Local SEO should be an important component for all local businesses’ SEO strategies. People search online for local businesses and products before visiting a brick and mortar location. They are interested in other customers’ reviews and comments about your product or service. Having a well developed local SEO strategy will put a business above its competitors in local search.
What is Local SEO?
Simply, local SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is optimizing a website that can be found locally in a Google search. It focuses on optimizing the local brick-and-mortar businesses. The purpose of the optimization is to drive local traffic to your website so that new potential clients can view your products and services.
Local searches are incredibly valuable for people selling products and services that people may only buy once in their lifetime. For example, if someone needs a lawyer and do not know any, it is highly likely that they will search for “Lawyer near me.” By having an optimized local SEO plan, a user would be able to find your website.
Now that you have a simple definition of local SEO, how do you go about using it? Here are a few steps to implement when using local SEO as part of your marketing strategy.
Dominating Local SEO
Relevance of Your Business
Knowing the best keywords users are searching for in a Google search is important. The content on your website must be relevant to the query. The better your website is optimized, the more likely you are to show up towards the top of the search results page. Using Google My Business (GMB) is a great way to tell Google that you are relevant and the best option to solve the users problem. Also, take advantage of social media and be posting relevant, interesting, and engaging content consistently.
Business Proximity to Your Location
Your website and your GMB profile should make it clear that you’re a local business. On your website, make sure you include your name, address, phone number, and email address clearly. Showing Google you are local will also boost your search rankings.
Prominence of Your Business on Listings
The better your ratings, the more likely you are to be found on Google. It is a popularity contest so make sure you keep your ratings high by getting good reviews. Using social media to engage and interact with your customers is a great way to build awareness and trust.
Mastering SEO
Considering local SEO, Every business should know good SEO best practices and mastering SEO doesn’t happen overnight. Here are some tips to keep in mind.
Clear-cut a specified topic
Specificity is a key factor in mastering SEO. Your topic should be clear and your website should reflect what you’re about.
Pick the purpose keywords
Once you have a specific topic, you can move on to coming up with the best keywords. You want to draw users to your website. Doing keyword research using Google’s Keyword Planner, will help you know what words and phrases people are searching for. You should include keywords in your website content including your titles and meta descriptions.
Produce standard content on a compatible scale
Focus on high-quality, authentic content. Make sure your content is current and consistent. Linking your website to your social media accounts will help drive traffic to your website. Also, take advantage of link building to draw users to your website.
An attention grabbing front page and titles
The titles on your website pages must be eye-catching and include keywords. Titles should describe what’s on the webpage. Creating authoritative content will help you rank higher in Google results.
Enhance your website’s load speed
If your website is slow to load, most of the time people move on to a faster loading website and are not likely to return to yours. You can use tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights and Google’s Test My Site to check your website’s load speed. These tools provide insights on how you can enhance your website and make it faster.
Who Needs Local SEO?
Businesses can all benefit from local SEO. However, there are some businesses that may benefit more than others. Let’s take a brief look at six business types who benefit from local SEO.
- Medical services
Businesses such as doctor’s offices, dentists, and urgent care clinics can all benefit from local SEO. You’ll need to do more than just develop a stellar website for these businesses. To boost their rankings on Google, they should include informative, and well written, relevant content. Providing insight via blog posts and how-to manuals can add value to the website.
- Law offices
People looking for legal counsel are looking for the experts. Besides using relevant keywords, you want to have good reviews. As a law firm, good reviews on Google and Yelp will establish credibility and will boost your local search visibility.
- Bars and restaurants
The main goal for any restaurant is to become a necessity in a community. In order to accomplish this, you need lots of returning customers. Content is important on every website but good reviews matter more for restaurants. They can make or break local rankings for any bar or restaurant.
- Plumbers and local craftsmen
Local SEO is perfect for plumbers or anyone who helps customers with quick problem-solving. Like restaurants, good reviews are necessary. You should encourage your clients to provide feedback. This will put you ahead of your competitors in local rankings.
- Pet services
Pet services are specialized, exclusively local, and in high demand. Keywords are important for these businesses. Using keywords such as grooming, pet sitting, walking, training, or veterinarians is a good starting point. People want the best for their pets. This is another business where good reviews are essential. You should encourage reviews to boost your local search.
- Real estate
Local SEO and real estate services compliment one another. Using keywords and creating content targeting specific local markets is crucial. Your content should provide value for the user. This will increase your rankings on Google.
The Google 3-Pack
When it comes to local SEO, the Google 3-Pack is a good resource. This means that your business is appearing in the top 3 local results in a Google search. The Google 3-Pack is the best way to improve your visibility to local customers. You can optimize your website for the Google 3-Pack by:
- Setting up your Google My Business profile
- Get 5-star reviews
- Run local search ads
- Prioritize local SEO
Winning at local SEO
By following these prescribed steps, your local SEO will be off to a great start. Do not forget that local SEO is an ongoing process. Continue to executive on these practices and you will have great local success. While many businesses skip out on local SEO, yours can take over and grab the new customers!
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