If you run a small business, most of your target customers are likely to be within your locality. That is why you should keep your business visible among them. That will create brand awareness for your business.
Running local SEO campaigns will increase the visibility of your business among your target customers. Today, most consumers search for their preferred products and services on Google before buying them locally. As such, you will miss out on customers if you undermine the need to implement a local SEO strategy.
You can determine the relevance of such campaigns by looking at the available statistics. That shows 46% of Google searches seek local information, including finding a local business.
What is Local SEO?
Before discovering effective strategies for running successful local SEO campaigns, brushing up your knowledge with the underlying concept seems to be a good idea. That would help you develop a mental foundation to run impactful campaigns.
You can regard it as optimizing the online presence of your business for local searches. That way, you can increase its visibility in local search results when people search for products or services within a specific geographical location. You can also interpret the optimization as the cause behind your business ranking higher in location-based searches, including the “near me” ones. The rationale behind running a local SEO strategy is to connect with local customers through a search engine (predominantly Google).
Best Methods of Running a Local SEO Campaign
You can attract more customers to your business by running a local SEO campaign. That way, your business will flourish, and revenues will increase. However, its effectiveness will depend on how you run it. Here are the best practices for running a local SEO strategy:
#1. Set Your Goals
Fixing the objectives is the first step in running such a campaign. That will impart a direction to its implementation. Decide your goals according to your business needs.
The goals could be:
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Boosting traffic to your website
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Increasing footfalls to your store
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Getting more phone calls
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Receiving more appointment bookings
#2. Create and Manage Google Business Profile
Next, create a Google Business Profile (GBP). Remember, it is the foundation of your local SEO strategy. GBP allows your business details to appear in local search results. You should carefully manage it to ensure your business appears in the appropriate context on Google search results. Enter your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) correctly. And ensure they match those on your website. In addition, write the business description with the relevant details to let visitors quickly get an idea of your business offerings. Also, refrain from using low-quality images. That could create a negative impression of your business. Ensure using high-quality pictures.
#3. Respond to Reviews
Respond to each customer review, whether good or bad. Thank customers for their good reviews. Promise to improve customer experiences for the bad ones. Your prompt response to reviews can build trust. Do not fail to maintain politeness in your responses.
#4. Use Local Keywords in the Content
Write content on GBP using local keywords, helping potential customers to find your business. Use keywords that include your product/service and the location. For example, local keywords, such as “best vegetarian restaurant in Greater Noida”, or “vegetarian restaurants near me”, are appropriate for your vegetarian food outlet in Greater Noida.
You can find the relevant keywords using tools such as SEMrush, Moz, and Ahrefs. In addition, look at your competitors and examine the keywords for which they rank. You can use those keywords for your local SEO campaign.
#5. Optimize Your Website for Local Search
Ensure your website to rank for local search results. That way, you can increase the probability of consumers visiting your store. For the optimization:
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Run On-Page SEO: Write the page titles and meta descriptions with the local keywords. Also, infuse them in the content.
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Create Pages for Each Location: Have pages for each location if you run your business in multiple areas. And optimize them for the specific locations.
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Maintain NAP Consistency: Ensure your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) are identical on every website page.
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Embed a Google Map: A Google map with your business location can allow consumers to locate your business quickly. Therefore, embed one on the Contact Us page of your website.
#6. List Your Business NAP on Local Directories
When search engines find citations or mentions about your business’ NAP, they validate its existence. That helps improve the local search results. As such, list your business NAP on local directories, such as Yelp, Yellow Pages, etc. However, ensure the NAP details are consistent on all local directories. Remember, even a minor deviation can negatively impact the search engine rankings.
#7. Acquire Local Backlinks
Backlinks help to build domain authority. That is a crucial ranking factor on search engines. Therefore, acquire backlinks from local websites.
There can be many ways of acquiring backlinks for your website. For example, you can partner with local event organizers and ask them to provide you with a backlink on their websites. You can also write guest blogs for local websites and include backlinks in your content to your website. Collaborating with local influencers is also a good idea. You can ask them to allow you to put an ad for your business with a backlink on their websites.
#8. Publish Local Content
Targeting the local audience by publishing content based on local issues can be a good idea to engage local consumers with your website. However, choose topics wisely to attract your target audience attention.
You can write blogs on local issues, matters related to business sectors, tips on best practices, etc. Including a page on your website to publish local events can be another effective technique to attract local visitors to your website. Again, you can create videos of local matters and circulate them on your website and social media to engage with your target consumers.
#9. Implement Schema Markup
Search engines can better understand your business details if you implement a structured data (schema) markup. As a result, the probability of your site ranking higher and click-through rates increases. Therefore, mark up your business information with local business schema. Also, ensure its correct implementation by running the Rich Results Test.
Track Your Local SEO Strategy Implementation
Implementing a local SEO is not a one-shot affair. Instead, it is a continuous process. As such, do not undermine the need to monitor your local SEO strategy implementation. For that, you need to:
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Track your website rankings on Google against the local keywords using Google Analytics, Google Search Console, or a local keyword ranking tool.
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Examine GBP insights to determine how consumers behave with your profile.
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Make changes to your strategy if it is does not derive the best results.
Some Do Nots in Local SEO
Running a local SEO strategy is prone to mistakes. As such, it will not deliver the intended results if you commit them. Therefore, do NOT:
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Use conflicting NAP information across online platforms. Search engines and users could get confused.
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Select the wrong business category in your GBP profile. That might mislead consumers, prompting them to write negative reviews and hampering your business image.
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Fail to respond to reviews on GBP. That might erode trust.
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Keyword stuffing. That could attract search engine penalties.
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Acquire low-quality backlinks from spammy websites. That could hamper the domain authority.
Conclusion
Do not undermine the need to implement a local SEO campaign. If you do, you might fail to attract customers to your business. Therefore, implement such a campaign to boost visibility on search engines. As a result, you can connect with more local customers and prompt them to come to your store and make purchases. However, implement the campaign with the best practices, avoiding common mistakes.
By INDU BHUSAN NATH
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