The presence of your business online is one of the most important steps you can take for success in the digital world. SEO, or search engine optimization, is key for establishing your business’s credibility and searchability online. There are many ways of maximizing your SEO strategy, so read below for a breakdown of how to reach your local community.
Create a Professional Online Profile
When potential customers search for your business or search for a keyword associated with what your business has to offer, you want your first impression to be good so that they will click on your website. The more clicks you get, the higher your website will climb up the Google search pages. A professional webpage should first be established as a reputable Google My Business listing.
A Google My Business account is a way for businesses to have control of their business profiles on Google. Essentially this means that a business can go in and change things on their page that show up when people search for them on Google. To make this page look professional and organized, there are a few things the business must do.
First of all, the hours of operation and address must be correct so that people know how and when to contact the business. There should also be a link to the business’s main website so that people can easily be connected to all of the information they need. This is especially helpful for restaurants as their websites are usually a direct link to their menus. The last and most important thing to add to a professional online profile is some recent and professional photos of the business. All of these elements connected make for a welcoming and easy-to-understand business profile on Google.
Encourage Online Reviews
As a local business, it is always a hustle to try to get more customers through the door. One of the best ways to get more people talking about your business is to ask each happy customer to leave a review. Most of the time this is as easy as finding the business on Google Maps and clicking on the “write a review” button. Most people are happy to do it if they are satisfied with the service, so it doesn’t hurt to ask and even make business cards with instructions on how to do it.
Once people go on Google Maps to leave a review of your business, it is important that the review process is as simple as possible. If you have not done anything to create an appealing Google Maps profile, then reach out to some local Google Maps optimization experts who can help you create a profile with the best reviews right at the top, and lots of photos that show your business in a good light, and important information about the business readily available. Many people nowadays look to Google Maps for recommendations of restaurants, local shops, bars, and other small businesses, so having a lot of good reviews available for potential customers to see is a must. This will help you get more traffic to your website and help your business profile move up the Google search list.
Create A Social Media Presence with Local Content
A big part of being a popular local business is engaging with the community. This means having active social media profiles run by an experienced marketing team. If your business’s marketing content is good, it will pop up on more people’s feeds, leading them to click on your business profile which should include a link to your website. The more people that click on your website, the more often your business will show up higher on the list of Google searches for local businesses.
When trying to get more eyes on your business, you can also work with local influencers who can come into your business and film content. If you run a restaurant, the influencer can come in and film themself eating your tastiest dishes, if you run a dog spa, they can bring in their furry friend and film your friendly staff as they pamper your pup. These kinds of marketing videos can bring a lot of traffic to your social media pages and website, leading to more new customers and a rise in revenue.
Get Your Business’s Name Out There
Make sure that your business is cited in all local directories under the categories that your business falls under. All citations should be listed with the name of your business, the address, and the main phone number for customers to call. It is also a good idea to print out a lot of business cards and place them in stacks with other local businesses that you have a good relationship with, then they can do the same in your establishment. When running a business in a local community, a lot of the effort comes from networking and forming connections with other pillars of the community.
Conduct Local Keyword Research
As you try to grow your business’s online presence, spend some time doing research about certain keywords that are associated with your business. Once you have a list of keywords, try to naturally integrate them into sentences that describe your business like meta tags and meta titles. This way, your website will be one of the first to pop up when a person is browsing the internet looking for a business using specific keywords.
Work with Local Journalists for Backlinks Opportunities
Lastly, don’t be afraid to reach out to local journalists to negotiate a deal for them to write a few articles using backlinks to your website. This means that when a local citizen reads their articles online, they may click on the link to your website, creating more traffic to your homepage and likely more business for you. In exchange for this service, you can offer the journalists free meals or services from your business the next time they stop in.
Maximizing your local SEO strategy cannot be done with one simple action, but requires many different moving parts to get your business recognized by the local community. By presenting a professional online profile, working with other local businesses and individuals, building relationships, and more, you will begin to see your business get more internet traffic and then you will see more customers walking through your door.