Local Marketing
If your firm operates on a regional rather than national scale, local SEO is critical to your success. Instead than focusing on rankings throughout the country, local SEO focuses on showing up on search engine results pages for a particular area. This approach is based on reaching out to local consumers and prospects with your brand, goods, and services.
Increased website traffic, new prospects and conversions are all a result of improving your local SEO strategy. If you want to compete more successfully against national companies with infinite resources, utilize this targeted technique. Rather of concentrating on larger keywords and relying on brand awareness to draw in traffic, smaller businesses should concentrate on particular local-SEO must-dos.
Furthermore, a 2017 ReviewTrackers research estimates that 35% of all search traffic is local. Your company may be missing out on a considerable quantity of traffic if you don’t invest in local SEO.
To help you succeed in local SEO, here are the top 10 tips. If you’re searching for particular SEO advice for the pandemic, check out our guide, 13 SEO Strategies for SMBs During COVID-19 for more more.
1. Create a Google My Business Account
Improving the visibility of your Google listing (also known as your Business Profile) is one of the best ways to rank higher in local search results and appear more prominently on Google Maps. You’ll need a Google My Business account linked to your Business Profile in order to perform these adjustments. Your Business Profile displays in Google Search local results, the Google Search Knowledge Panel, and Google Maps after you fill out all of the required information on your Google My Business dashboard.
In order to improve your Google My Business profile, make sure you:
Create a Google My Business account and verify ownership of the business
Provide accurate and up-to-date information
Include your logo, business hours, payment methods accepted, and the products or services you provide, as well as lots of photographs in your advertisement.
Persuade your clients to leave reviews for your company on the web.
React honestly to feedback from customers.
Use the Google My Business dashboard to publish posts (announcing new items, upcoming events, and special deals) to your Business Profile.
2. Get Regular Reviews from Happy Customers
The more positive reviews your company receives, the more likely it is to appear in local search results and attract new consumers. Customers trust online reviews as highly as personal recommendations, according to BrightLocal’s 2017 Local Consumer Review Survey.
Here are a few ideas to get people to write reviews on your products:
After a deal is completed, request a personal evaluation in person.
An email or text following the purchase should urge consumers to provide feedback (but only after you’ve vetted them through an internal poll to guarantee that you’re reaching pleased customers)
Reviewers should be thanked and grievances should be addressed in unfavorable reviews by responding to them professionally.
Notably, Google allows businesses to solicit consumer evaluations, but Yelp forbids it.
3. Optimize for Voice Search
In the future years, voice search will increase dramatically. Since individuals ask questions when they talk into gadgets rather than when they write them out, it’s critical to optimize for that in local SEO.
When doing voice searches, consumers are more likely to employ long-tail terms. The SEO of your content will also need to be adjusted to match the more conversational style of someone speaking as a result of this fact. Take the typical question starters, for example (who, what, when, where, why and how).
When optimizing for voice, don’t forget to take the user’s purpose into account, since these searches are almost often conducted because the user is looking for a certain piece of information. When someone is baking and asks Alexa to convert teaspoons to cups, they want an immediate and helpful response. Customers that use voice search to find out when your company is open should be able to get this information easily.
4. Create Content Based on Local News Stories or Events
If you want to get your local clients’ attention, nothing beats writing content that addresses a local problem directly.
The following are a few ideas for approaches:
Creating blog entries based on current events, local news, and activities
Creating films to raise awareness of your company’s support for local organizations or issues
If you provide services in multiple sections of a region, you should set up location-specific web pages on your website with relevant local information.
Assume you own a small real estate firm in your neighborhood. Local news events and developments in the local real estate market may be featured on specific pages created for each of your areas. Using this method, you may be able to climb the search engine results for certain locations.
5. Optimize Your Website for Mobile
An analysis of 2017 mobile vs. desktop trends by Stone Temple Research shows that the move to mobile is happening at a quicker rate than projected in 2018. Mobile website visits increased from 57% in 2016 to 63% in 2017, while desktop website visits decreased from 43% in 2016 to 37% in 2017.
