For local business owners, there are plenty of benefits for focusing on having a high-ranking position in popular search engines (Google, Yahoo Search, and Bing). When it comes to local businesses, Google does not shy away from noticing the importance of them. Google is a powerful searching tool that can connect potential users and consumers to nearby companies. This feature can eliminate any worries related to how your business will perform against other companies. Below are tips on how to boost your rankings using SEO.
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#1 – Promoting your local business on Google Local
Google Local’s primary purpose is to provide results for local businesses for potential users. On this site, users can view suggestions, provide feedback, and publish their photos as well. Additionally, Google Local allows local businesses to connect with potential consumers with ease. These businesses can benefit from this communicating bridge because they can connect their customers directly by sharing the following information: phone number, business hours, etc. Local businesses can create pages on this site to generate visitors, which will convert to potential sales and attract more customers. Google Local includes ways for companies to answer questions, provide news and updates related to their business, and address any possible issues.
#2 Use keywords wisely
SEO keywords include the phrases and keywords relates to your brand, sites, or blog that helps with how users discover it on popular search engines. By using popular phrases or keywords used often by consumers, it will help your site connect with them. It is essential to use a list of keywords that will help potential customers come upon your website. A great example, if you have a clothing store in Princeton, New Jersey, most likely “Princeton clothing stores” or “clothing stores in Princeton” will be the best option for this business. Another example is if you have a local job office in Los Angeles, CA, it would be great to include “job offices in LA” as a phrase.
Most SEO experts suggest creating a list of keywords and placing them in an Excel spreadsheet for organizing purposes. Local businesses can experiment with using single keywords as well as long-tail keywords (phrases) too. Google continues to evolve and improve by connecting keyword terms well. For example, Google will comprehend that “The Bronx community colleges” is similar to “community colleges in The Bronx area.” It is important to remember that local businesses should concentrate on how users and customers communicate and common phrases that are commonly used.
#3 – Focus on content marketing
Content marketing and SEO work well and go hand in hand. Experts believe that successful local businesses usually benefit from including content marketing activities in the overall SEO plan. Content marketing and SEO are a vital part of building a brand identity for every business, both small and large. This form of marketing focuses on reaching a particular audience by developing and publishing digital content to create a brand.
Creating and publishing content plays a significant role in marketing and SEO. All popular search engines like Google and Bing focuses mainly on text. The text will determine where and how you rank in the search engines. When it comes to successful content marketing, using the same keywords and phrases that are used often by consumers will only benefit your local business. By doing this, a company’s website will be ranked high in search engines, which will generate more traffic. Local companies that have a blog site and post often will quickly see the benefits of content marketing. Content marketing helps with making both web traffic and eventually sales too. The main focus is to attract new visitors and ultimately convert those visits to profit.
#4 – Request reviews from actual customers
There are many benefits of asking and post actual reviews from either clients or customers. Never use fake reviews because it will tarnish your local business’s reputation and ruin its brand. Additionally, using fake reviews will make it difficult for potential visitors to come across your local business’ website on popular search engines.
A great approach is to ask previous customers to post a review either on Yelp, Google, Amazon, and Facebook, to name a few. Local businesses should mention that their customers’ reviews matter and if they could kindly post at least one. Yelp, Google+, and Facebook are available websites for customers to post reviews because most likely, already have an account. Although it is recommended to ask customers to post at least one review, it doesn’t hurt to provide multiple options and ask them also to post other available sites. The more actual reviews published from customers, the better for any companies.
It is essential for local businesses never to ask customers to post only good reviews because it can ruin a brand. A company can only improve or maintain their brand with actual reviews. Actual reviews from real customers are typically seen more on these sites. With the tips above, it can boost your local business’ rankings on popular websites and generating visitors, which will lead to sales.