Google has revolutionized the digital landscape with its search and assist features. Local businesses are finding it much easier to expand in their vicinity and beyond, with Local SEO.
There is a popular misconception that SEO is only fruitful for large enterprises. Did you know that 46% of all searches on Google are for local information and over 70% users visit a store within 5 miles of the search result?
If you run a small business in a particular location – you need to optimize its digital footprint with the best practices for local SEO – to improve customer engagement.
If you are a pizzeria that accepts walk-ins in Toronto or a shoe store in Montreal, international traffic would be meaningless to your business unless you plan to expand. This is why you need to optimize for local SEO which provides regional exposure, resulting in highly targeted traffic directed from consumers in your vicinity.
Let us explain what local SEO is and how a small business can make the most out of it to achieve business goals.
What is Local SEO
Picture this: Out of nowhere a car starts acting up. The driver looks up “car maintenance company near me,” imagine what if you were that nearest garage with a robust local SEO strategy.
You just gained a new client because you worked on local search optimization for your business.
Local SEO is an effective tool to promote your business online. Each time a potential customer looks up for a keyword or phrase relevant to your business — Google will turn up your website or contact information.
Let’s devise an effective local SEO strategy to increase sales for your local business now!
Your Local SEO Strategy
To rank your business high among other establishments in your area, you should:
- Optimize your ‘Google My Business’ page
- Work on on-page SEO
- NAP and Local Directories
1 – Optimize Your ‘Google My Business’ Page
Visit Google My Business and get your business registered. To validate your request, Google will send a confirmation code to the mentioned business address on your profile. Once received, enter the code and you all set to rank up on Google.
If a business ranks on the first page of search results, chances of the links being clicked on are high, as 72% of visitors do not go past the first search-result page.
As part of your local SEO strategy, you can optimize a ‘Google My Business’ page with these tips:
- Make sure the name, logo, and description of your business is the same on all platforms
- Update your Google My Business profile with your offerings regularly i.e. products and services
- Encourage visitors to give honest reviews about your establishment. Whether a review is good or bad — always take it with optimism to improve
- If you have more than one location make sure it is mentioned in your Google listing
2 – Improve On-Page SEO
All SEO practices are meant to improve potential leads to your website. So as part of your local SEO strategy, you need to optimize your website for local SEO 2020.
On-page SEO can be improved by:
More Internal Links
Backlinks from high-authority websites are always relevant, but links from within the website are very important. Google uses advanced algorithms and internal links help the search engine understand the structure of your website.
A website often has many pages, some are important while some not so much — with internal links a hierarchy is created to make sure a potential lands on the relevant webpage.
Content Optimization
For every piece of content, a new index page is created and added to the website’s site map.
Therefore, it is best to optimize every aspect of your content. Start with niche relevant keywords for your product or service. And include title tags, meta description, and sub-headings to ensure better visibility on search engines.
For local search optimization, check the keyword difficulty and search volume in your region. Experts suggest you choose a bunch of low-difficulty keywords with moderate search volume, as opposed to a high-difficulty keyword with good traffic.
Location-Specific Content
Good content on relevant topics may bring in reasonable traffic. But can you capitalize on the traffic if you operate locally?
This is why, as part of your local SEO strategy, you should create location-centric titles and content. It entices the visitors to act toward your intended goal — which is more traffic and better sales.
For instance, if you run a fitness boot camp in the Greater Toronto Area you can create pieces with Canadian statistics on healthy living and obesity to attract locals to sign up.
Create Location Pages
If your business has multiple stores there should be a separate page for each location. And remember not to duplicate content or your ranking may suffer.
An ideal location page should provide potential customers with your business’ name, address, number, location map, and store hours etc.
Have a Responsive Website
61% of mobile users contact a store immediately if the website is responsive. It is predicted that by 2021 mobile devices may account for $1.4 trillion in local sales.
So it goes without saying that your website should function equally well on different screens. All content, menus, and buttons should self-adjust accordingly.
3 – NAP And Local Directories
Four in five people look up for a business on their phones to find the location and read reviews about a product or service. The aim is to help visitors reach out to you efficiently so set up your Name, Address and Phone number (NAP).
An ideal place to include NAP is either in the header or footer of the page since it remains the same across the website.
Additionally, you should seek quality backlinks to your website from credible local listings i.e. chamber of commerce, licensing bureaus, social bookmarking websites, guest-posting websites etc.
Key Takeaways
The digital landscape is becoming saturated with new websites and business offerings by the second — to stand out every business needs to improve its local SEO.
Holistic SEO takes time to get your ranked, but if your business operates in a particular area customer engagement and foot traffic can be drastically improved with a proficient local SEO strategy.
Follow the tips discussed in the piece for local search optimization. But if it seems too overwhelming and you require professional help from one of Canada’s finest, reach out to us now! Partnering with professional local SEO services can help you implement the essential strategies outlined in this article, ultimately leading to higher sales and improved lead generation in no time.
