Digital marketing is the process of marketing your company to the internet. On the other hand, local SEO targets a specific city or area. Not every business can benefit from local SEO, but those that can certainly need to take advantage of what it has to offer.
This guide will detail what this marketing strategy is and how it can assist your business. Before we jump into details, we need to explain what exactly local SEO is.
What is local SEO?
Local SEO is a marketing strategy that increases your business’s search engine ranking for local searchers. By making your business more visible to the local community looking for services or products, you can garner more customers.
For example, John’s Hardware is located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He wants to get more customers for those searching for hardware stores near their location. He can implement certain methods to raise his business’s online reputation so that more people see his business in search results. With more people seeing his business, he is likely to receive more business.
Service area businesses and businesses with physical storefronts are the ones who can benefit the most from this marketing strategy.
Local SEO Methods
There are a plethora of local SEO methods you can implement to increase the presence of your business online. We will break these methods down into three primary categories: Google My Business, website optimization, and social media.
Google My Business (GMB)
If you own a business, you may have heard of Google My Business already. GMB is a free online platform that allows you to promote your business on Google Maps and Google search results. When customers are looking for a specific business near them, they are performing a local search.
Google prioritizes local businesses when it believes they can provide the person what they need. For example, searching “hardware store near me” presents us with results in the image below.
The three results in the red box are the most relevant to our search. This group of businesses is known as the “map pack” or “three-pack.” With GMB, your goal is to reach this grouping of businesses as they get the most clicks of any other business that appears in the search results.
As you can see, Google My Business shows the customers the review rating, address, phone number, hours, and more. All of these details can be customized within your GMB account.
Website Optimization
Your GMB account allows you to add your website for customers to follow. You can receive an increased level of traffic by adding your website to your GMB account. However, your site must also be optimized for local search results. The methods of optimizing your website for local SEO are similar to the industry’s best practices as a whole.
Here are a few qualities you should consider for your website to fit local SEO guidelines:
Content & Keywords: content is an essential part of your website’s optimization because it tells the user how relevant your business is to them. Content should be written for real people rather than the search engines. The more user-friendly the content is, the greater ranking it will get. At the same time, content should incorporate keywords relevant to the business and its location. For example, John’s Hardware should focus on keywords like “Albuquerque hardware store” and “hardware stores in Albuquerque, NM.” By folding these keywords into the content naturally, your website can gain more web traffic and improve its local SEO ranking.
Site Structure: The site structure of your website should be easy to navigate. User-friendliness is an essential quality for any business because it benefits the user, which Google loves. A complicated site structure will cause visitors to leave your site sooner. Google can see these details and will penalize your site. At the same time, Google has its own crawl bot, which acts very similarly to humans. If it has a difficult time crawling your site, you can expect a lower search engine ranking and impact your local SEO.
Mobile Design: What does your site look like on a smartphone? Your website’s responsiveness is an essential quality as phones become more ingrained into our lives. More and more people are performing searches on their phones, making mobile-friendly websites a must. When visiting your site, a poor mobile-friendly web design scares away visitors. Subsequently, your site’s bounce rates are raised, and the search engine ranking is lower. The bounce rate is the percentage of people who left your website after visiting one page.
By meeting the qualities listed above, you can increase your search engine ranking and your local SEO.
Social Media
Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter allow businesses to create business profiles free of charge. These platforms customize their business profiles with location, operation of hours, link to a website, and more. Facebook even gives customers the option to review the business directly on the platform. Creating an account and filling out all the appropriate information can increase your online presence. Learn about each of these platforms using the guides below:
- Tips on Optimizing Your Twitter Profile
- How to Optimize Your Business Instagram Page
- How to Create a Facebook Business Page
The guides above are a great stepping stone to improve your business’s online presence and local SEO.
Start Your Local SEO
If you want to increase the presence of your business online, contact ASAP Marketing Solutions. Our SEO specialists are experts in the field of local SEO and the realm of digital marketing. You can receive GMB optimization and setup, website optimization, and social media marketing by contacting us today. Contact our team today by calling (832) 737-2752. You’ll receive a free estimate and proposal with details on our methods and strategies.