These days, it seems like the right local SEO strategy can make or break your business, but SEO is so complicated and almost arcane in its inner workings. How can you ever hope to understand it?
Well, you don’t need to understand all the technical aspects of local SEO to make it work for your business. If you’re struggling with technical aspects of SEO, you can always bring in a local SEO agency to help you with the technical aspects of local SEO.
But local SEO isn’t just about the technical stuff. It’s also about building social relationships with your customers and your community, and it’s about creating value for users in your website content. Here’s what you need to do to make local SEO work for your small business.
Get Help with the Technical Stuff
Not many small business owners also have the SEO expertise needed to put together a whole SEO campaign, including the technical aspects of on-site and off-site SEO, like keyword research, building backlinks, checking your business information as it appears in all possible online directories, and so on. That’s why you should consider bringing in an SEO agency that specializes in local SEO for Phoenix-area businesses.
A local SEO agency can audit your website for SEO flaws, guaranteeing that, for example, your metadata is optimized and your title tags are using the right keywords. An agency can also identify discrepancies in your business information as it is listed in various online directories, and can make sure you have an entry in those directories if you don’t have one yet. There’s a lot that goes into the technical side of SEO, and it can be difficult if not impossible for one small business owner to master them all.
Embrace Social Media
Of course, SEO isn’t all technical. It also has a large social component – especially when it’s local. Local SEO can depend to a shockingly large extent on the strength of your local reputation and the relationships you’ve nurtured with local people, including customers and organizations.
One way to begin fostering those important local relationships is to get active on social media. You can use platforms like Instagram or Facebook to engage with your customers in the local area. You can talk to them directly about your services, and find out from them what they want from their local businesses. You have the opportunity to build a local following, reach people that you might not be able to reach through a search engine, and build backlinks to your site by sharing content. You can even get people talking online about your brand using relevant hashtags.
Give Back to Your Community
If you want your local SEO strategy to work, take your social networking off the internet. Go out into your local community and give back. Work with local charities or nonprofits to help people in your community. Fund scholarships for local kids going to college, or help sponsor a local community event. When you participate in your community, you strengthen your reputation and build real-world connections with other organizations and businesses in your community. That can translate into news articles about your business, social media posts about your business, and backlinks that can improve your local SEO.
Post More Compelling Multimedia Content
Content is one of the most powerful ways to bring more search traffic to your website, and it’s why you should be running a blog on your website and not just relying on your home page copy to draw in traffic. Each time you share a piece of new, original content on your website, you’re creating a new opportunity to work different keywords into your site and reach a new target customer who is looking for the information you share.
Of course, your content should be optimized for local relevance. Post about local events you participated in or upcoming events for your business, like sales or promotions. Profile your employees and even your most loyal customers. Offer content that provides information your customers need, like instructional videos or product reviews.
The key to making content work for your local SEO is to optimize it with the right keywords and to share different types of content – you should be sharing videos and images as well as written blog posts. When you use the right keywords and hashtags, this content can help your site reach the top of local search returns.
Making local SEO work for your business isn’t always easy, but with the right expertise it’s possible. Boost your traffic from local search, and you’ll increase your conversions – it’s as simple as that.
