Small businesses need to make use of local SEO to operate successfully at a regional level. The kind of marketing methods you need for local and national level marketing are different. By default, national-level SEO is all about gaining better search rankings throughout the country. On the other hand, local SEO focuses on a specific location. This means that your marketing strategy for your products, services, and brands should be customized to suit local customers and needs.
Optimized local SEO translates to better leads, more traffic, and quicker conversions. This is because the strategy will be more focused on your local customers. Without the right local SEO strategies in your business, you may lose a significant amount of traffic from your website.
Here are a few points to help with local SEO.
#1 Optimized Google My Business Account
Your business should begin with “Google My Business”. “My Business” is required for establishing your presence on the internet for free. Your business will appear on Google Maps without any effort. Apart from showing your business on all devices, Google will make sure you find space in their sidebar too! If you wish to optimize My Business, there are a few things you must follow:
- Post up-to-date information
- Your listing should be verified
- Respond to all your customer reviews
- Use Google Posts to create content
#2 Ask for Reviews
Every business needs happy reviews from happy customers. This is why you must have a platform for customers to post reviews. Most of the time, customers admire businesses that let them share accurate feedback.
#3 Be Prepared for Voice Searches
A lot of businesses tend to forget about voice searches when they engage in search engine optimization. When compared to traditional searches, voice searches require longer tail keywords. This means your SEO methods should be adjusted to suit the tone of someone who is searching with voice.
#4 Use Local Stories
Moving on, you must try and make use of local stories and news on your website. Nothing can grab the attention of online users like local events and recent news. If you decide to include these details on your website, try to make the blogs as interesting as possible. And, to enjoy an edge in the market, make use of videos too!
Always bear in mind that content on local events and stores should be of high quality, and more location-oriented. If your business works in multiple places, fine-tune the content accordingly.
INFOGRAPHICS
