How to grow a small business with Local SEO?

December 21, 2022

With 46% of google searches are for the products, and services available in local area, it has become crucial for small businesses to improve their local visibility online. Not having a good online presence means missing out many potential customers.

This is where local SEO comes to play!

What is local SEO?

Local SEO is one of the types of SEO that focuses on increasing the local online visibility which is similar to organic SEO but with added geographic component. This aims at getting higher ranking on SERP organically. A course of steps is taken including on-site optimization, content, and backlink building that helps in increasing the local online visibility of the business making it one step closer to making transactions.

Growing small businesses with Local SEO

Local SEO is an approach made by the local businesses operating in a certain city or area to increase their online presence and be easily found by their customers. To achieve this goal, they must be well versed with the concept of local search marketing, that includes local SEO as its main component.

Crucial steps to be taken care off for making local SEO effective:

Creating a Google My Business Account– Listing your business on google is one of the best ways to increase the online visibility and achieving a higher rank on google maps. While listing the business optimization is very important. To optimize the business profiles, make sure all the details are added appropriately as they’ll appear on the google search knowledge panel, google maps and google page local results and can impact the potential conversions. There are certain ways that you can consider to optimize the business profile like- adding up- to- date information about the business, verifying the business, adding blogs from the dashboard and asking for customer’s review and addressing them genuinely.
Voice Search Optimization– Customers generally use long tailed keywords to search on voice search, unlike while typing on the search engines, making it important for the businesses to use the content that is SEO optimized according to the customers’ tone.
Creating Content That is Relatable– News events or anecdotes can be the best way to connect to the customers as they are relatable. These events trigger the emotional aspect of the customers. Adding blogs, testimonials, events or stories and even the videos can help in building up an emotional relationship which is very important for customer retention. Make sure you use events or stories and videos that are genuine!
Mobile Optimized Website– Most of the local searches are done via mobile phones and if the website is not optimized for mobile phones, you might miss out many potential opportunities. Most of the mobile searches made by people are with an intent to visit the store off- line. Make sure the website appears same as it appears on the desktop with all the vital information clearly stated.
Use Relevant Keywords– Keywords are the words or phrases that customers write on the search engine to find what they looking for. Using relevant keywords can help the business to get the hot spot in the SERP.
Take Help From The Local Directories– Local directories are the websites that have the listing of the business with their detailed information like contact details with a backlink to their own website. Small businesses can list themselves on these websites. This will not only increase the visibility but also enhance the local SEO.
Provide The Contact Details Using Google Location– Using google location fasten the process for the customers to reach you. One click can directly take the user from the website on the google map making it clear path for the store visit. Make sure the google location is used properly if you are serving different areas or city.

Local SEO, if done properly, can increase your online visibility. The concept of SEO is widening day by day and one never know what advanced feature might get launched. Local SEO has made small business more lucrative and hence crucial for their growth.