keeping these keywords in mind, you would want to title your content or use keywords in a genuine way. Before writing or titling, imagine how a person would type this in on Google. Using too many keywords throughout your content can actually lead to less traffic – Google sees this as a cheat. Google wants the audience to appreciate what you have to say, spending more time reading your content and clicking through other pages or links.

2. Location Discrepancies

Have you ever googled your business to see what shows for your location in multiple sites? Probably not. If you are listed on Yelp, Facebook and other online platforms, you want to streamline your location and phone number. If you have more than one location, you want to make these extremely distinct from one another. On that note, Google filters sites from the top of searches that have inconsistent location information. If your West Asheville Motor Vehicle place is one of three, with two others in the East and North, their location pages should all be completely separate with various information on them including hours, directions and a map, a phone number, etc. Images can also be used for keyword specific geotags. Rename the image and all of its necessary information with keyword-relevant words.

3. Nonexistent or the Wrong Content

While having little content about your hypothetical vehicle/motorcylce class can hurt your local SEO, having too much or any pages with empty context is just as bad. For instance, do not copy the same paragraph that is SEO-friendly from one page and put it on another; do not have a page with only a ton of keywords or locations listed, with no context or writing. Google checks, through algorithms, for both duplicate and unique content.

Another cost-effective way to help your ranking is to ask happy customers to leave a review on sites where you are listed, including Google. Whether you do this as a promotion or simply ask for a favor is up to you; the better the reviews, the longer the free content that discusses your classes in a positive way (hopefully). Your star rating will also increase on Google, tempting inquiring consumers to click your business before anyone else’s.