If your business has brick-and-mortar locations, you need to approach search engine optimization (SEO) a bit differently than you would if you were online-only. Optimizing for local SEO leads customers straight to your front door and prevents them from getting lost in a sea of online competition.
Local SEO involves trying to improve your business’s rankings in local search engine results. And since 53% of people who search for a local business will visit or book an appointment within 48 hours, it’s pretty important to make sure that they can find your business.
If you want to climb the local rankings, here are a few of our favorite tips.
7 Best Practices for Local SEO
#1: Get a Google My Business Page
Local SEO begins with a Google My Business page, which helps you get on Google Maps. It’s completely free and easy to create, and without it, you might as well be invisible.
Make sure your page is filled out completely, triple-check that all of your information is correct, and update it regularly.
#2: Stay on Top of Your Reviews
When it comes to deciding which businesses to show first in the local results, Google prioritizes those with positive reviews, so it’s important to keep your customers happy.
You should regularly solicit feedback from your customers, encourage them to post their reviews on your Google My Business page, thank people for positive reviews, and immediately address any negative reviews publicly so others can see that you’re willing to remedy any issues.
#3: Optimize for Voice Search
More than 52% of people use voice search while driving, which means that they’re looking for something right now. So you need to make sure that they can find you.
Optimizing your local SEO for voice search means targeting long-tail keywords, adjusting to a more conversational tone and considering user intent.
#4: Create Location-Specific Content
The more local-based content you have on your website, the more relevant you become to Google. And for Google, relevance is everything.
Write a blog post about the latest community event, shoot a quick video on location at the county fair, shout out some of your favorite local charities or talk about what went on at last week’s chamber of commerce meeting. People love to support local businesses and the more “local” your content is, the better!
#5: Check Your Citations
If you’ve done your job right, your business should be listed in plenty of different directories. These listings are called citations — and they need to be identical across the board if you want Google to trust that your data is accurate.
Even the tiniest discrepancy — “North 2nd Avenue” in one directory and “N. 2nd Ave.” in another — can knock you down plenty of pegs.
#6: Go After High-Quality Backlinks
Backlinks are yet another one of Google’s “signals of trust.” Generally speaking, the more you have, the merrier you are … but only if they’re of high quality.
The best way to get quality backlinks is to regularly create valuable content that inspires people to share. You might also consider offering to create guest blog posts for other local businesses.
#7: Play Up the Local Angle
The vast majority of customers prefer local businesses to national chains. So there’s absolutely no harm in making it very, very clear that you are, in fact, a local business.
From your “about us” page to your social media profiles to your URL, headers and meta descriptions, use both subtle and not-so-subtle language to indicate to Google that your business is locally owned and operated.
Local SEO Sends Customers Straight to Your Brick-and-Mortar Location!
For businesses with a local presence, local SEO strategies improve visibility and help customers find you. Start implementing them today and watch the traffic that follows!
Whether you’re marketing to the masses or just to the people in your neighborhood, Mischa Communications has scalable solutions that can help you get customers in your real (or virtual) doors. How can we help?