Shop Local! It has become a rallying cry for independent businesses around the world. In the age of Google, people don’t simply stroll on down to Main Street when they want to make a purchase. No one opens the local yellow pages anymore. They open a search engine on their phone and it might take them far, far away from Main Street.

The good news? Four out of five people use search engines to find local information. Searches for ‘near me’ or ‘close by’ increased more than 900% in a two-year period.

You’ve probably conducted this kind of search yourself when looking to buy soccer cleats or hire an electrician ‘near me’. And if you’re like most people — 92% of shoppers to be exact — you choose a business from the first page of results that Google provides.

Page one of a Google search — this is the new marketing goal of any business, including yours.

How do you appear at the top of the page for every relevant search? In other words, how do you improve your local Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? At Ercule, we spend every day helping businesses do exactly that. Read on.

Almost every business wants to rank first in Google for their product niche – not only is it satisfying to win the Google ranking game, but it’s also often the path to greater revenue.

That ranking game, for many of our clients, feels mysterious and daunting. Many of them have been playing the game based on gut instinct and guesswork for a long time, and are exhausted.

Among frustrated business owners whose search status seems to stagnate, we’ve noticed some common mistakes. Here are some major ones, along with solutions that you can implement with your team.