We are living in an era where more people rely on internet searches to findsolutions for their problems. This
means search engine optimization has become an important channel to reach
customers in any industry today than ever. With more businesses recognizing the
benefits of SEO, the search pages are highly competitive nowadays and you must
know how to utilize SEO in order for your business to stand out of the rest.
Search engines are tailoring their results to match
the geographical location of users. For this reason, you can attract more
potential buyers to your niche by leveraging the local search tactics.
Why Should You Focus on Local SEO?
Shopping locally has become easier. If you want to buy
groceries, for example, you typically pull out your smartphone and type
something like "groceries near me." Then, the search pages give you a
list of businesses that sell groceries in your locality. After all, you'll
consider the stores that appear on the first page.
When your business gain visibility in the local
search, you only get the attention of the people in your geographical location
who could actually become viable customers. Businesses that invested in SEO a
few years ago are not only getting more traffic from their local area but also
enjoy a wave of prospective buyers from other parts of the country or event
internationally.
While there are strategies to gain national traffic,
running your business locally and at the same time looking for a national or
international audience is a recipe for failure. With local SEO, your business
can rank high on the local search and attract customers within your local area
who are looking for your services. When your local buyers identify your
business, they'll continue to come back as long as their buying experience is
positive.
How Does Local SEO Get Results?
Just like any other marketing approach, achieving
results requires research and formulation of a unique strategy. For you to gain
local visibility, start by considering the benefits of your products to the
customers, the market you are targeting, and whether your business has any
competitive advantage. With that information, you can research the right
keywords that'll help you rank on the google search.
The goal of every business is to secure a space in the
local park. So what is a local park? When users search information based on
local intent, a block of 3 business appear on the first section of the first
page. If you want to generate more leads, you need to be visible in the local
park. To get more ideas about the local pack, check out the screenshot below.
Expert Tips for Optimizing Your Business Website for Local SEO
To attract more potential customers to the business,
you need to boost your local visibility. Here are helpful tips to keep in mind:
1). Build
Out a Mobile-Friendly Website
In this digital era, more people search for
information on the web using their smartphones. According to a study done by
comScore in 2012, the total number of American searchers using mobile phones increased by 26%
between the months of March and December.
Interestingly, this increment was expected to continue as time goes on.
Today, more customers search for local information
using smartphones instead of desktops or laptops. This means that your business
website should be responsive, adaptive to any screen size and quick to load if
you want to attract more potential customers to your business. When your site
has these attributes, it'll perform better on search engines and offer better
customer experience.
2). Have a
Google My Business Account
Claiming a GMB account is as essential as having a
business website if you want to get more exposure on Google. When creating
Google My Business page, make sure you include all the critical details such as
the address, contact, opening hours and category.
Creating a GMB page doesn't automatically make your
business rank. You must boost local visibility by updating and adding new
content regularly. You can add photos, FAQs as well as create custom content. When crafting content for your GMB, make sure to use
primary and LSI keywords as they can bump up the possibility of your business to get into the localpark.
3). Citation
Building Technique
While GMB is the best way to build a business
citation, you can use other superb methods to do this and get the desired
results. However, when building citations make sure every single detail is
similar and accurate in each directory. Vital details such as the name of the
business, contact info, address and website should be the same in all the
lists.
The more citations you have, the easier to convince
Google that your business is genuine and honest. To boost your local search,
your business should be added in the following directories:
- Angie's List
- Yelp
- Yellow pages
- TripAdvisor
- Bing
Even if doing all this job may appear time-consuming,
accomplishing it correctly can push your business to the next level. If you
don't have time to do this task, you can find out plenty of tools out there
that can take this burden off your shoulders as long as you are willing to pay
some coins.
4). Build
Healthy Links
Boosting your domain authority is the key to local
ranking. One of the best techniques to achieve this is by gettinghealthy backlines from reputable websites. When search engines start crawling and indexing pages, they decide
which page has sufficient outbound links to rank. The tenet here is, the
healthier the links, the more chances to rank higher on Google.
When it comes to local ranking, Google knows very well
that your local business is unlikely to have backlinks from huge domains such
as the New York Times, BBC, Forbes, Alexa, etc. However, building links from
trustworthy websites from your town such as local newspaper, TV station,
University, college or community-based organization can help your business get
into a top position on the local ranking.
There are plenty of tactics you can use to build your
link profile. However, these tactics take more time and offer the best result.
No matter how complicated this process is but never buy links from anyone
claiming to sell them. This behavior can entirely ruin your business
credibility.
The starting point of building strong links is by
creating compelling and original content that informs and entertains. People
will link and share your content when they find it useful. You can also ask
your friends, colleagues, or family members who have websites for backlinking.
Another way to get backlinks is by guest posting. When submitting your guest
article, you can include a link to your website in your writers' bio. To get
guest post opportunities, you can type "write for us + your niche" and Google will direct you to websites that
offer guest posting.
5). Embrace
the Best Local SEO Practices
To achieve local ranking, you must understand and
follow local SEO best practices. Even if you use the above four strategies and
fail to follow the basics of local SEO, your site will never appear in the
local pack. Some of the best practices you can observe are:
- Using the right keywords
- Consider paid search
- Create the right metadata and title tags
- Perform on-page checks regularly
- Audit your site to remove broken links
Although local SEO is important, it's not the only way
to grow your business in this digital era. However, when it is done properly
and by experts, it can lead to more traffic, more sales and more credibility.
If you want your business to thrive locally, do not hesitate to use some of
these tips, if not all.
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