How to Grow Your Company With Local SEO Strategies
Search has emerged as an important element of customer acquisition and sales for both B2B and B2C companies. If you start a local business without an SEO strategy, you’ll not only be leaving money on the table because of missed customers, but you will also have to compete with other companies who do have their SEO strategies set.
Entrepreneurs can increase site traffic, brand awareness, and sales by applying the right SEO principles. As a result, you will have more opportunities to generate sales growth.
How Can SEO Strategies Help Your Local Company Grow?
If you do not have the SEO strategy in place, your site won’t appear on search engine results pages. Even if a company’s customer base is strictly local, it is still critical that the business has a strong online presence.
Organic search for businesses is popular given that 86% of people use the internet to find local businesses, and it produces 53% of all web traffic.
This article will cover the fundamentals of SEO for local businesses, from understanding keywords to creating high-quality content.
Top 6 Best SEO Strategies to Grow Your Local Company
Today’s business world is competitive across many fronts, but promoting your company on search engines has become an invaluable way of boosting its visibility.
Focus On Technical SEO
Technical SEO can include changes to your site’s layout in order for crawlers to properly index it. Even if your writing is exceptional, technical SEO issues would prevent your site from ranking prominently on SERPs. So before you publish content to lure in new customers, assess the technical quality of your existing articles.
If you’re not a professional in this field, some options are:
- Make and upload a XML sitemap to Google.
Remove pages that are getting few or no visits from search engines.
Fix any broken or outdated links.
Optimise your website image.
Even though this can seem like a lot, there are SEO auditing resources available that can help you. They can detect flaws and provide step-by-step guidance for how to correct them.
Focus on Local SEO
Today, about a third of all smartphone-based searches are for location-based services such as “restaurants near me” or “petrol stations near me”. Results from Google’s algorithm that includes search queries containing “restaurants” without the words “near me” will now have local listings at the top of Google Maps. Local companies enjoy the competitive edge that local SEO offers, and they need to take advantage of it.
Creating a Google My Business profile is crucial in local SEO.These accounts are free and easy to manage.
The first thing you should do is claim and set up your listing on GMB. You can fill out the form with all the information, including a local phone number and address. After you submit your data, it will automatically appear in Google’s search results.
You’ll then be alerted whenever new customers give you feedback or asks questions. You should respond to these customers and start a discussion with them. If you are approachable and responsive, you will have a better reputation in the community.
One of the most useful tools that comes with a Google My Business account is the question-and-answer section to help viewers understand what your business is about. Expect questions in advance to give your prospects the answers they need and the experience they deserve.
Last but not least, don’t overlook local directories, they can be important for search. You should sign up your local company for Yelp, TripAdvisor, and the Yellow Pages online. Each of these will help you reach new customers and grow your customer base.
Find Keywords That Show User-Intent
Knowing what users are looking for is the best way to create appealing content. The SERPs will rank you above the competitors if you are a local business that answers their question better than anyone else.
There are several resources available to make keyword analysis less time-consuming and costly for local business owners that don’t have cash readily available.
Google’s autocomplete feature can help you get started. These are the most frequently searched phrases; Google is doing the keyword analysis for you. This list can be used as a starting point for ideas of content.
There are also keyword analysis tools that, when used, will analyse your content for keywords relevant to your site or topic of interest. They offer an easy-to-digest overview of keywords that may be targeted in order to improve ranking.
Put together a webpage or blog post for every keyword you’ve identified as being worth concentrating on.
Pro tip: Ensure you have a good understanding of the search intent of the keywords you’ve discovered.
Improve Your On-page SEO
To optimize your page for SEO, you need to use the right words and phrases in the right places. Your primary aim should always be to create engaging content that naturally integrates your target keywords. It is also important to organize your posts so people can find you through searching.
Optimize your page titles and headlines — Headlines can transform the number of clicks from your website. You should plan to write a catchphrase that is around 60 characters to avoid having your title cut off.
Use header tags — these can be optimised to include specific keywords or phrases. The more readable your site is, the more likely readers are to stay on it for a longer time, increasing those all-important time-on-site metrics.
Make sure your meta tags are up to date — You can improve your likelihood of being found by search engines by making sure you use relevant keywords and descriptions in the meta tags.
Streamline Content Marketing
Local businesses often have less time and fewer resources for content marketing than larger corporations. To be successful with your content marketing, follow these rules and create content that converts.
Use templates — Some articles or content are formatted in such a way that it becomes easier to find new ideas.
Use videos — Making a video is usually easier than writing a blog post. Adding video content to your website is an innovative idea because of how eagerly people consume Internet videos.
Use social media to promote your content — Post your content to social media and explore various ways to distribute it.
Pro tip: Reddit is a great place to start, with all the niche interests, known as subreddits.
Build Your Online Authority With Links
The better your website ranks on search engine results pages, the more likely it is that other websites will link to yours. A study has shown that the number of sites linking to a page relates more than any other SEO process to high SERP scores.
To create local links, you’ll want to launch an outreach campaign. All this entails is creating a spreadsheet with your future contacts’ names, addresses, and phone numbers so you have a plan and a system. Some examples of contacts you could include are Local newspapers, bloggers, events websites, and (non-competitive) companies.
Final Thoughts
Implementing a local SEO strategy can be a daunting task for any small business owner, but it is much less so than the alternative. However, the sooner you begin your site’s SEO campaign, the more quickly and comprehensively it will rank on search results. The higher you rank, the more traffic, leads and sales your business will enjoy. By completing these tasks today, you’ll make it easier for prospects to find your business online.
If you need help to implement any of these local SEO strategies, reach out to us today. We’d be more than happy to help.
