The benefits of SEO are well-known now — ranking higher in search engine results pages will drive users to your website, which will (ideally) in turn then increase your business. SEO is here to stay, and has become a rather important marketing staple. There is a branch off of SEO that more and more small businesses need to be focusing on, and that’s local. Local SEO refers to geographic searches that people perform when they’re looking for a product, or a service, or a business in their area. If you didn’t already know what local SEO was, that’s okay — you probably aren’t the only one. You need to get started, so here are three of the most basic local SEO strategies to get the ball rolling.
1. Start with the basics.
The first thing you need to do is build from the ground up with traditional search engine optimization strategies. This means optimizing your website and content marketing — making sure that Google likes your website and will show it to users to begin with. This is going to be essential. For local purposes, make sure that your business’s contact information is on your website and use geographic keywords as many times as you can incorporate them naturally.
2. Ask for reviews.
Another easy way to start boosting your local SEO is to start asking your customers to leave reviews on sites like Yelp and Google. One of the things that Google looks at when it’s ranking things is reviews, so making sure that some exist for your business is crucial. Getting more reviews can be as easy as adding a button on your website or asking customers to review you when they’re in your brick and mortar store.
3. A consistent NAP.
One of the first things local SEO experts will tell you is that you need to have a consistent NAP all across the board online. We all know that Google’s aim is to give their users the best information, which means that they look for consistency when it comes to a business’ name, address, and phone number. Spelling, spacing, and punctuation count here.
Do you have any tips for improving your local SEO strategies? Feel free to share them with us in the comments section below.