Many small businesses need to take advantage of local search engine optimization to have a significant impact on their traffic and queries.
Local SEO is a way to reach more people in the area because they will be able to find your business on a regional level. This will allow you to focus on the audience that will impact your bottom line instead of trying to compete with companies on a national level that have a much larger marketing budget than your small business. The strategy relies on creating products, brands, and services that engineer local customers and leads because you will appear on the search engine results pages for the specific location.
By optimizing local search engine keywords, small businesses can get more website traffic, qualified leads, and eventually conversions into customers. The strategy focuses on bringing local leads straight to your website, so you don't have to compete against the broader national and international brands. By providing hyper-focused keywords, you will be able to provide more excellent value while bringing in more traffic. This can be a make or break marketing strategy for small businesses because at least 35% of all traffic through search engines is local.
Here are some ways to use local SEO for marketing your local business.
Create a My Business Account on Google
Creating a My Business Account, or a business profile, for Google can be one of the best ways to rank higher through the different Google apps like Google Maps. This allows you to gain more traffic and visibility through local search results. Verify your ownership of your business, provide up-to-date information, including your logo and your products and services, and encourage your audience to leave reviews.
Get Reviews from Customers Who Adore You
Getting glowing reviews can have a significant impact on your local search results. It is vital to get great reviews on Google and other sites like Yelp. It encourages more people to buy from you because most people believe online reviews the same way they would consider a personal recommendation.
Ask people to review your store and services after you've sold a product. You can do this through post-purchase emails or texting the customers. Then make sure you respond to the reviews to thank them and address any complaints or issues.
Focus on Optimizing for Voice Search
With the advancement of the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, the latest way to make significant headway in your business is to optimize for voice search. Voice search is continuing to grow, providing a unique opportunity for companies who want to improve their local SEO. It allows people to find your business when they speak into their different devices like Google Home, Alexa, and even their phones.
You may need to adjust your content to reach people via voice search because customers will use more long-tail keywords. Your content will need to maintain a more conversational tone that someone would speak. Use traditional question starters like who, what, how, when, and where.
