Local SEO is essential to small-scale businesses that function on a local/regional level. Unlike national or international SEO, Local SEO emphasize appearing on search engine results pages (SERPs) in a particular location. That is, it focuses on marketing your services, products, and brands to local customers and leads. A fully optimized local SEO strategy means more conversions, leads, and traffic as the tactic is more appropriate to your base of local customers. You can think of it as a way of helping yourself compete against larger brands that have access to unlimited resources to spend.
By focusing on your local SEO goals, you can counterbalance the advantage of bigger brands that primarily rely on brand recognition and periodically optimize for broader keywords to bring in traffic.
With that being said, let us discuss how you can use local SEO to grow your business on Google.
#1 Create and Optimize your Google My Business Account
First and foremost, you need to establish your business on Google My Business. This not only builds your online presence free of cost on the search engine but also means that your business will show up on Google Maps. It will help your business appear in the search results on all devices. The best part, if Google endorses your business as authentic, your business could also appear in the sidebar space of Google search.
For optimizing your Google My Business Account, make sure that you:
- Authenticate your listing
- Provide up-to-date and accurate information
- Include the service or product your business offer, acceptable payment methods, hours of operation, company logo, and a lot of images of your establishment
- Encourage the clients to provide a review of your business
- Respond to customer reviews
- Use Google Posts to create content within your account
#2 Create Content Based on Local Events or News Stories
In order to grab your local customers’ attention, you can author content that relates or speaks directly to a local issue. Consider the following strategies:
- Set up location-specific webpages on your business website with high-quality content
- Create videos about causes or local charities that your business supports
- Write blog posts around local events, activities, or news stories
#3 Get Regular Reviews from Customers
Reviews are essential for your local business to thrive. Today, people consider reviews before buying a product or service. Reviews also encourage locals to avail services from your business. So,
- After closing a sale, ask for Google review in person
- Respond to existing reviews sincerely and in a professional way
- Send an email or text asking customers to review your business after they have made a purchase
#4 Include Local Keywords
The keywords you use for your business should be relevant to local customers. You can use Google’s Keyword Planner to filter keyword searches based on location. This helps in creating a list of locally relevant keywords for you to target.
These are some effective ways to use local SEO to rank your business high on Google. However, ensure that the local SEO service provider you choose is capable of providing the services you are looking for.
