Are you a local business struggling to get traffic to your business website? Or are you a new business just starting out? Local seo is your friend who helps you get seen by your potential customer online.
So, what really is local SEO?
Imagine yourself in the shoes of an individual who is running a cake business from his/her home. Having a personal website listing your services and prices is a great addition and asset for your business venture. But just having a website up and running doesn’t set you up for success. For a home baker your potential customers are the ones living close to your home or baking outlets physical location, if you provide home delivery for your baked goods you are likely targeting customers who are residing 15 to 20 minutes of driving time away from your location. In order to make these individuals your potential customers, you must first think about what they might type into the search bar of google or any other search engine they are using. Most people tend to type questions like “Home made cakes near me” or “Home baker near me”. These are location based searches, so the search engine gives best results close to the users physical location. In order for your website to pop up as the first result in such searches you need to optimize your website for local searches.
Use Longtail Geotargeted Keywords
What your potential customer types as a query into the search bar is your keyword. Use long tail keywords with mention of your stores location in your meta title, meta description and site URL, Use geotargeted LSI words and supporting keywords in your websites body and heading tags. Tools like google keyword planner, Semrush, Ahrefs keyword checker can be used to find possible keywords along with their search density and competition. Use keywords naturally throughout your website, avoid keyword stuffing and Cannibalisation.
Google my Business integration
Google My Business is a platform where your business can be listed for free. Images of your business with location maps and contact information along with rating and reviews from customers are added here. Google My Business acts as free marketing for your business, people get to know about your business’s timing and other information. Rating and reviews from previous customers give your business credibility. Registering your business in GMB is essential for your website to appear in local searches.
Listing in local Directories
You can list your website in local directories. Listing in online directories like Just dial, Yelp, Sulekha, Yellow pages etc. improve visibility of your business online.
Collect customer reviews and Testimonial
Ask your regular customers to leave a review on the website. Reviews build trust and credibility among your customers and search engines alike. Google recommends businesses with the most positive reviews and ratings to its users.Testimonials have the same effect, if you are a service based business like an educational training centre, testimonials from your students, placement records etc helps in more conversions.
Social Media Posts
Identify where your target customers spend most of their time. Regular updates and posts in social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Youtube etc. can positively help your business grow
Schema Mark up
Schema markup is a piece of code that you can add to your website. Schema helps google to know more about your website. Information like Business name, type, location, address and contact details can be added to schema markup. This helps google to give your website as result for “near me” searches
Improve mobile speed of your website
Nowadays most searches are done through mobile. Optimizing core web vitals and mobile loading time is important because faster loading websites rank better on the search engine result page of google.
Consistent NAP information
Name , Address and phone number of your business should be the same across various listing platforms including, Google My Business, local directories, your social media pages and website. Adding NAP information in the footer section of the website is highly recommended.
Analytics to measure result
Integrate your website with google analytics and google search console. Both are free tools where you can measure your website traffic, where your traffic is from, the keywords you are ranking for etc. so you can optimize your further marketing strategies accordingly.
Things you should factor in order to win the local SEO game are described above. Our team here at Indogulf institute are dedicated to improve your conversions and leads through advanced digital marketing strategy. If you have an itch to know more about SEO and its principles get in touch with us.