Are you looking for ways to market your business online? Perhaps you’re considering setting up an online shop to sell your products, or perhaps you’ve already done so and are looking for ways to grow your business. No matter what stage you’re at in life, there’s an opportunity to grow your network online and find new customers who might want what you have to offer. However, if you’re looking for an easy way to get your feet wet, consider local SEO. This article will give you an overview of local SEO, how to get started, and some suggestions on how to improve your rankings so you can gain maximum exposure for your business.
What Is Local SEO?
If you’re not sure what local SEO is, it’s a type of search engine optimization (SEO) that targets individuals in close proximity to a specific business. For example, if you are a dentist in Windsor and you want to attract patients from nearby places like Leeds, Sheffield, and Harrogate, you would target local SEO for those cities. In general, local SEO is useful for any business in search of customers near their physical locations. This can also include online retailers that want to attract customers from nearby towns and cities. In the search box of your web browser, type in ‘dentist’ followed by your city name (e.g. ‘Windsor dentists’). Most likely, numerous results will appear, with some being local businesses and others being remote general practices. In most cases, you’ll find that local SEO is free, but premium listings are far more beneficial.
Why Are Clients More Liable to Visit A Website If It Appears In Their Local Searches?
The reason clients are more likely to visit a website if it appears in their local searches is because they’re more familiar with the area that the website is in. For example, if you are a dentist in Windsor and you own a website about beauty, you would want to encourage people in nearby places to visit your site. However, if you are not familiar with the area, you might not realize that some search results lead to dangerous or inappropriate websites. In these cases, you would want to discourage these potential customers from visiting your site. To do this, you would want to perform local SEO to improve the rankings of these irrelevant websites so they drop off the list of search results.
How Do I Get Started With Local SEO?
To get started with local SEO, you will need to do the following:
- Set up Google My Business account (if you don’t have one yet).
- Add your business to Google Maps.
- Configure your website to accept and display local SEO keywords.
- Get a website URL.
- Fill out the Google My Business website details.
- Create a basic marketing plan.
- Set up automated email campaigns with a tool like Aweber or MailChimp.
- Put in place a social media strategy using platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
- Start a blog.
- Link your website to as many other websites and blogs as possible.
- Get listed in the Yellow Pages under your business name.
Once you’ve done all of this, your next step is to start submitting your website to directories like Yelp, Google Maps, and Supermarket. For example, if you are a dentist in Windsor and you’ve set up all of the above, you would want to start posting about your services on local review websites like Yelp. You can also ask other dentists in your area for recommendations, or you can check out their profiles on social media sites to see whether or not they’ve reviewed any products or services in the past. In some cases, reviewing products or services for free can also help you establish credibility with potential customers. In general, you want to use local SEO to get as many people as possible to know about your business.
How Do I Get My Site To Show Up On Page One Of Google?
The first thing you’ll want to do is to make sure that your website is correctly configured to accept and display local SEO keywords. Most websites are not optimized for local search, which makes them less visible to search engines. For instance, if you’re a plumber in Windsor and you want to attract potential customers from nearby places like Leeds, Sheffield, and Harrogate, you would want to look into changing a few words on your website to make it more relevant to local searches. You could try adding a few key phrases into the website’s content, or you could try doing some keyword research to find the most popular terms related to your business.
Once you’ve found these keywords, you can add them to your site’s content in a couple of ways. You could add them to the beginning or end of a relevant article, you could add them to the signature block at the bottom of a page, or you could try using some content spinners to create completely new articles with the same keywords in the same pattern as the original content. Whichever method you choose, make sure that you use the same keywords in all places where possible to ensure that your site’s content reflects what is relevant to users and search engines alike. If you have more than one page on your website that is relevant to local SEO, it is a good idea to try and establish sub-domains for each one. For example, if you own a blog about fashion and you want to attract customers from nearby places like Leeds, Sheffield, and Harrogate, you could try establishing a sub-domain for the ‘fashion’ blog, like ‘northfacejacketswest.blog’. When someone types in ‘northface jackets west’, their web browser will automatically take them to the ‘fashion’ blog, where they will discover your content about fashion and related products. This is a simple yet effective way to draw in potential customers who may not even know you exist!
How Do I Get My Site To Appear On The First Page Of Google?
To get your site to appear on the first page of Google, you will need to follow a fairly rigorous course of action, which includes:
- Compiling a “Page One” wish list of keyword phrases and phrases that you believe are helpful in positioning your website.
- Finding keywords and phrases relevant to your business in the form of ads on Google AdWords.
- Using the money you’ve earned to bid on those keywords on AdWords, and then continue optimizing your site with the use of free tools like Google Analytics, HubSpot, and Hootsuite.
- Using the “meta” tag on your website to identify its location in terms of distance from the ‘enter’ key (in other words, the closer the “meta” tag is to being on the “front page’ of Google, the better).
- Conducting A/B split testing on your landing pages to determine the single best approach to optimize your site.
- Keeping track of your progress with goal-setting and metrics.
While all of this might seem rather technical, you can actually put this method to use without needing to be a technical expert. Simply find a reliable internet marketing company that offers local SEO services, and then follow their advice. Above all, make sure that you understand what is entailed in this process before you get started. The more you know, the better you’ll be able to utilize local SEO to its fullest potential. With a little bit of luck, you could end up on the first page of Google with some easy to follow tips!
Hopefully, this article has given you a good overview of local SEO and how to get started. Remember, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to local SEO, so make sure that you consult with an experienced consultant to determine the best course of action for your unique business.