When you run a business, it is necessary to be aware of your surroundings. In this case, local SEO can help you gain benefits from the search results, such as increased traffic and convert traffic into sales. It allows you to reach out to more people who intend to visit the area where your business is located.
Starting small can pave your way to great things. For instance, promoting your business with local SEO can help you achieve your objectives and expand the outreach more than you ever think possible. Using this method, you can spread brand awareness more effectively using online platforms with a large portion of users like Google. Consider to reach your potential user with another online channel such as social media platform, online publisher, and more.
Why Does Local SEO Matter?
If your business used to rely on promotions that use word of mouth and close networking, then you can do more with local SEO. With this strategy, your brand can get recognized by many more audiences only by optimizing its presence on the Google SERP.
So, what makes local SEO different from the regular type of search engine optimization? Instead of focusing on introducing your business on a bigger scale, local SEO intends to improve your business presence with local searches.
As a way to improve your business performance, local SEO helps in informing Google users about your brand. Eventually, more people will discover it and become attracted to purchasing your products as well.
Today, users tend to look for the nearest local businesses that can provide the products and services they need. In this case, they rely on Google services, such as Google Search and Google Maps, to help them find the right store to shop for their necessities.
In short, local SEO plays an important role in boosting local businesses as well as improving their visibility online. All in all, it is a method of digital marketing that can be applied to increase the revenue of your business and spread brand awareness effectively.
Conducting Keyword Research for Local SEO
To understand your target market, you must conduct a thorough keyword research. It is an important step in implementing local SEO strategies as the keywords help you determine the target audience you want to reach.
Just like in regular SEO, keywords have a big role in local SEO for your business. Keyword research is conducted to provide you information about the search terms that may be closely associated with your brand. Here are the things you need to do to find the right keywords for your local SEO:
Look for Keywords Related to Your Niche
Since you want to optimize your business, it is better to focus on your area of expertise. In this case, you can prioritize keywords that are relevant to your niche. Make sure to consider every service or product you offer when you search for the right keywords to optimize local searches.
For instance, use keywords related to bakery shop to promote your products. Some of the keywords you must include in your optimization include:
Cake
Birthday cake
Ice cream cake
Wedding cake
Baby shower cake
You can add many other keywords related to cakes and occasions to help your business get discovered easily by locals. Make sure to check the keyword difficulty and search volume while you’re at it. Once you find all the keywords that can cover up your bases, then list them and pick the ones that can potentially increase your visibility on Google search results.
Use Keywords on Selected Pages
In order to optimize local searches, you can assign the keywords you gain from the research conducted before. You can write the keywords according to the content that you post on the selected pages. Make sure to separate keywords based on the products or services that you offer.
Check the Local Search Intent
Aside from service-based keywords, you have to consider the local search intent to get your business seen by locals. In order to do it, you can search for related queries on Google first and see the list of businesses that appear on the result pages.
If you search for “bakery shop”, then the list of shops nearby will appear. Along with the list, you will see maps and blue links which indicate that the businesses all use local intent to improve their visibility on local searches.
Checking Keyword Performance on Sequence
To make sure you get the right audience, it is important to pay attention to the target keywords you use in relation to your business. As such, you must also look at their performances on the SERP with Sequence Stats. The data you collect from your daily rank tracking activity can help you optimize your local SEO and improve your business performance.
Figure 1: The display of Sequence keyword ranking performance based on several metrics, such as SERP features, search volume, market, and level of competition.
Monitoring keyword performance on Sequence can be done easily. In order to get the result of each keyword used on your website, you must do the following steps:
Enter the site domain of your business
Add the keywords you want to monitor
Choose the market or location you want to target
Decide keyword performance display based on devices
Figure 2: Types of metrics used to display the keyword rank tracker on Sequence.
In order to see how well the keywords work for your local SEO, you can routinely check their performance based on the metrics provided on Sequence Stats. You can set the period of time to see how the ranks move each day. Once you do that, you can strategically proceed with the plan to optimize the pages that underperform based on the local searches.
Implementing Strategies to Optimize Local SEO
With local SEO optimization, your brand will gain more visibility on the SERP. In return, your business will gain more recognition as more people start to notice its presence, whether it be on the web or in real life.
To help you improve your business performance through local SEO, you can implement several methods below:
Complete Your Google Business Profile
In order to increase your visibility on Google search results, you must make sure to complete your Google Business Profile. You are required to verify your account with information regarding the details of your business operation including the opening hours and the store location.
Once you get your account registered, you can complete the other data that needs to be provided about your business. Doing so can optimize your business visibility on the search results and increase the chance of more audiences taking notice of your brand.
Gain Reviews from Customers
It is important to encourage your customers to leave reviews about your products and services, whether it be on Google Business Profile or any other platforms. Doing so can make your brand more visible on the search results since it means the number of users engaging with your content increases over time.
What if you get bad reviews? It is better if you leave the reviews as they are. If it happens, you can respond to them nicely and apologize for the inconvenience or lack of handling on your behalf. Additionally, you can always consider customer feedback regarding your products or services so that you can improve their quality in the future.
Perform On-page SEO
To make sure your website promotes your business properly, you must tailor your content according to your target audiences’ search intent. It can help you gain more potential customers who intend to look for products or services related to your niche.
In order to perform on-page SEO, you can use target keywords on selected pages that are relevant to your product or service. Make sure to include them in the meta title, meta description, and URL of the page. Additionally, you can add the relevant keywords on the image captions as well. It will help users discover images of your products you offer easily.