More than likely, you’re looking for a way to connect with potential customers in your area, which is where Local SEO comes in handy. With this technique, search engine listings are higher the closer their owner is to the searcher.
In this blog post, we’ll cover the basics of what Local SEO entails and how you can use it to better find and serve local customers. Increasing your online presence, mobile searches and engagement with your local customers.
What is Local SEO?
In a nutshell, Local SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is about more than just optimizing a business’ website so it can rank in local search results. It’s about investing time and energy into “locally” relevant content that will help your company to rank locally and increase your local business profile. Here are some examples of what we mean:
Showing your customer base around the area you service that they should be visiting and talk with you about their needs and vision for their business. Helping your customers know where they should be searching and how you can help them achieve their objectives.
Benefits of Local SEO
Local SEO is an excellent way to increase your customer base because it is directly related to the people who live in the area that your business serves. As you’re showing your business’ face around the area, prospects will get familiar with who you are and what you do. Even better, give them a reason to keep coming back, such as a free consultation or coupon for some new service.
In addition to showing off your face in the area, you can also:
- Improve your company’s online visibility by finding out what information people are looking for in the area you serve;
- Enhance your website and social media presence by developing content that helps people find what they’re looking for;
- Connect with people who are already interested in the services you offer; and
- Gain new customers by helping existing ones find new ways to reach their targets.
How do you improve your Local SEO?
Simply put, anyone who owns a business can improve their Local SEO, whether they’re in a large city or a small town. Here are 9 tips to get started:
Optimize Your Company’s Google My Business Profile
When business owners optimize their online profile, it helps them with local search rankings and helps potential customers find your business. Google will show the top local search results in the map pack, this is the google maps search listings that will display the number of reviews and the average rating for that business. The Google my Business listing will link through to the businesses website, phone number and other social channels.
For example, if you just moved to the area and you’re looking for a new building company, a well-optimized online profile allows customers to find your business quickly. If they like what they see, they’ll get in touch with you.
Add Local Tags
Adding local search tags is another way that Search Engine Optimization can help with local search rankings. Tags help people find your business quickly and increase your search visibility.
For example, if you’re a building company, you can include a Google map of your physical location on your website that you update with the hours and physical locations you service. Also, display testimonials on the page, doing this shows your customers that you understand their needs and helps them find what they’re looking for. Adding reviews to your service pages to showcase social proof, reviews will increase the conversion rate from potential customers.
Write Local Blog Posts
Writing blog posts about the local area your business serves is a great way to increase customer awareness, connect with prospective customers, and get new business. Adding the keywords that are associated with your local areas such as the city, town and region with the service you provide.
For example, if you’re a business that provides business search services, you could write about the local keywords included in your market. For instance, an IT company could write about computer security in the local area. That way, when people come across your blog post they’ll see exactly what topic they’re looking for and won’t have to sift through tons of posts to find what they want.
Improve Your Company’s Online Reviews
When you’re improving your local SEO, it’s important to make sure that your company has good online reviews. Every business owner knows that a large number of positive reviews isn’t just nice to have – if people are talking about how great you are, it helps with your local SEO and your new customer acquisition efforts. There are a few key review platforms that you should use to increase your online presence, these are your Google My Business profile and Facebook page, having online reviews on these two platforms will increase the number of visitors you get but will also increase your sites conversion rate.
Connect with Customers via Social Media
Social media is also a great way to develop a local customer base because it allows you to connect with people in your area, as well as show your face. When people see that you’re available and approachable they’ll be more likely to get in touch with you about their business needs, which can lead to new customers and more revenue.
Share Blog Posts for Local SEO
Sharing relevant blog posts via social media and email marketing is another great way to improve your local search rankings. When you’re improving local search engine listings, it’s important to know what people in your area are interested in. Whenever you share a relevant post, you’re helping other people find what they’re looking for while also making sure that people see who you are as a business owner.
Find Local Keywords
Find out what keywords people in your area are using when they search for local services and products. Doing this will help you to better understand what local search terms people are looking for and improve your online visibility. You can research what relevant keywords or search queries have a high search volume through a number of free and paid SEO tools, such as:
- Google Ads: https://ads.google.com/
- SEMrush: https://www.semrush.com/
- Moz: https://moz.com/
- Ubersuggest: https://app.neilpatel.com/en/ubersuggest/
Check Out the Local SEO Competition
This is an important step when you’re looking to improve local SEO because it helps you to make sure that you won’t be doing more work than is necessary.
For example, if your local building company is in a competitive market that has other building companies that are doing an excellent job, your SEO strategy should incorporate finding what citation sites, business listings, location pages and keywords they use so that you can compete and outrank the competition.
Build Local Citations for your business sites
A citation is a link to your site from other websites that incorporates NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) details.
According to Moz, citation signals are one of the top local ranking factors. This is the case for both Google map pack and organic results. When a business has consistent and accurate NAP (Name, address and phone number) information across the web, it increases the chance that Google can find and verify the data they have on file from them.
Final Thoughts
Local SEO is an excellent way to increase your customer base because it directly impacts the people who live in the area. When you’re out and about showing off your business’ face, potential customers will get familiar with who you are and what you do. This makes them more likely to get in touch with you and more willing to work with you.
