What Is Local SEO?
Local search engine optimization is critically important. Local SEO will continue to be extremely relevant to companies both large and small, and the goal of local SEO marketing is to help companies dominate and impact their niche. The best overview of nailing down local SEO aims at developing localized content and linking up with partnerships, affiliations, memberships, reviews and listings on popular local platforms. Platforms like Google and Facebook can even reveal what customers are saying about your company. There are four major components of local SEO:
- Citations
- Localization
- Ratings and Reviews
- Backlinks
Dominating Your Market with Local SEO
1. Work where your business lives. One of the biggest reasons to work with an SEO professional locally is that they can target prospects in the areas where businesses are established. There are many online resources that marketers and site owners can rely on to help attract customers. Online reviews, local advertising in classifieds, videos, relevant content, and high-impact images can provide scale exposure. An expert will know your area and all these resources.
2. Share socially and build links. This is a sign that your website is deploying the tools that will position it for a favorable ranking. Search engines value quality links that lead back to a website. Quality links to a page are like votes. The more votes, the more important a website will appear to search algorithms. Link building helps marketers to interact with those potential clients who can help grow their business.
3. Engage local users with optimized webpages. Local SEO allows marketers to meet customers on a customer’s own terms. Today, more searches take place on a mobile device than on a PC or laptop. People are on the go. As a result, local searches and proximity-based searches are on the rise, and there are no signs of this trend slowing down. Site owners must ensure their sites are responsive as well.
4. Put it into your website content. Your website can be the actual location of your business, or it can be a second destination to a physical location. Local SEO marketing is the perfect tool to help users interact with your business in either form. Your website should contain relevant information about your products or services. An additional advantage of local SEO is that it will help increase the number of inbound leads. With the right marketing and messaging, these inbound leads can convert to customers.
5. Understand that targeting locally boosts sales like nothing else will. The stats are in your favor for online success. Fifty percent of all people who search for local services on the phone visited a physical store within a single day. Thirty-four percent of those who searched for local products on their computers visited a local store within a day. Close to 18 percent of local mobile searches resulted in a sale within one day. Close to sixty percent or more of Americans will conduct a local search on their smartphone or tablet every day.
These numbers, while not set in stone, are right on target. The best part is they will only get higher. Those companies that invest in local SEO marketing are the companies positioned to edge out their competition. Those businesses that only run online e-commerce stores, along with businesses that are reluctant to share information about their company, are also likely the ones that will benefit less from local SEO.
Why Hire a Local SEO Company?
As mentioned before, one of the best reasons to work with SEO professionals in your city is they have the experience and understanding to service your target audience. SEO experts can help businesses discover more about their company goals and needs while also keeping an eye on their competitor’s objectives. It is always beneficial when a company has the tools to observe the external and secondary markets of their business.
In addition, a local SEO company has the knowledge to ensure Google and other search engines never ding or ban your website for unethical practices. Your company can benefit greatly from acute insights into the ways to reach your target audience, and effective SEO can also help you track the activities that occur on your website.
Companies must know what works, what does not, and why. Your company can stay on top of the latest SEO tactics and algorithm changes to keep you out in front of the competition.
SEO can accomplish a number of things that can position your company to compete:
- SEO helps to standardize your processes and provide performance insights to stay on top of key metrics.
- The customer’s user experience and journey are critical for your company’s success. Optimizing your website will attract and convert customers.
- Google rewards those websites that are fresh, consistent, and easy to find. Keep in mind that content will always be king. Your content can consist of text, videos, infographics, and other elements that can grab users’ attention. SEO helps to optimize your content for search mirror branding efforts across all of your online assets.
The Right Approach for Local SEO
Your SEO expert team can conduct a market analysis that reveals the language your audience uses for search. In this way, your local SEO strategy will take root in the desires and needs of your customers. Competitive research can also reveal and clarify the most relevant search terms for your products and services. SEO can help you develop a list of keywords and phrases that tend to drive the most interest. Heightened interest can result in more qualified leads.
A Checklist for Your Website
There are certain elements that every website should have. Incorporate the following:
- Make your website mobile responsive. One of the most important things is that it must be responsive. This helps you to gain favor with Google. A user on a mobile device should navigate as easily as a user on a PC.
- Include a blog on your website. This allows you to establish your expertise and to satisfy Google’s requirement for refreshing websites. Optimize your content so that it is relevant and useful. Create shareable content on venues like Facebook and Twitter.
- Provide testimonials and case studies. Testimonials build trust. People will readily believe the opinions of others even before they believe advertisements. Your entire website should reflect your expertise in ways that can convey credibility. Case studies can also be an effective tool to win over prospects. A case study can reveal how your company solved a problem and the processes followed.
- Provide videos or photos of your work and of your team. People like to know who they are working with. Give your visitors and clients a reason to trust you above your competition.
There’s more you need to know about local search engine optimization. If you’re like most of the businesses that don’t have time to devote to these technical tasks, partner with the SEO experts who will help you create an SEO strategy that complements your products and services. Advanced Digital Media Services offers the best local SEO services! You can work with our team of professionals to get the results you’ve always wanted.