Helping local businesses reach local audiences through local SEO
Local search optimization or local SEO is a part of search engine optimization that every local business needs. If your audience is local, how do you make sure you appear in search results when your target audience is looking for the products and services you offer?
This is where local search engine optimization or local SEO comes in. Through local search optimization, you can make sure your business appears in search listings when relevant searches happen. Read on to see how our local search optimization services can transform your business and why local should be an integral part of your SEO strategy.
What is local search?
Local search is defined as an internet search technology that allows users to search for local listings. In other words, it allows web users to search local business listings in a specific geographic area or “near them.” When you search for products or services, you have probably seen a map with local listings appear that shows you local service providers near you. Clicking on “more” usually takes you to a map that shows you more service providers.
Whether a local result appears in the results or not depends on what is searched. If the query suggests a local intent – like the searcher is looking for a local service provider like lawyer, restaurants, etc., – a local pack containing a map and local listings is served by search engines.
What is local SEO?
Local SEO is all about improving business visibility by optimizing your site for better local rankings for keywords with a local intent that your audience may be searching. Local keywords typically include a city name, zip code, street address, state or “near me.” Whether you are an enterprise or a local small business, below are some of the things should be a part of the local SEO strategy for search engines to rank your website in local listings:
Website Improvements
Technically, your company website needs to be SEO compliant. A clear, intuitive navigation, proper sitemaps, fast page load times, etc., are basic website optimization elements that influence your website rankings. In addition:
- Include your location in your page titles and meta descriptions
- Include your address in the footer across your site
- If you serve multiple locations, ensure you have dedicated pages for each location
- Include local structured data markup to help search engines understand your site’s local content better
NAP Consistency
NAP stands for “Name, Address, and Phone Number.” NAP consistency is about being consistent in the way your business name, address and phone numbers are listed, not just on your site but across the web:
- Does your business name contain “LLC,” “Corp,” “Inc”? Does it end with a period (.) or not?
- Do you use a # or No before your door number? Do you use the full state name or its abbreviation?
- Do you use the country code in your phone number or not? Do you use spaces or hyphens as separators within the phone number?
To be consistent, your business NAP should be precisely the same everywhere.
Local Link Building
You need to acquire local links. Include a local strategy in your link building plan. Local directory submission and inclusion in citation data aggregators like Infogroup, Neustar, Acxiom and Factual should be part of your business local plan. Citations and local directories contribute signals that help the major search engines associate your business with its locations.
Creating Local Profiles
Create profiles in Google My Business, Google Plus, Yelp and other local business profile sites.
Social Media Marketing
Social media impacts local SEO directly and indirectly. Make sure you integrate social sharing throughout the site to allow visitors to share your content on their social media profiles. Use structured data to markup your social channels. Be active in social media sharing useful local content that your target audience would find useful and engaging.
Reviews and Ratings
What your customers feel about your business directly impacts your SEO. For local SEO to be effective, you should ensure your customers are delighted and post positive reviews and ratings on your Google My Business channel and other review sites. Reviews, ratings, and citations impact your brand sentiment and informs search engines about how your customers perceive your business.
Creating Local Content
Content is the most important factor that influences your rankings and SEO traffic. Creating local content around keywords that your customers search for is essential to create interest, improve social engagement, gain incoming links and also to be seen by search engines as a relevant site for keywords that matter to you.
Why is Local SEO Important?
As a business owner, the online visibility of your website should be important to you whether you own a local electronics store, restaurant or even a real estate office. Local search optimization can help improve online visibility and help you acquire more local customers. Here are a few important local search facts to consider:
- Local search optimization is effective because it attracts potential customers who are searching for your products and services in your location.
- More and more shoppers are searching the web first to find local products and services. This is a huge advantage for website owners looking to find more local customers.
- People are more likely to buy from businesses they know and trust. If you want to dominate your competition and attract more local business, local internet marketing can help.
When your local listing is well optimized, people will be able to find your website easier. Websites that are not optimized for local businesses tend to get side lined.
Local search optimization and us
- We will only use relevant keywords your target audience is currently searching. So, let’s say people are searching for chocolate in Pennsylvania type in “chocolate pa” in the search engine box. Your website should have those keywords within your web content to help make it visible to the search engines.
- We will make sure the keywords being used make sense of the content. So, instead of using the sentence ‘to buy quality chocolate PA,’ we will use: ‘to buy quality chocolate in ‘
- We will avoid keyword stuffing to attract the search engines. Remember, your online visitors are the ones who will be reading your text and making the ultimate decision to contact you or purchase your product/service. Instead of keyword stuffing, our content team will ensure it is customer/reader friendly.
- People may have been able to get away with stuffing in keywords several years ago but not today. Search engines can tell when your content is keyword stuffed. Your web content should not only be well-optimized, but it should also be interesting to read as well.
Hiring a Local Search Optimization Expert
The majority of websites that are doing well with local search optimization hire the best industry experts to optimize their websites. Flying Cow Design is a prime web design company that also offers local search optimization services for clients who want to improve their online visibility to local customers.
If you are serious about dominating the keywords and driving more local customers to your website, local search optimization is the answer. To get started, contact Flying Cow Design to analyze your website and get you started. Before you know it, more potential customers can contact you through local search.