9 Jul, 2020

10 Local SEO Tactics for Boosting Your Digital Marketing Strategy

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Local SEO is an excellent strategy for businesses that want to dominate a specific region. This is an online campaign where you attract local leads or engage customers.

Focusing on Local SEO can bring you the website traffic, leads and sales that you need. This is especially true if most of your customers are near your place of business. Consider Local SEO as a specialised strategy that can level the playing field against more prominent competitors.

Your rivals will focus on broader keywords and their brand name. However, you can attract customers by offering products or services that can either benefit them or solve their problems.

Also, more than a third of searches conducted today come from local searchers. It’s a significant amount of traffic you can’t afford to lose.

How can you boost your Local SEO?

1. Create a GMB account

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A Google My Business (GMB) account is an inexpensive (free) way to inform the search engines about your business. If you have a physical shop or expect customers to visit your business premises, GMB can help. For example, a GMB account will enable your store to appear on Google Maps or on the sidebars of Google Search.

Ensure your GMB account is optimised by verifying the listing. Include only relevant and accurate details, such as:

● Company logo
● Business hours
● Accepted payment methods
● Product or services for sale
● Engaging images

2. Encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews

 

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A glowing review is always helpful for optimising GMB accounts while encouraging more customers to make a purchase. A consumer survey discovered that 9 out of 10 people take reviews as a personal recommendation.

Here are some ways to ensure a positive review:

● Consider requesting a review in person after a transaction has been completed.
● If not possible, an email or text will do. However, make sure that you’re not dealing with an unhappy customer.
● If they posted a complaint, respond professionally and address their issues.

3. Preparing your site for voice search

Your Local SEO should incorporate voice search. Voice search is a popular trend that could become the norm in a few years. When using voice search, many searchers tend to use long-tail keywords more than those who type in their queries. In voice optimisation, user intent is critical since users often require specific bits of information. For example, when a searcher asks for your physical address, the site should give it immediately.

4. Use Local news and events to generate relevant content

Content that speaks directly to local issues or addresses them often grabs people’s attention. Strategies for creating such pieces of content include:

● Creating a blog or content that involves local activities or events
● Making videos that highlight the local charities or community activities your company supports
● Using web pages that contain unique content for each location, particularly if your business serves multiple areas

Take Springhill Marketing as an example. As a digital marketing agency that offers services to different areas in Northamptonshire, we have a dedicated page for each location that we service. Besides following our lead, you can also take things up a notch by posting content featuring news or events in a particular area. Such a strategy can help your ranking for each specific region.

5. Ensuring that your site is ready for mobile

Even Google recognises people’s preference for mobile devices. A 2018 study showed that visits coming from desktops continue to decline, while those from mobile devices keep increasing. For this reason, Google has adopted a mobile-first policy where mobile-friendly websites receive priority in the search rankings. To rank well on Google, it’s now essential to have a website that looks good on both mobile devices and desktop computers. Your site shouldn’t take more than three seconds to load. If it’s longer than that and you’ll start losing potential sales quickly. To ensure a fast loading speed for your webpages, avoid using too many images. Instead, focus only on providing the most essential and relevant information to your target audience. Furthermore, ensure that your user interface (UI) is intuitive to heighten the user experience (UX).

6. Incorporating local keywords in your site’s content

Use keywords that are relevant to a local audience. You can use the Google Keyword Planner to find the search terms often used in your area. Also, don’t forget to include them in your site’s content even in the URL.

7. Make Your webpages location-specific

If your business offers products or services in multiple areas, your pages should include:

● Company name, physical address, and contact details
● Operating hours
● Description of each location
● Customer reviews and feedback
● Google Maps to help locate the company
● Other significant information, such as car parking slots or sales promotions

If your company is located in a single place, consider creating an ‘About Us’ page that includes only local but pertinent details.

8. Listing your business or website on online directories

 

 

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Why not take advantage of online directories where you can list your business and enjoy some free advertising? There are many online directories you can use, such as Yelp and Foursquare. Aside from helping you become more visible online, it can also contribute to your Local SEO. However, don’t forget to include links to your site and a complete description of your products or services when listing your business.

9. Choosing only high-quality links for your website

In link-building, a single high-quality article is better than several low-quality ones. A low-quality backlink could result in a penalty or drop in your search ranking. To acquire the best backlinks:

● Create content that encourages other sites to link to yours.
● Write guest blogs on reputable websites.
● You’ll know which sites they are through their high domain authority.
● You can also talk to local influencers and request them to link back to your content.

10. Having separate pages for each product or service

If you offer various products and services, consider creating a page for each of them. It’s easy to put all those products on a single page, but it can hurt your Local SEO efforts. For instance, Google may rank your site lower since it doesn’t see your business as an expert in a particular product or service.

If you only offer a single product or service but offer them in various regions, consider making a location-based page for each area. You can create pages, such as, ‘Northampton SEO services’ or Daventry SEO services.

Take away

Changes in SEO rules are becoming more frequent. You can always expect Google to introduce or update its ranking criteria, which also include those for local searches. To maintain your site’s top spot, consider adopting the Local SEO strategies discussed above.

In addition, your current optimisation strategies will need a strong foundation to accommodate any upcoming SEO feature from Google. If you need to create or modify your SEO strategy, you can reach out to us here at Springhill Marketing. We can help you and provide useful insights about your online marketing campaigns, especially Local SEO.

Drive Your Business Towards The Best Results.

Talk to us about how we can help.

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