Why Every Small Business Should Use Local SEO
You have probably heard a lot about using SEO to drive traffic to a website. It is one of the best ways to naturally increase the number of visitors who land on your site each day. While you may know of a few different strategies, there is a chance that you have not started to use local SEO as a small business owner. If you are not targeting the people who live in the area where you run your business, you are likely missing out on sales. When you are not making enough sales, it may be difficult to stay afloat and keep the doors open.
Do not get intimidated by the thought of going local because it is not that much different from using some of the traditional SEO tactics. You may currently use a set of keywords in the content that you have featured throughout your website. The only thing those keywords may be missing is the specific area where your business is located. For example, if you were selling flowers in Philadelphia, you would want to use both flowers and the name of the city together as your keyword to attract the visitors who live around you instead of people who live nowhere near the area.
Using local SEO is important because it is the best way to get people in your area to discover your business. After they find out the details about your establishment, they may decide whether or not they want to shop there for the products they need. If you do not offer to ship out items and are only running your shop in one area, you have to focus on reaching out to the consumers in that area to get them interested. They are the people who may help you grow and expand in the next few years.
There are a lot of consumers who do searches within their city or neighborhood without even realizing it. They are searching for a specific item and they want to get it as quickly as possible. Instead of doing a national search where they just type in the name of the item they need, they may choose to type in the name of the product they are looking for and the city or zip code that they live in at the moment. After they are done typing those details into the search engine, most of the links they will see will take them directly to sites belonging to businesses that are within a short distance of their exact location.
Your goal is to get recognized as much as possible. If you want to have a far better chance of getting your website to appear when people are doing a simple search, consider using local SEO. There would be a lot less competition if you chose to go local instead of competing with a bunch of businesses across the nation. When you are competing with hundreds of companies at once, you are competing against nearly every business that offers the same thing that you do, so you have a smaller chance of getting the attention from consumers and making the sales you need.
There are different ways to do local SEO the right way. Using keywords that include the city that you are in and some of the cities located within a short distance is one way for you to start. However, you should also consider asking some of your customers to leave online reviews about their experience. You could even offer to give them a discount or a promotional coupon for a few of your products in exchange for a review of your business that is completely honest. The great thing about reviews is that they are reliable and contain essential keywords. It is a great SEO tactic because it may build your online presence and help you improve your reputation at the same time. If you have yet to ask your customers to leave their personal reviews, you may want to start now.
It is even possible to use social media for local SEO. Create some unique posts that relate to the specific area you are in and work on getting followers who live near you. Some small business owners throw contests and offer special deals to the customers who help them get more followers. When you have a bunch of locals following you on social media, you may start to get to know a lot of people who live in the area. Getting to know the consumers is a good way to do business because then you get to build a strong relationship with them and show that you care about them and not just about making a sale.
Consider using local SEO while supporting other small businesses too. You are going to need as much support as possible. If you are willing to stick together with others in your community, they may be willing to do the same for you. It will work to your advantage because you may get a lot more exposure.
If you have yet to take this approach, you may want to start soon. It will cost you a lot less to follow this strategy when trying to get more customers and expand. One of the main reasons you should get started is because there is far less competition when you are competing locally instead of nationally. If you are ready to start building a great reputation within your community, consider taking your SEO marketing strategy to the next level by using local SEO.
