If are you exploring our services, you probably already understand what SEO or Search Engine Optimization is. Well, have you ever heard of Local SEO?
This article will explain what Local SEO is and how it will benefit your Orlando business. My goal is to provide you with enough instruction to implement a successful Local SEO campaign on your own. If you need additional help, please feel free to contact me.
What is Local SEO?
A search engine wants to catalog all the information on the web and provide you the best results based upon your intent of the search. However, with the progression of the web from dial up modems and heavy desktops to portable devices like mobile phones, there was an opportunity to provide more than just web pages in the results. While anyone with an Internet connection can build a website, there are far fewer that own and operate brick-and-mortar store fronts.
Google wants to make sure that if someone is searching for, “places to eat near me”, “best dentist in Orlando”, or any query that leads to a physical location, that the results it shows are actual businesses that a person can visit. If it knows that the place is real, you will have a better chance of appearing in those results.
Why is a Local SEO Campaign Important?
Hopefully, as a local business owner, you have an idea of which marketing channels are bringing people through your door. There are many ways to advertise – flyers, social media, radio & television ads, paid-per click (PPC) and billboards to name a few – but an effective local SEO campaign can be the most effective in terms of customer acquisition cost and trackability.
If your business relies on foot traffic or leads from customers in a physical location, then Local SEO marketing is the right choice for your business. Whether you are a small boutique retail shop or a large company with multiple locations, there are many business opportunities in Local SEO.
How you can conduct your own Local SEO campaign
There are many steps to undergo a great local SEO campaign. I will summarize these below. If it seems like too much of an undertaking, please explore our services and reach out if you need assistance.
- Register your site with Google My Business.
- Make sure your NAP is consistent across multiple channels.
- Build out citations.
- Increase your number of reviews.
- Appear number in the top position under the map pack.
Register your business with Google My Business
If you haven’t yet done this, head to https://www.google.com/business and register your business. If it’s already registered and you don’t own it, then claim it. Once you own it, you can edit your profile to upload images of your business and its activities, adjust your store hours, and reply to any comments. Also, pay attention to how your name, address, and phone number is listed.
Check your NAP (Name, Address, Phone)
After you have your GMB listing, make sure that the name, address, and phone number of your business is listed in the footer of your website as well as on your “Contact Us” page. If it’s already there, make sure it’s listed out exactly how Google has it listed.
Once this is complete, repeat this process with any of your social media and Web 2.0 profiles such as Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Foursquare, etc. If you don’t have any of these accounts, go create them now and enter in your information. We call each one of these entries, citations. Go out and get as many citations as you can.
Build out citations
Citations are a key component in creating authority and building a strong foundation for your local search presence. Getting listed on the top sites and on hyper-local and industry-specific citations is one of the first steps in establishing your local visibility.
The best way to obtain citations is to register for online directory listings. The more places where you can list your business, the better.
Get some reviews
Are you asking people to review your business online? If not, start asking for reviews. Getting reviews on Google is great, but are also beneficial in other places as well. Obviously, what’s important is to get as many legitimate 5-star reviews as possible since a person will most likely choose a 5-star business with lots of reviews over a 1-star. What’s equally important, however, is that you are responding to reviews.
Make sure to thank those online that leave good reviews and address any negative reviews. Google wants to know that you care enough about your customers to take the time to respond to them. Try doing that on a one-on-one basis through print marketing.
Make sure your website is fast and mobile friendly
Think about it. You are driving down the road and your stomach starts to rumble. So, you pull into a parking lot, pull out your phone, load your web browser, and type, “places to eat near me”. Up comes a list of food related businesses near your location. You pick a sushi joint nearby that sounds great, click on the address, load the GPS coordinates, and head on your way to enjoy a spicy tuna roll.
Did you notice, that on your way to raw fish bliss, that you passed many restaurants that were much closer to you that didn’t show up in the “map pack” or even in the listings? There is a good chance that those places didn’t have websites that were optimized for a mobile device or are loading very slowly. Google knows how hard it is to navigate a website on a small screen and it knows how impatient we are. Therefore, if a website doesn’t meet those two requirements, then it will push it down further in the rankings giving priority to those that are set up to make the customer’s life easy. It’s not all about proximity.
Ranking your website higher is important if you are providing information or making online sales, but if your business needs customers walking through the door, then you want to put a local SEO plan into place. Following the steps above will increase your chances of appearing higher in search rankings for local customers. If you need help implementing this or any other SEO strategy, please feel free to contact us.