Local SEO: How Local Can You Get?
As a local business owner, you are responsible for creating jobs at a community level and giving your neighborhood some added flavor. Why not seek to serve your global community as well? When it comes to ranking high on search engine result pages, it pays to keep things local. Just as you build relationships with local businesses and customers in real life, it is important to consider how you interact with local businesses and customers online.
Put Yourself in Your Customer’s Shoes
Search engines are becoming more intelligent. Not only are they getting better at understanding content, they are getting better at understanding who the content was intended for. Knowing your market and writing for your customers has never been more important. While using keywords in your content is still important, it’s time to start doing more. If you’re a plumbing contractor, put yourself in your customer’s shoes. If they are searching for, “signs of water heater failure,” how are they feeling? Stressed? Confused? Let them know the possible problems they could be facing, and what steps they can take before a professional is able to visit. Be informative. Be personable. Be reassuring. Get into the mindset of YOUR prospective customers. Knowing what your customers are searching for and how they’re searching for it has never been more important.
Location, Location, Location
Not too long ago, businesses were identified by the city, county, and state where they were located. These days, people are searching on the go with their phones, so it helps to be precise. What are your cross streets? Are you located across from a restaurant, hardware store, or super market? Point prospective customers directly to your storefront, not just your city.
Link Building
Link building is a highly effective SEO strategy, and as the name suggests, involves building links that point back to your website from other places on the web. For example, if you are a hair salon owner trying to rank well for “wedding hairstyles” you’ll want to create content related to this search term, such as a wedding hairstyle blog with related anchor text throughout, such as “wedding hair style trends in 2016!” If you are already doing this as part of your online marketing campaign, you may want to start thinking local. As opposed to link building on a large scale (linking to other sites that are related to your industry), you can benefit fom linking to other companies and organizations in your community. Think outside the box. Look to link with other local websites, including businesses, events, charities, and schools.
Closing
It’s important to get involved in your community, online too. Developing relationships online in an organic way is a great technique that will drive traffic to your website and increase sales.
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