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As a small business owner, you most likely know that just having a website up isn’t going to magically generate local business– you’re going to need a solid online marketing plan to bring in new customers. There are a veritable multitude of benefits that come with utilizing local SEO services and online marketing strategies, and when choosing a company to handle your Search Engine Optimization, you’ll need to look at some basic requirements they should have in order to be effective.
Local SEO Services: A Balance of Art, Math, and Logic
The truth is, localized SEO has become something of an art form; over the years, search engines have become more adept at determining the intent of a search query to provide results that are relevant to individual needs. What this means is that search results are now custom-tailored and really, really intuitive to knowing what the searcher wants.
Engines such as Yahoo, Bing and Google now rely on more than just search terms to provide a deeper understanding of how to categorize websites for particular areas. Speak with any Search Engine Optimization professional working with an agency that specializes in this technique, and you’ll be witness to the conversation focusing on creating quality user-focused content, optimized site speed, building quality relevant backlinks… in addition to other ranking factors.
Bottom line: Websites need to be constructed and written for your ideal customer… not just robots.
Why Should You Care About Your Local Ranking
In 2016, it’s a necessity to be online and visible to local customers. The right agency will focus on increasing your online visibility— because the right ones know that 90% of consumers search online for products and services and that nearly 70% of those searches are focused locally. Local SEO services will make sure that your business is listed in all the right places in order to attract local customers to your locally optimized site, boosting your leads, and making your phone ring more often.
If your business does not have a local presence and isn’t optimized for local searches, you could be missing out on thousands of leads on a daily basis. And you know what? Missed leads equate to missed profits… something we’re sure you can’t afford in this competitive market.
A popular educational resource site, Search Engine Land, recently explained the necessity of local SEO by using simple math:
Let’s assume that there are 20 used car dealers and 2 new car dealers actually in your suburb. There are 17 spots on page one of Google if you count the organic results and the map pack… but after the recent Pigeon update, there are a lot of directories showing up. After we remove the directory spots, that leaves 11 or 12 possible spots.
22 dealers – 12 spots = 10 dealers that won’t be on page one, just in your suburb…
But, you obviously want to target the larger metro area to bring in more search traffic. There are 8 suburbs in your metro, so let’s adjust the math:
22 dealers x 8 cities = 176 dealers
But, we also need to account for the dealers that are in the main city in your metro area. Since it’s a much bigger city, let’s conservatively say that there are three times as many dealerships there. Now, our equation looks like this:
22 dealers x 11 cities = 242 dealers
That’s 242 dealers fighting for the 12 spots on the first page of Google search results — which means 230 dealers won’t make it to page one.
When it’s all laid out in this way, it’s easy to see that you’re going to need to get moving on an SEO campaign in order to even think about competing for visibility.
Local SEO is Not a Passing Fad
Let us be blunt here: Local SEO is NOT a passing fad or just another marketing “gimmick;” it is the future of all search as far as we’re concerned. This means that failing to act now will only make it more difficult for your small business when you are forced to change. You see, as a business owner, you need to let Google know where you are located and what you have to offer, so you’re not only showing up on Google search engine results pages (SERPs) more frequently, but in front of the eyes of a very relevant demographic.
Because local SEO has been, unfortunately, a somewhat confusing topic due to its tendency to make people unsure of where to begin – especially with Google’s Pigeon algorithm which makes understanding organic search ranking factors even more important to establishing a local search presence – we’re going to cover some of the must-have SEO strategies when it comes to local SEO.
Local search doesn’t have to be complicated; you just need to ensure you’re working with a local SEO services provider with a well-rounded local strategy.
5 Must-Have Strategies for Local SEO
A solid local SEO services provider should:
1. Locally Optimize Your Website
We touched on this a bit earlier, but a ginormous part of local search ranking is your actual website – it’s not just about your local listings and pages. It’s imperative that your local SEO services provider know what it takes to create a mobile responsive, locally optimized website– including locally optimized content marketing campaigns, locally optimized landing pages, link building, and much more. They should employ proper use of NAP (Name, Address, Phone) and schema markup as well as quick links to your social media profiles. There are also a number of things that are important if you want to show up specifically in local 3 pack results on Google.
2. Create Accurate Local Listings
According to ComScore, address and location are the primary pieces of information sought by local searchers. So of course, the first step is making sure that your business boasts a local business directory listing page for at least the three major search engines: Bing, Yahoo and Google.
The agency you’re working with needs to make sure all of your information is filled out and that you have consistent NAP data for your small business across all directory listings. Search engines are ridiculously detail oriented and having multiple listings with inconsistent NAP data can lower your ranking. Google sees your business listed with different NAPs, it will start seeing those listings as different businesses.
3. Strong Social Media Strategy
Social media channels and a strong social media engagement strategy are also incredibly important to have locally optimized and active– especially considering social media pages show up in search results now. On Facebook alone, nearly 130,000,000 American adults are on it every single day. It’s an extremely low cost aspect to online marketing that gives you a direct line to current and prospective customers.
4. Know How to Garner Quality Online Reviews
Google looks at reviews as a major factor for ranking on its new carousel design; however, and most importantly, your reviews are for Google users who see your company on a SERP. According to Linkedin’s research, 69% of all consumers will search the internet for online reviews of a product, service, hotel, restaurant, or attraction, before making a decision to purchase. According to BrightLocal’s research, they found that 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
Fortunately, there are a myriad of ways a good SEO company can help boost the number of your quality reviews.
5. Track and Report Your Progress
Anyone who knows SEO knows that proper local optimization, link building, and online marketing are powerful strategies that work in tandem as an ongoing process.
A large part of ensuring that your site and online presence is properly optimized is knowing what’s working– and what’s not. You need to know where your calls and emails are coming from and be able to see how your local SEO campaign is progressing. A local SEO service needs to provide you with ongoing analytics and progress reports so you can see just how well your local SEO is doing– and if what they’re doing is effective.
In summary, here’s why local SEO matters:
- “61% of searchers consider local results to be more relevant than standard search results.” -Resource.com
- Google (and other search engines) majorly factor in location data when displaying search results.
- People tend to include cities/states/regions when searching for businesses on the web and even ” {service} near me“.
- Local competition online is increasing and businesses need to target local niches in order to achieve relevant visibility.
Through an individualized approach, a local SEO services provider can analyze how locations are performing independently and identify your “trouble” markets in terms of rankings, traffic and goal achievements. In addition to gaining more visitors, they can “geo-target” your business and its website to increase conversions, so you can optimize for both the search engine and the user. Bottom line: High local search rankings equals increased traffic and revenue.
