Local brick-and-mortar businesses can benefit greatly by using local SEO strategies to promote their products and services online. SEO is short for search engine optimization. This process, if done correctly, will expose your business to customers and to provide them with the information needed to understand what your business has to offer to them.
You Need to Have an Optimized Site
Some local business owners fall into the trap of thinking a smaller business does not have to invest as much time and effort into a website as larger business entities. This thought is incorrect. Websites for local businesses should load fast, be well-designed, and should provide the necessary information to sell customers on the products and services you provide.
The homepage of your website should state clearly who you are as a business, what you can do for website visitors, and where you are located. These things will help search engines connect you with people searching for the products and services you offer in your area.
Google Reviews are a Must
More and more people seek the information they need to make a variety of decisions through online research. This research can be done to facilitate simple decisions like where to eat dinner tonight or more complex issues like a company to use for complete home renovations. For these reasons, no business should neglect to claim their Google business listing.
Google operates the largest search engine on the web, and scoring high with this search engine can greatly increase the probability that a local business realizes success.
Google reviews are important for SEO. In addition to the direct impact these reviews can have on your SEO, it will also close the deal on more customers. Once a customer locates your business online, positive Google reviews will bring them in.
Seek Local Coverage
A great way to increase the effectiveness of your local SEO efforts is to appear in major publications. This method works because these publications are indexed by the major search engines. You should reach out to local publications and create relationships with journalists working for these publications.
It will benefit you for these businesses to cover your business on an on-going basis. Once you get the local news coverage you desire, the boost in SEO will be noticeable immediately.
Get Quality Links
The quality and quantity of the links to your website will go a long way to determining the overall success of your SEO program. There are many ways to gain the quality links you need. These methods for gaining links are only limited to your creativity.
You should consider activities like giving lectures at a local college, taking part in conversations at a business organization in your region, or publishing articles through internet platforms. These are all excellent methods to gain the links you need.
You can also trade links with other businesses in your local area. These links will not have the far-reaching effects for SEO as some other links, but they are well worth the trouble. Domain Authority is important when assessing the quality of a link. Look for local businesses with a DA of 30 or more to become partners in link trading.
Get Active on Social Media
If you have been using the internet to market your business for any length of time, you are more than likely already making use of the social media platforms Facebook and Twitter. However, you might not know the many other social media platforms available to benefit your local SEO efforts.
The main concern of your SEO efforts should be to share content with your potential customers. This content can be photos, blog posts, videos, or live streams. The links that will become available to you by sharing content on social media will positively improve the engagement of visitors to your website. Great content will bring more visitors, and the search engines will reward you for your efforts.
Local SEO can provide a huge boost to the SEO efforts of brick-and-mortar business establishments. The process can become involved and will sometimes cause frustration to business owners. While the five tips mentioned above will provide a solid foundation for your local SEO efforts, there is more to learn.