You probably already know that search engine optimization (SEO) is the best way to bring organic traffic to your website. But there is another type of SEO that is not as commonly used and is frequently misunderstood.
Do you know what it is?
It’s called local SEO and it could be considered even more powerful than traditional SEO, especially if you are a brick-and-mortar business with a local presence in your community.
About Local SEO
Local SEO uses location keywords along with other tactics to build your brand, increase organic traffic, and boost your page rankings. So when someone performs a search for a local business, the search engine matches their search request with the local keywords on a business’ website (or page), among other things, to provide that searcher with the best possible results to their inquiry.
For example:
A searcher puts in a request for “best roofer in Name of City” or “best roofer near me.” The search engine then provides the results for the roofing companies in that location. Which means if your website doesn’t include any of your local keywords, the search engine will have a more difficult time identifying it as a local business and your website might not be provided to that searcher as an option.Furthermore, according to Search Engine Land, 82 percent of mobile device users conduct “near me” searches. And, more than 90 percent of those surveyed also stated they usually click on one of the first few provided results. Therefore, if you are not using local SEO keywords and tactics, your business probably won’t make it into one of the top few page results, if at all.
What Are the Business Benefits of Local SEO?
Local SEO is extremely important for local businesses that have a physical brick-and-mortar presence and serve their customers face-to-face.
Here are some of the business benefits of local SEO.
- Increase your website traffic
- Your website will rank higher and be highlighted in more places
- Receive more targeted traffic results
- Helps your business to be found more easily
- More organic results mean you will spend less on other forms of advertising
- Local SEO will help place you on Google Maps
- Local SEO is a pay-per-click cost-free strategy
- Your business will be more visible than your competitors who don’t optimize for local SEO (many don’t)
- It will improve your business reputation and help build your brand
8 Ways to Optimize for Local SEO
There are a wide variety of ways you can optimize your website and pages which involves more than just including local keywords.
- Optimize your homepage and meta data.
- Apply local business schema.
- Claim your Google My Business (GMB) page.
- Update your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) information on your website to match your GMB listing exactly.
- Implement other best SEO practices throughout your entire website.
- Add your business to a variety of local directories.
- Setup individual social media pages to help manage your content for multiple locations (if they are relevant to your business).
- Work to build your online reviews such as Yelp, etc. because this will help boost your business on the search result pages.
Should You Use an SEO Agency or Attempt to Do It Yourself?
That’s a good question. Going through the motions of implementing local SEO may seem to be easy. However, knowing exactly how to implement it properly and making sure every facet of the local SEO puzzle is done according to the Google requirements is an entirely different situation altogether.
If everything is not done exactly how Google requires, it could cause ongoing problems that are extremely hard to fix. Which, in turn, could result in your website not being shown properly. It could also affect how your websites shows in the search results page or map pack for all the areas you serve. Not to mention, any number of other issues improperly performed local SEO attempts could cause. Lastly, you’d need to be able to keep up with all the ongoing changes Google makes in their effort to improve their local business features.
For example, Google’s local SEO feature started out as Google Local, then it was changed to Google+ Local, and more recently it has been renamed to Google My Business (GMB).
Therefore, it’s probably best to contact a reputable SEO company to perform your local SEO for you. This will ensure your local SEO is given the proper foundation, it feeds the information to all the appropriate places, and that your business is branded properly, among other things.
What’s Next?
If you would like more information about local SEO and setting up a Google My Business listing, please Contact Us today. Using local SEO can help increase your website traffic, and therefore, increase your website conversions helping your business grow.