Utilising SEO for Local Business

This article will cover Utilising SEO for Local Business.

Keeping your customers shopping and buying local is always an issue for many companies. This is sometimes down to the amount of time and effort they spend on their marketing, and more importantly their SEO. Regardless of if you are a small local business, or a large global organisation you need to be focusing on putting your brand out there. 

Is your website mobile friendly?

As with most things, no matter if you are focused locally, nationally or even internationally you need to make sure your website is mobile friendly. People digest content on mobile devices more than desktop, so making sure it is compatible is super important. 

When focusing locally, a lot of your customers will want to be able to search quickly for you when they are out and about. Being able to view directions, location and contact details on their phones will be crucial to attracting new customer bases.

Contact details, are they up to date?

Very basic, but sometimes the basics are ignored. Making sure your contact details are up to date and correct means that people are able to approach you. Setting up a NAP which stands for name, address and phone number can help with your SEO as well, especially if people are searching locally.

Content, is it based on local topics?

Content does not just have to be focused on key issues nationally or globally. In actual fact creating local content will appeal to those around you. Topics do not also have to be highly technical, however focusing on new products/services, education or even new staff can help to increase your local market presence. 

Content will also help with local Lead Generation. If you are able to focus your content on the local area, you will find more and more locals get in contact to find out more information. Or, they may register with yourself for updates if you have this facility. It is also more cost effective to work locally as it reduces time and travel costs for customers

Improve your internal linking

External links are super important, but so are using internal links. Internal links help customers to navigate to other parts of your website which they may or may not have looked at before. An internal link also helps you to condense all the information down, and make it more targeted with what people are looking for. 

Internal linking does also have a positive impact on SEO. The main theme of this article is looking at local customer base, so if you are able to be found better by locals using SEO, then you stand a chance of converting them into customers. 

Utilise Google Business 

Since Google introduced Google Business, local companies have been able to really get their name and brand out there. Google has bought in a verification process to ensure that you are legit, but from there you will reap the benefits. Naturally verified businesses will appear higher up the search lists.

Becoming a verified business is very simple, and includes setting up and verifying a Google Business page. Once you have set this up then you can also ask your customers to add reviews and comments on their experiences with you. Ultimately also helping you to gain a better reputation locally as well. 

If you are looking for more information about to qualify for Google Business then take a look at this article. How to Use Google My Business to Get More Customers.

Have you advertised your other locations?

If you are lucky enough to own a business which has multiple locations, are these easily findable on your web page? If you are looking to increase your market spread, and also who sees your brand, making sure people know where you are is a must. Customers can then leave reviews, see your location and even separate contact details. 

It is important however if you do have location pages, you do not repeat content. Content that is not authentic will not rank highly with SEO, and could be a waste of time.

To Conclude

If you are not focused on capitalising on your local market, as well as national or international then you are missing out on a trick. Usually locals will utilise a local business as they feel they are doing a good deed by supporting it. However, if you are not visible in your local area then you will not be able to gain that traffic. Utilising SEO for local business will help to gain that traffic. 

If you are looking for more support on SEO or Lead Generation, then take a look at some of the other blogs we have written recently.

SEO and Lead Generation

B2B Lead Generation