I sat in a meeting with a client this week, and one of the things they wanted from a new website was visibility when people in the area searched local businesses in their industry.
While there are SEO experts out there who will work with you to grow your placement in search engines, who have trained to know the ins and the outs of search engine optimization and search engine marketing, there are a few things that you can do on your own website to help you rank better locally. Over the next couple of weeks, I want to talk about:
- what kind of local information you should have on your website (and how to create it)
- creating a Google My Business page
- what you can do on social networks and other sites to help boost your local ranking
- how to get reviews for your business
This week, I want to go over a brief overview of local SEO to get ready for the upcoming weeks.
What is Local SEO?
Have you ever found yourself on your tablet or smartphone’s map app, or on your desktop viewing Google’s map search, looking for a local business? If you don’t know the exact business that you’re looking for, but know that you want something close by, so you search for a broad term, such as “restaurant” or “hardware store.” The search engine knows what is near your current location, and is able to provide you with relevant results in your area.
But how do search engines know what the most relevant results are?
Local Search Engine Optimization focuses it’s efforts on helping companies become more relevant in those local listings by providing better information to search engines – this includes your physical address, what hours you are open, and contact information. It looks at your website, your social media profiles, and business directories to help boost your rankings.
Three Major Ways Local SEO Benefits You
- It makes your business easier to find.
- It targets customers that are in the same geographical area as your business.
- It provides legitimacy to your business to potential customers.
