What is Local SEO and 19 ways to ace local SEO
The whole sphere of online communication is under some strong development tendencies. The Internet has transformed out to be the largest marketing platform with countless opportunities for attracting customers and getting profit. Some business owners concentrate on generating traffic from social media, while others aim to increase their sales by sending traffic to affiliate offers or landing pages.
It is undeniable that it is an effective strategy, however, there is a chance that your hard-earned visitors will never be converted into real customers. Another kind of problem can appear in case you are selling something not so easy to sell online. For example, if you are selling beauty products with short expiration dates or perishable goods or want to offer some advice, your visitors might not be ready to make an order at this very moment. Thus, they will go offline and never return.
So what is Local SEO really?
There are various sources of traffic generation with each one having its own pros and cons. If you rely on social media strategies for your business promotion, you need to understand how quickly people’s moods change in social networks.
One day they share your links and offer, another day you will see zero results for months. These things happen because people are not ready to make an order when they find themselves within your social audience, however, if you could reach them when they are already inside their homes searching for the kinds of items or services that you offer, it would be a completely different story.
To sum up, you need to combine social media and offline marketing techniques in your promotion strategy for getting more qualified customers within shorter time periods. But how can you combine such opposite types of online communication like social networks (full of entertainment) and real life?
The answer is very simple: You need to provide your prospects with an opportunity to watch videos, listen to audio, read texts, etc. wherever they are now. Luckily enough, today there is a smart solution for the problem everybody is facing nowadays – it’s called Local SEO.
Why is local SEO important?
Local SEO implies the promotion of businesses within local search results. The main idea of this strategy is to help people find a company located in their cities, towns, or even villages. Business owners have already learned that it is very important to appear on Google Maps and social media networks as the first results of local online searches. The most effective way for getting such “featured” positions on search engine web pages is to create unique content about your business location and publish it on social media networks, in articles and videos, add a link to your website using special tags in the “Description” field, etc.
Thus, you can attract both local and global audiences by promoting your business online at the same time.
How to get the Local SEO done right?
Let’s review 21 options that this form of SEO provides for companies from different industries:
1) Optimizing your on-page content.
This is the most basic way to promote your business online. All you need is to make sure that Google and other search engines can easily index all data about your business using JavaScript (it works only on desktop computers).
Thus, you need to put the right keywords into the “Title” field of your website, create an “Anchor” to your website in the “Description” field on social media networks, publish photos and videos with correct tags. If you manage to do all things listed above properly, you will be able to attract more people to your business.
2) Optimizing local business listings on Google Maps.
The world’s most popular search engine provides people with an opportunity to find any business using maps. Thus, you must make sure that your map listing is 100% completed and contains all important information about your company (such as phone number, photos, website URL).
3) Optimizing your videos for local search results
This is very effective if you offer some advice, sell beauty products or services, etc. You need to add your business name in the title of your videos, create a custom description for every video, add the keywords that describe your company in them, and upload them on YouTube. Make sure you do not use only one keyword but a couple of words in order to make your SEO campaign effective.
4) Optimizing local guest posts
Start a conversation with a relevant blog owner and share his content on your social media networks. The most important thing here is not to use many keywords but write about the topic in an engaging way so that people would like to read what you have prepared for them.
5) Optimizing local business listings in articles
If you create your own blog, write about your company location in your posts. Provide people with all important information in them so they can find you when searching for any service or product that you offer online.
6) Optimizing videos on Facebook and other social media networks
If you haven’t done this yet, it is the right time to start doing it today! Upload videos about your business location and promote them via Facebook – it is a great opportunity for driving traffic to your website.
7) Optimizing local business listings in printed media
If you still promote your business through printed magazines and newspapers (which is not a bad idea at all), make sure that there is an “Anchor” to every printed announcement on your website. Thus, people would be able to visit your business online and stay there for longer.
8) Optimizing local blog posts
If you own a blog about a specific topic that is related to your business, write useful pieces of advice about it and provide links to your company location in every post – this is the best way to get backlinks and tell people about your business.
9) Optimizing local business events announcements
Add correct information about your company location in every event announcement you publish on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. People will be able to find your events when searching for any service or product that you offer online.
10) Optimizing local busines
s profiles on social media networks
Add the citation of your business location in every profile you create at different websites (Labels, Facebook, Google+, etc.) and get more people to follow your company online which will help build up brand awareness.
11) Optimizing local product pages
If you sell products directly from your
website, make sure that visitors can find your business easily and that they receive all important information about its location. If you run a blog
or forum, submit links to local product pages – this will help you get more backlinks and customers.
12) Optimizing online press releases
Every piece of news must contain relevant keywords, compelling descriptions and great photos so people could easily find it when searching for any service or product that you offer online.
13) Optimizing your business description
Add all important location information to the description of your Google+ profile, YouTube videos, and other online resources that you have created for people to find you when searching for any service or product that you offer online.
14) Optimizing podcasts about your business
Upload podcasts with detailed descriptions on iTunes so people could easily find you when searching for any service or product that you offer online.
15) Optimizing Facebook profiles of your employees
If your business is related to social media, make sure all its profiles are well-optimized to bring more visitors and customers!
16) Optimizing tags in social media networks
Add all important location information to the tags of your images, videos, and other online resources that you have created for people to find you when searching for any service or product that you offer online.
17) Optimizing Google Maps
Add location information to the description of your Google+ profile, YouTube videos, and other online resources that you have created for people to find you when searching for any service or product that you offer online.
18) Optimizing LinkedIn profiles about your business location
This is a great opportunity to link your business profile with local pages of Google+ which will help you get more backlinks and visitors. Make sure you add links to all important pages of your website in these profiles, too.
19) Optimizing Wikipedia about your business location
This is one of the best SEO practices for local businesses that helps bring tons of targeted traffic every month to your website!
Local SEO practices are especially very significant in the case of local businesses. And acing the practices can really boost revenue for concerned businesses. We are sure the above pointers are going to help you juggle through the maze.