Most business owners have heard a lot about local search engine optimization (or local SEO) by now, but we meet quite a few who aren’t maximizing their visibility with buyers on Google. In many cases, they simply don’t know how to take the ideas they’ve learned and put them to use.
That’s unfortunate, both because local SEO isn’t that complicated and because it can give you a big boost in your bottom line. To show you why it’s so important to your marketing – and more importantly, what you need to do – here are some things you should know…
Local SEO Can Give You a Big Marketing Advantage
A few years ago, the engineers at Google noticed that many of the search engine users were obviously going online to look for information, locations, and reviews on businesses in their areas. So, they adjusted the underlying algorithm to match searchers with vendors and companies nearby (particularly when searches were originating from mobile phones and tablets).
You have undoubtedly noticed this in your own life. But while that’s convenient for searchers, it gives marketers an enormous opportunity to set themselves apart from their competitors. After all, if Google can tell you are local to your customers, you can jump ahead of other competitors – even if they have bigger websites or have invested more heavily in SEO.
Making the Most of Local SEO Isn’t Difficult
Basic local search engine optimization isn’t nearly as difficult or technical as you might think. In essence, it involves letting Google’s automated software (known as search spiders) know where your business is located.
That can be accomplished by including things like a street address or ZIP Code on your website. It can also help to use terms and phrases that pair your location with the type of business you are. For example, we could use terms like “Denver web design” or “Denver business web design” to make our website easier for Google’s software to crawl and understand.
Local SEO is More Effective with Extra Details
Many businesses could see an almost instant improvement just by using addresses and geographic keywords on their websites. However, there are other tools you can use to further increase your visibility and turn searchers into customers.
For instance, one thing we do with all of our clients is ensure they have maps, phone numbers, and driving directions displayed prominently on their websites and location pages. These make it far more likely that searchers will decide to stop in or make an appointment.
Additionally, it’s critical that any company that wants to market to local buyers have a Google Business profile, along with several positive reviews. These make the business even easier to find on social media, and encourage first-time customers to see for themselves why their friends and neighbors support the company.
Want Help With Local SEO?
The days of advertising your company in the Yellow Pages and waiting for sales to come in are long gone. And If you want customers in your neighborhood to be able to find your business quickly on Google when they have a need for the products and services you sell, it’s time to get our team of marketing experts working on the problem.
Contact us to schedule a free consultation so we can make sure your business shows up on the map for local buyers!