They say that “Charity begins at home, but Business begins at home as well.” Obtaining global information is important, but local SEO for small business is essential. You need to have your basics in place before becoming a strong global entity. This is the main reason why most of the businesses concentrate on local search SEO.
What do the pundits say?
Research has brought out these facts into the open.
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A Search Engine Land report estimates that 54% of web searchers use city / town names and zip codes to search for local businesses. Local businesses see 59% of consumers searching for them each month.
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You have a reference in Moz’s Beginners Guide to SEO that showed 79% of consumers search for local information.
What does this signify?
This signifies that local SEO is the flavor of the town. The earlier businesses realize this fact, the better it is for them. Let us look at 5 tips that help you improve your SEO presence in the local market.
Here are the 5 Best Local SEO Tips:
1. Get your basics right
One of the strongest search engine optimization tips is to understand what people are looking for. You ensure this in the following two ways.
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SEO tools like Google AdWords can do wonders in helping you to attract search traffic.
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Web Analytics can help you find out local terms used by visitors to search for your website.
It is usually a combination of the types of services on offer and the city / town you do business. The next tip will show you how to offer services that you want people to search on your site.
2. Optimize existing pages to target a local market
You have your own business online, but are you ready to plunge into the local SEO market? The following steps will enable you to do that.
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Include your location in your SEO title and descriptions. Secondly, keep the information crisp and short. Page titles should not exceed 70 characters whereas title descriptions should have a maximum of 156 characters.
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Having your contact details on the appropriate pages along with a map to assist consumers is the right way to go about it.
You improve local SEO citations in this manner. Having good SEO content without stuffing unnecessary keywords is also a welcome bonus.
3. Localize your Content
This SEO optimization tip will help you if you have your business at multiple locations.
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A landing page for each location is a great idea.
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Using software solutions to localize your content is advisable to improve your SEO marketing campaign. You have solutions like Yoast Local SEO Search Plugin to help you out.
This tip can help you to improve your SEO rankings.
4. List your content in Local Directories
You have done the hard work of optimizing and localizing your content. The next step is to make consumers aware of your presence. Listing your content in local directories is the right solution.
The following tips should help you form an effective SEO strategy.
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Have a great description in addition to including your contact information.
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Adding photos and tags help you to make things easier for people to search you.
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Maintain a level of consistency to increase your brand value.
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Google Webmaster Tools can ensure you highlight your local presence. Structuring of data is also possible when you use this particular tool.
5. Ignore Mobile Users At Your Own Peril
More people are searching for websites on their mobiles. Hence, it makes better sense to optimize your website to be compatible with all kinds of internet accessing devices like mobiles, tablets, etc.
The number of mobile searches is increasing at a tremendous rate. It makes sense to tap this burgeoning resource at the earliest opportunity.
You have just seen five sips that can help your local listing in SEO. Who would not like to have a bonus tip or two?
Bonus Tip 1: Have your business listed on Social Media
Social media is the king today. You find people active on social media everywhere. It is in the fitness of things that you list your business on this highly interactive network. You have media tools like Foursquare, Facebook, and Google + to make an impact. Integrate your Facebook business page and take advantage of Graph Search. Using social media contacts to have access to SEO backlinks is a great way to improve your SEO rankings.
No SEO optimization tip is complete without a reference to social media.
Bonus Tip 2: Customer Reviews Help
Customer feedback is of utmost importance in any field. Soliciting reviews and general feedback from customers is commonplace activity in business. Reviews can be positive or negative. However, one thing is certain. It talks about you and your business. That is a kind of SEO marketing strategy in its own way. Positive reviews can be great for your local SEO. Your response to the reviews is also an important factor. They play a role in improving your SEO ratings.
Bonus Tip 3: Claim your Google my Business
You get great exposure when you subscribe to Google My Business (GMB). It is free and can play a tremendous role in improving your Google local SEO rankings. Claiming your GMB is easy. Visit Google.com/business and complete the registration and verification process. Optimize your GMB listing with your usual information about the business and add a couple of photos for great effect. This is one of the best ways of increasing your SEO performance.
Final Thoughts
Local SEO is important as it helps you have a strong foundation in business. Using the tips listed above can result in exponential growth in your business. Once your basics are in place, you can concentrate on improving your global presence. This is true in every sector. It assumes greater significance in marketing because it is imperative to make your presence felt in the market. One of the time-tested ways of doing so is to have a significant share of local business.