Another Acquisio research from 2017 found that local search traffic may be very profitable, with a staggering 75% of all mobile searches that show local intent actually delivering in-store, offline visits within 24 hours.
This shows that if you want to compete in local SEO, you must have a mobile-friendly website (and, really, for good SEO period).
Here are a few pointers to help you get there:
Make certain that your website is fast to load (no more than three seconds)
Make typefaces larger so they’re easier to read.
Only include graphics and material that are absolutely necessary to deliver your message (there is no place for extraneous information on a mobile screen!)
A great user experience begins with a simple and intuitive user interface (UI).
6. Hone in on Local Keywords
Keywords that are relevant to clients in your area should be included in your content. Isn’t it the only logical conclusion?
Using Google’s Keyword Planner, you can find out what search phrases people are using in a certain area by filtering keyword searches by location. So you may develop a list of keywords that are relevant to your area. Your keywords should show in your site’s meta text, copy, and URLs once you have them.
Be sure to include references in your material of local landmarks and tourist sites as well. Use phrases like “dining near the Space Needle” or “only steps from the Space Needle” on your site if your business offers supper in downtown Seattle.
7. Use Location Pages or a Location-Specific “About Us” Page
If your company has many locations, you must have location pages on your website. The following information must be included on these pages a bare minimum:
Hours of operation at the store
Please include your full name, address, and contact information.
Descriptions tailored to the individual
Testimonials
Promotions
There’s no shortage of spots to be had.
Each location’s page has a link to Google Maps.
If your business has many locations, you must ensure that each page has its own distinct set of information.
If your business just has one location, it’s critical to have a “About Us” page with information specific to that location. Use your “About Us” page as an opportunity to talk about how your florist business supplies flowers for local parades, for example.
8. Take Advantage of Online Business Directories
A few examples of online business directories include Yelp, Foursquare, MapQuest, and YellowPages. There are a slew of others as well.
Ensuring that people can easily find your company is important for exposure, but it may also improve your local SEO rankings.
The following fundamentals should be included in your business listing:
Complete and accurate information about your company in all online directories.
Having your website linked to
Describe your company in detail
9. Focus on Link Signals (Get High-Quality Backlinks)
According to Moz’s 2017 Local Search Ranking Factors study, both local pack (or snack pack) results and localized organic results significantly depend on link signals. Link signals are backlinks pointing to your site.
You’ll need links to increase your local SEO, but the quality of those links is just as important.
Obtaining high-quality backlinks might be difficult, so here are some suggestions:
Make sure the content on your website is of the highest quality possible to entice visitors to stay connected.
Be bold and submit a guest post to a well-known, reputable website.
Get in touch with local influencers through social media or email to help market your company and boost traffic to your website.
10. Create a Dedicated Webpage for Each Product/Service You Offer
Despite the fact that it may be tempting to group all of your offerings on a single page, avoid the urge. Instead, create individual pages for each product or service you provide.
Because search engines don’t regard your brand as an authority in a single geographic region, putting everything on one page reduces the strength of your local SEO juice. As a result, your chances of rising in the ranks are diminished.
Local SEO dental marketing
As long as you have many locations, you may simply use location-based copy for each one of your web pages. A dental marketing will become “New York dental marketing,” for example, or “Buffalo dental marketing,” respectively.
Local SEO: More Important Than Ever
The landscape of search engine optimization (SEO) is constantly evolving. You’ll never know when new local search capabilities will appear on Google’s SERPs, but you can bet on them. As a result, local SEO should always be at the top of your priority list. By putting these 10 tips into practice, you’ll not only be able to benefit from profitable local searches, but you’ll also be laying a strong basis for future SEO improvements. Consider using a small company SEO service provider if you don’t have the time or capacity to make these changes yourself.