A Guide to Local Business Marketing | Local SEO Best Practices

The economy of the entire world came to a pause during the pandemic. And now, when things are back to normal, the market is boosting. More and more local businesses are entering the market. But, here is something unfortunate. Now every business can sustain itself in the market. But, many businesses are sinking into the ocean of competition.

So, what is the reason? Well, obviously the reason is the rising competition. However, more than this, not paying attention to local business marketing strategy is contributing to the failure of the local businesses. One of the best ways to sustain in the market is to develop a local business marketing strategy. Let us explain more about it.

There are a lot of areas when we talk about local business marketing and the one that we are going to talk about is local SEO. So, let’s dive deeper and see what local SEO really means.

What is local SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization. This means, optimizing your business as per the standards of search engines so that they can rank you in a better position for the target keywords.

Local SEO is extremely important for small businesses because it helps them establish their dominance in the local market. Every small business should focus on its local market and that’s why it is important to consider local SEO. Rather than going for the global market, a small business should start with the local market as it is easier to conquer.

For example, if you own a water damage restoration company, you can start by creating business listings, engaging with the local community through social media or partner with experts from https://water-damage-marketing.com/ for professional assistance in improving your local SEO. Taking these steps will increase your visibility among potential customers in your area and drive targeted traffic to your business.

Local SEO can help you generate leads from your local market. This can help you grow your business in the local market. Now, let’s dive deeper and discuss some of the local SEO best practices.

Local SEO best practices:

Google My Business Optimization

Google My Business is a free tool by Google that is designed for small businesses. This allows you to establish an online presence. The best part? You do not need to have a website.

We understand that creating a website could be a bit costly and as a small business, if you are not willing to spend on website services, then creating a Google My Business profile is the best idea. It is free of cost and easy to set up. But creating a profile won’t be enough. You would need to optimize the profile and for that, you have to take a few steps. Let us mention some of those.

• Verify your Google My Business profile. You have to enter the address where you will get your verification code. Enter the code and your profile will be verified.
• You have to categorize your business. This will help search engines show your business to the relevant searches. There are various categories to choose from such as medical clinics, restaurants, etc. There are subcategories as well. You need to make sure to choose the right category so that your business shows up in front of your target audience.
• The description describes your business and that’s why it is important to write a well-optimized description that can introduce your business to the target audience. You can add some keywords to the description.
• As a local business, you need to be extra careful about your online reputation. Therefore, it is important to have positive reviews on your business profile so that people can build trust in your business. Positive reviews attract more clients and pace up lead generation. However, it is not easy to gain reviews. That’s why you probably need to remind your customers again and again to leave positive reviews.

Create a suitable website

Your website is the face of your business and that’s why it is important to prepare a good website. Having a solid business website is an important part of local business marketing strategy. There are a couple of things that you need to take into consideration. Let’s have a look at them.

• Internal linking is a very important part of your website. It supports website navigation and builds information architecture as well as website hierarchy. Internal linking will also distribute page authority among pages. Therefore, be careful while linking the pages of your website. Do it properly and maintain authenticity.
• Optimizing the content is the key to ranking. Well-optimized content will have the highest chance of getting ranked in a better position than websites that do not have optimized content. The keyword should be placed in the URL, heading, and subheading and must be properly distributed in the content. Try to write the content around your geo-targeted keywords so that the content becomes more authentic.
• If you cater your services to more than one location, then adding location pages to your website would be a nice idea. Your location pages will give your readers information about the areas you serve in. You just have to make sure that the information is accurate so that your potential leads can contact you easily.
• Creating local content can help you change the entire game of your business in the local market. Your local content will relate your local audience to your business at a greater level. In addition to this, the search engine will also get a signal about the relation of your business to the target location and this will increase the chances of getting ranked in the local market for the target keywords.

Local directories

Local directories are one of the most powerful platforms you can use for the success of your small business marketing strategy. You will find at least one local directory getting ranked on the SERP for local searches. This is because local directory websites have high domain authority and greater relevancy due to which search engines position them at the top rank on SERPs.

You need to find a reliable local directory where you can list your business. Now, here is what you need to keep in mind. Your information should be accurate. It is important that your business information is the same across the internet. Whether you list your business on one directory or multiple listing sites, make sure to keep the business information consistent. This will also show the relevancy of your business to the search engine.

There are niche-specific business directories as well that appear when niche-specific keywords are searched. You need to look for a directory that is developed specifically for the niche of your business. You can collect the reviews on those platforms as well.

These best practices are extremely useful for those who want to take their business to a whole new level of success. Keep them in mind and you will build an excellent local business marketing strategy.

At the end

Local SEO is an important part of your local business marketing strategy. It can help you grow your business in the local market resulting in seamless lead generation. It is important to know the local SEO best practices as they have a prominent impact on the ranking of your business in the online local market. The best practices mentioned above will take your business to a next level. We hope now you are ready to bring a real change in your small business marketing techniques. Just keep this post in your mind and design your local business marketing strategy accordingly.

Author Bio:

Joe Martin is a long-time contributor in the tech industry as a leader at Adobe, CMO of CloudApp, and SVP at Scorpion. With his business and marketing degress from Utah and Stanford and his work in tech he brings a unique balance of strategy and execution to help businesses large and small grow.