While local businesses are at an obvious disadvantage against larger brands in terms of paid marketing, they too, have unique competitive advantages over the latter, especially now that digital channels level the playing field for small and large businesses alike. With an effective search strategy, getting the right people to come to your doorsteps shouldn’t be as difficult. By focusing your efforts on the right strategies and building smart local SEO campaigns, it will not be long until you can outshine your competitors in local search and welcome consumers who are looking for the exact things you provide into your business. Here are top local strategies that can help any business boost their rankings in local search:
- Researching the right keywords. Keywords still run the search world, and one of the first things you should do to ramp up your rankings is to find the right keywords your target customers are using in order to find you (and businesses just like you). There are numerous tools that you can use to generate keywords and key phrases that will best represent what your business stands for, taking into consideration who and where your target audiences are.
- Optimizing both your site and your content. Optimizing your content alone isn’t enough to get the SEO juice you need. While high quality content is indeed critical for visitors and search engines, it is equally important to optimize your website design in a way that is both user and search-engine friendly.
- Utilizing Google Local. Listing your business on Google Local will give you a greater chance of getting more exposure for your business. Google Places for Business was specifically developed to help website owners control the information displayed by the search engine in Google Search and Maps. This way, you can more easily be found and verified by potential customers.
- Creating/claiming your local listings. This means creating and claiming all listings for your business in local directories, review websites, and similar platforms. These listings represent citations, which are critical components in the ranking algorithm of search engines.
- Maintaining consistent listings. Keeping your business listings consistent is crucial to establishing a strong local presence as inconsistencies in your data such as your business address, contact details, and similar types of information can negatively impact your potential to rank well. Using the same details on your website and your social media profiles, review sites, and local directories, is therefore critical to maintaining a strong presence.
- Asking for genuine reviews. Real, honest reviews are always better than fake reviews solicited or generated specifically for your business. It will not be long until search engines and customers catch on to your feeble attempt to make your name sound great through these bogus reviews.
- Optimizing social profiles. The various social media platforms your consumers and target audiences are on are also excellent vehicles for exposure for your business. To boost local rankings, make sure that all social profiles that you maintain include your physical location, business name, and the URL pointing back to your website.
- Exploring local outreach. Another great way to drive much needed attention to your business is to get people to link to you and talk about your business. Make deals with bloggers who are willing to write about your local business or use social media and other tools to find influencers in your location.
- Going mobile. There are more than one million mobile devices activated across the globe on a daily basis. This means superior reach through your mobile outlets. Invest in making your website and other web assets mobile responsive so consumers can get quality user experience whenever they visit your website.
- Monitoring analytics. One of the greatest benefits of online marketing has always been the ability to monitor results, track efforts, and analyze strategies instantaneously. This way, you can easily adjust your campaign to fit what consumers are demanding
