Search engine optimization (SEO) is a crucial strategy in today’s internet-driven world. To gain new leads and new clients, your business should be easily found on search engines. Optimizing your website for local SEO allows your services to stand out amongst your competition and makes you more likely to land new clients over your competitors. By taking the right steps toward local search optimization, you could maximize your potential and see a large increase in clients.
What is Local SEO?
Local search engine optimization refers to the strategy of improving your website’s content to improve your position on search rankings for customers looking for services in your area. Many consumers search online for a service in their area before choosing which to use. Local SEO makes your business more visible to those consumers.
A strong local SEO strategy makes it easier for potential clients and customers to find your business. When your website is optimized for search engines, it will rank toward the top of the page on search engine results, allowing potential customers to see your website and consider your services before others in your area. Local SEO is a great way to pull in new customers and make them see the value in what your business offers.
How to Improve Local SEO for Your Business
Search engines and their algorithms prioritize websites that meet a certain set of criteria. Websites that utilize the right keywords, are complete and provide accurate information to consumers are more likely to rank higher in search engine results, closer to the top of the first page. The following local SEO tips can help you set your business apart and start generating more clients much more quickly.
1. Optimize Your Homepage
Your website’s homepage should highlight all of the key information surrounding your business, like location, services and products. Your homepage is the central location for your website, so it should include all the information necessary to gain a comprehensive picture of your business.
Your homepage should also be well-organized and include a page title, headers and a meta description to clearly demonstrate the most important information. This makes it easier for Google to see the key components of your business and thus for customers to find it. Webhosting platforms like WordPress even provide you with ways to focus on SEO when developing your webpages, so be sure to consider these tools when updating your site.
2. Utilize Metadata Correctly
Metadata refers to your page title tags and meta descriptions. These are the two things that anyone who finds your business on a search engine will see first. You should be sure to include your location and the service or product you offer in the page title so that search engines know what your business is about.
Optimizing your metadata can not only help your website rank higher but also make a better impression on potential clients who find your business via search results. A proper page title and meta description should provide a clear picture of what the page is about and what a consumer will gain, making them more likely to click on your website and choose your services.
3. Create a Page for All Your Services
Increase your SEO strategy by maximizing opportunities for customers to find your services. Consolidating your services and products into as few pages as possible does not help your website rank on local search engine results. Instead, you should have a page for every service and product you offer and every location you serve.
This strategy helps each page be more specific, use more relevant keywords to the topic and be more attractive to search engines. Generalized pages are less likely to rank on search engines, while more pages mean more landing opportunities for customers searching for services and allow each one to be more targeted to potential search criteria.
4. Tailor Your Content to Local Search Terms
Search engines prioritize business websites that provide content that is useful to consumers. Of course, search engines are also going to prioritize websites that directly respond to what a consumer is looking for. This means that you should understand what your consumers are searching for by identifying local search terms and creating useful content that includes these keywords. Blogs and infographics that include highly-searched keywords are a great way to optimize your website for local organic visibility.
5. Develop a Google My Business Page
Google Maps is becoming a key way for consumers to find businesses and services. To optimize your business to rank high on Google Maps and in Google search results, a strong Google My Business account is crucial. To set up a Business Profile, you simply need to create an account and verify ownership of the business. Then make sure that all of the information on the account is accurate, including location, contact information, hours of operation and photos. This should also link to your website so that customers have a clear pipeline to finding your business, learning more about it and choosing your services.
6. Highlight Your Catalog of Reviews
Reviews are another key influence on your local search optimization. Positive reviews demonstrate that your business is providing the services advertised and that the claims made by your business are valid. Reviews on Yelp and Google are highly considered by search engines, and they will always show up on the first page of results. Be sure to position your business in a way that encourages your customers to leave reviews and conduct business in a manner that encourages them to leave positive ones as they make a great impression on search engines and customers that search for your business.
7. Optimize Your Mobile Website
Consumers are becoming far less likely to use desktop websites since today we have access to all of the same information in our hands. You may be doing your business a large disservice if you have focused on building a strong website but have not optimized it for a mobile phone screen. Consumers who search for a business on their phone are likely to make a quick decision on which services to use, so you should be sure that your mobile website is attractive to consumers and neatly provides all of the information they need to make an informed decision.
8. Use Location-Specific Pages
Similar to creating a page for every product and service, you should have a page on your website dedicated to each location for your business. This is a great way to improve your SEO strategy if you have multiple business locations in one city or if you have a location that serves multiple cities or townships. Customers should be able to search from all nearby areas and find your business. Each page should include important location-specific information, like hours of operation, specific contact information, parking availability and a Google Maps widget.
9. Take Advantage of Local Directories
Local business directories are a great way to increase exposure for your business and increase your local SEO. Online business directories include sites like Yelp and YellowPages. As with your other business pages, be sure that your listings in these directories always feature accurate and up-to-date information about your services and operation. A backlink to your website is also crucial for building your site’s E-A-T (expertise, authority, trust) which leads to increased site credibility.
The more your business name and website links are out there on the web, the more opportunities you have to bring in new customers and generate conversions.
10. Gain Quality Backlinks
Backlinks, or link signals, are when other websites link back to your site in their content, and they are a huge factor in search result rankings. Backlinks from other websites show that your business and website are reliable sources of information and deserve to be ranked high on search engines. However, these links must be of high quality and be naturally incorporated into the source content. Search engines see through backlinks that are illegitimate or paid-for. By creating high-quality content and developing relationships with local influencers, you can increase your opportunities for other sites to link back to your website.
To learn more about optimizing your website and improving your local SEO strategy, contact Kanbar Digital today. We have experience with both large and local business SEO and can help you take the right steps toward ranking higher in search results and generating more leads and conversions.
