10 Effective Ways to Improve Local SEO Services
How to improve local SEO for your business.
With many businesses facing difficulties during this past year, high-quality and reliable marketing techniques have become absolutely invaluable in maintaining a healthy customer base and desirable profits. Although many businesses have taken a national or even international position in recent years due to improvements in digital marketing, it’s important you also focus on your own community.
Local SEO helps keep consumers engaged and well-informed. When managed properly, it can connect you with your community in ways that other techniques cannot. While there is no magical elixir during these trying times, there are several steps you can take that will help you effectively improve local SEO and not only maintain your customer base but also expand it.
Google My Business Profile
It’s nearly impossible these days to conduct business without using at least some aspect of Google, either directly or indirectly. By creating a Google My Business profile, the company will verify your business as being authentic, which could result in being rewarded with a sidebar space in their local search results. To optimize results, create and verify a Google My Business page, utilize Google Posts, and encourage your customers to write up reviews.
Optimize Search Engines
It’s important everything you create or post online has been optimized for search engines when customers are looking for a product or service. This includes your URL, title tags, headers, meta descriptions, and posted content such as blogs. For local SEO purposes, concentrate on creating geo-targeted content that will improve your rankings for any local searches done by the community.
Encourage Customer Reviews
It’s become increasingly easy for customers to create reviews and access them. In addition to encouraging customer reviews through Google My Business, feel free to ask them to post on sites like Yelp or even on your Facebook page. It’s always a good idea to periodically check your reviews, engage with positive reviews, and respond to any negative ones with a plan of action.
Think About Voice Search
It’s an interesting phenomenon that the way we search when we type is often different from the way we search when we speak. To take better advantage of local SEO, you must consider these differences. To give you an example, since searches are typically done in question form, working some of your content around the words who, where, what, when, why, and how will be beneficial. Just make sure that the content doesn’t sound awkward in any way.
Engage on Social Media
Another tried-and-true method to help you improve local SEO is to engage on social media. These days, many businesses have accounts on multiple social media services such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and others. Social media allows you to engage with customers around the world, but it can be especially useful with your local community since you’re “one of their own.” For an even better reach, add your social media posts to your Google My Business posts, as well.
Add Location Search to Site
You want to make it easy for local customers to find your business. If you have a physical location, be sure to add a location page to your website. Start by providing visitors with your company’s name, address, phone number, and store hours. Then, attach a Google Map to the page so that customers can retrieve driving directions or get a better idea of the area you’re in and the distance. If pertinent, you can also add parking/transit information, promotions, and testimonials.
Develop Local Content
Local searches are big parts of customer interactions, and this is definitely something that you can take advantage of. Consider any local events that may be happening and fashion your content around those events. Another great tactic is to identify local keyword searches. This can easily be done with Google’s Keyword Planner (yes, it’s all about Google!), which will help you identify keyword searches that are being conducted based on your location. Work these keywords into social media posts and other content to take full advantage.
Optimize Site for Mobile Use
The truth is that we’re now all mobile people living in a mobile world. Millions upon millions of people use their mobile devices to hunt down businesses, conduct their shopping, discover local events, and more. If your website hasn’t been optimized for mobile use, then it will be deemed unprofessional and very likely ignored. Local searches are always plentiful, so by making sure that your site looks and functions properly on mobile devices, you’ll improve your overall reach.
Utilize Online Directories
It’s probably been a long time since most people have seen a Yellow Pages in person, but they very much continue to exist online. Although it may seem somewhat quaint, online directories such as Yellow Pages, Yelp, MapQuest, Foursquare, TripAdvisor, My Business Manager, and others are quite useful. If you haven’t already, check every directory you can find to ensure that not only you have a presence there but that the information is accurate.
Build Dedicated Web Pages
Companies often tend to group all of their products or services into a single page, thinking that this will be more convenient for customers. Not only can this actually be a deterrent because of an overwhelming amount of information in a single location, but it also doesn’t bode well for your ranking possibilities. This is because search engines tend to not view a single brand as an authority in one specific area. Do yourself a favor and create a dedicated page for each product or service that you offer.
Contact P3 Agency to Help Improve Local SEO
By following the tips listed above, you can easily improve local SEO and maintain your company’s reach within your own community and beyond. If you want to make the most of it, reach out to the experts at the P3 Agency. Our well-established marketing agency excels in Clearwater website design, local SEO services, lead generation, content creation, and all other aspects of the marketing process. For a free marketing assessment that will allow us to develop a customized plan that works for your business, call us at (800) 515-9422 today.