Without Local SEO, Your Business Isn’t Going Anywhere

Author Almu Corazon

Brick and mortar businesses recognize the need for a consistent online presence. Nowadays, businesses build a website, either using DIY website builders or hiring pros to do the job. Not to mention, most businesses already have social media presence and acknowledge the importance to have a blog and engaging content marketing. But, most online businesses do not know how to capitalize digital efforts to lower costs and increase sales.

Before paying for any online advertising, increase online visibility organically. Then, search engine marketing (SEM) strategies are recommended to assess what solutions are most cost efficient depending on goals and market tendencies. If the local traffic you wanted to get from search engines haven’t been that impressive, here are some suggestions to follow in order to organically and strategically position your brand to attract local traffic and dominate your niche in your area:

• Optimize on-page SEO elements to correspond with local details (phone numbers, addresses, etc.).
• Create original content that your local audience can strongly relate to.
• Use and optimize images that will cater to your specific market.
• Update your meta tag information and SEO plugins.
• Centralize your content on your website.
• Be proactive in getting reviews.
• Engage your online audience in conversations.
• Get links from other local entities.
• Link back to your website.

Click on the slide presentation below to discover more tips. This infographic covers on page elements, creating local content, optimizing images with local terms, getting reviews, ensuring citations are correct and getting local links. Check it out!

Let's focus on the DO's:

--> Do On-Site Optimization and Links:

1. Review and correct on page SEO elements. This includes contact details, phone numbers, website URL, blog info, logo and local keywords.
2. Create quality local content that serves target audience. Your content has to serve the target audience in your area. It has to be better that what the user can find online elsewhere. Create actionable content that flows from start to finish. 
3. Leverage social media: Take advantage of the growing social media that has 4.2 billion monthly online users on the top 8 social networks. Try to build a brand and promote content to attract customers. 
4. Optimize images: Include local keywords and city name in image file name and alt tags.
5. Create local pages/places: Sign up to Google+, Bing and Yahoo business pages to enhance organic search rankings. Optimize your business information on online directories such as the Yellow Pages.
6. Ensure NAP (name, address and phone numbers) listings are correct. Google MapMaker can help you access personal information and ensure correct NAP listings. 
7. Have a physical address in the city you want to rank for: A physical address will help your local rankings. Add a Google map to the webpage to increase the quality of your entry.
8. Use a local phone number: A local number and address will help with local listings, as this information will attract more directories amplifying your visibility.

​--> Do Reviews, Citations and Links:

1. Proactively get reviews: Reviews can boost rankings, so ask for it from satisfied clients.
2. Review and organize your business categories: Categories allow users to find your business online.Amongst the thousands of SEO tips and tricks available online, local SEO efforts is the most overlooked, especially by bloggers, entrepreneurs and small business owners. These tend to focus on buying keywords on Google and/or ads on Yelp and Facebook missing the importance of hiring an expert who will design a custom SEM strategy to find out which local online venues will bring them more money back. 
3. Get citations from high quality sites: Citations are the NAP listings. Look for competitor citations and replicate them.
4. Get local links: Links are the recognized online currency. Local links can help you boost your local ranking making your business more visible on search engines. Make sure the links are from high quality sites.

Sometimes it is best to forget about targeting “general” keywords and shift our focus to our physical surroundings. You may be unsure how to go about it, so the quick, effective and easy-to-follow guide to local SEO I am sharing in this article will help you getting started!

On the comment section share your experience with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts. What has been the most profitable investment you have made?