Do you run a small business that offers its products or services to a local community? Then, you need to read this essential guide to local SEO.
Yes, because it is by knowing exactly how to master this type of SEO that you can succeed at positioning your business as a trusted, credible, and committed company in your local area, attracting more customers and boosting profits.
Keen to learn more about this topic? Keep reading!
Let’s begin by defining local SEO. Unlike more generic SEO that focuses on boosting a business’s visibility on a larger scale – usually, national or global – local SEO puts the emphasis on geographically closer targets.
Essentially, local SEO involves optimizing your company’s online presence in order to stand out within a geo-specific community of customers and other businesses. The main goal of local SEO practices is to help your business rank as high as possible (typically, on the first page of search results) so that as many people as possible become aware of your brand and what it offers.
As you might expect, this mostly happens on search engines like Google – and you’ll shortly find out exactly how to make it work for you.
Harnessing local SEO within your broader digital marketing strategy has a vast array of benefits – here are the top three ones.
First of all, with good local SEO, you’ll be able to push your business towards the top of SERPs, thus supercharging its visibility in local searches. The bottom line? Local customers will find you much more easily, which entices them to learn more about you.
Another perk of local SEO is its ability to strengthen your reputation and credibility as a trusted brand committed to serving its local community with exceptional products or services. This, though, only happens if you maintain your local digital presence properly, which includes adding up-to-date customer reviews to your Google My Business Profile (more on this later).
Unlike other marketing and advertising methods, local SEO is incredibly affordable – and effective. Because it focuses exclusively on the specific local community of customers who might be interested in what you provide, it allows you to optimize your resources and maximize your ROI.
How do you go about integrating local SEO with your broader digital marketing strategy? Below are seven easy, actionable tips to achieve this.
Your first step should be to open a Google My Business (GMB) listing. Consider this some sort of digital storefront: make sure you claim it and optimize it before another business does it. Once you’ve got hold of it, include all the relevant information, such as your company name, address, phone number, website, email, opening hours, and more. Add some good-quality photos, too, and keep the profile constantly active and up-to-date.
Local keywords are one of the main ingredients of great local SEO. You’ll want to identify the most used keywords and key phrases that local customers use when searching for companies that offer your products or services. Don’t just stuff these keywords in for the sake of SEO, though: everything should flow well and sound natural.
A great digital marketing strategy can’t do without great content, which in turn is a powerful way to improve your SEO. So, consider putting together content that informs, educates, and engages your local readers, such as blog posts, success stories, case studies, neighborhood guides, and more. This will enable you to attract organic traffic and present your brand as a local authority in your industry.
Your Google My Business listing should be optimized for mobile as well as voice search – two of the most popular ways in which people search for information online these days. Your page should load quickly, be mobile-friendly, and offer an intuitive and seamless user experience. To enable voice search, use natural and conversational keywords that emulate an informal conversation, as those are the keywords that people are likely to use for this search type.
Positive feedback from other customers can work as a huge incentive to tip the scales in your favor when a potential customer is on the fence. Therefore, incorporating reviews and testimonials reporting on how great your company is, and how amazing your products or services are, is another fantastic way to boost the SEO potential of your GMB listing.
When your business gets a stellar mention in a reputable source, it will instantly lift your reputation – and might even bring a flock of potential customers straight to your doors. Make sure your business gets cited across the web in a positive way, and work to earn backlinks from local websites that already have a good community following and rank high in local searches.
Also known as structured data markup, schema markup is a tool that allows search engines to better contextualize your content. Implementing local schema markup will give search engines the information they need about your company, including location, products, opening hours, and so on. In turn, this can boost your business’s visibility, letting you appear in featured or rich snippets.
Embracing local SEO to supercharge your small business is a winning strategy on multiple fronts. In this guide, we showed you how you can go about including local SEO practices into your broader digital marketing strategy, as well as which benefits you can reap from doing so.
Remember, though: you don’t have to go it alone. If you feel like all that’s required for a solid local SEO plan is a bit too overwhelming, then contact the SEO team at Basecamp Studios today. We’ll be excited to support your small business in its quest for higher rankings and a place in the hearts of its local community!
