LOCAL SEO

When you’re aiming to rank for local search results, you want people in a specific neighbourhood, village, or town to find and visit your website. In most cases, your goal is not to sell directly through your website. Usually, your website will probably help people to find your store, your practice, or hire you for your skills. Websites focusing on a local audience are different from those focusing on a national or global audience. Your competitors are the other local entrepreneurs in your specific niche. You probably already know your competitors, but if not then you should find them ASAP. 

LOCAL CONTENT MARKETING

Content marketing means creating content (written, audio or visual) that attracts the attention of potential customers, engaging their interest, and showcasing the story of your business. The goal isn’t just getting people to click on your site in order to promote your business. Content marketing is about giving your audience material that they enjoy and find helpful. This means that they will be more inclined to get to know you and keep coming back.

Content marketing for local businesses and local SEO works in exactly the same way. As a local business, you might face some different challenges than a larger organization, but you’ll probably have some different advantages too! 

For instance, a big company might have a lot more resources to spend on content and SEO. Nonetheless, they most likely don’t know their customers the way that you do as a local business. By using your local knowledge, you will be able to make great content for your local business. This is because you are showing your personal approach, being visible, reachable, and authentic.

KEYWORD RESEARCH

Which local queries does your audience use when searching for your type of business? You should get inside the heads of your audience and figure out what they’re searching for. For most local search queries, people will actually use the name of the town or village when searching for something.

For instance, searching for a dentist in my area or near me. Google will give search results based on your location if they recognise a query as a local search intent.

Keyword research can be hard. But since you, as a local entrepreneur, regularly talk with your audience, you have a big advantage. Ask them about their search behaviour! Ask your favourite customers what they were searching for when they first visited your website. Or what they would be searching for if they’d be looking for your type of business. That’s valuable information. Don’t stop there, though! Think about other search terms as well (as you might be missing out an aspect of your audience).

Read more: Ultimate guide to keyword research »

WRITE ‘LOCAL’ HEADLINES

Ensure that the snippet of your web page which Google shows in the search results is optimized for local SEO.  You want to do this because Google will know that you’re focusing on a local audience. As well as this, your audience will recognise you as a local business.

Your local audience is searching for that bakery nearby, the closest Chinese restaurant to them, or the gardener that will come to their house. They’ll click on those results that indicate that they are situated in their area. That’s important for local search. Make sure your snapshot is clear about where your business is. The title of your posts and pages need to be clear about that. Use the Yoast SEO Google preview to see what your snippet will (probably) look like in the search results.

MAKE AN AWESOME IMPRESSION

Once you have led people to click on your snippet, then it is time to convince your viewers to stay on your website (and to not click away). A high bounce rate will eventually result in lower rankings, so you want to make an awesome first impression. As a therapist, a doctor, or a Digital Marketer, you basically have to sell yourself. Your audience want to know who they’re dealing with.

A good picture is key to making a strong first impression. Your website should reflect your business. If you have a practice or a physical shop, make sure to publish some high-quality optimized photos of your business (and maybe your employees) on your website. Videos are also a great way to present your business to your audience. Besides using great images or videos, you might also want to start writing too!

WRITE A BLOG

If you want to rank in the search results, then it would be wise to put your creative hat on and write a blog. 

But why?

A blog is a great content strategy since it will give your local audience a chance to get to know you and your company. So even if you own a local dentist, or a local hairdressers, you can write about these through a blog in order to get your message out. You should aim to write about customers too, and local testimonials are great like ratings and reviews.

However, if people are exceptionally satisfied then they will surely be able to leave a review on your website. Even so, their story could also be told through a blog post. This method is personal, friendly, and inviting.

To get you started, I want you to think about any local events which you have coming up in your business. 

Here’s some ideas: 

If you have a bakery, then you could have a new product which is coming out 

Or if you have a hairdressers, then you could have a new discount offer

Or if you have a gym, then you could be opening up a new sauna in there. 

These all classify as local events which you could write about, but be sure to make it fit in with your own local business!

If you need more guidance on blogging then check out our SEO blogging article. It should be able to get you on your feet within the blogging world.

FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM

Social Media should definitely be a part of your local SEO strategy. People connect with others from all over the world, but are most prone to connect with people in close proximity. We interact most with people we also see in real life. So, if you have a local business then you can benefit from this.

But how can you use Facebook and Instagram to help your business?

Well, it’s simple! Make sure to keep your local audience informed with lots of Facebook posts, and share your pictures and stories of your projects on Instagram. Another tip would be to write about your customers as it will increase the chances of your audience sharing and engaging with the post.

Advertising on Facebook could also be truly profitable. You can easily narrow down your advertisements to a specific (local) audience. This could be a great method since costs for local advertisements on Facebook aren’t very high.

Finally, whatever you post on Facebook you need to always make sure to preview the post first to check whether it looks good. Fortunately, with Yoast SEO Premium this is super easy. You’ll have a Facebook preview in your post in the WordPress admin!

For more guidance on bringing your social media local business to the next level, then read the article below.

Read on: Social media for small businesses: 12 tips to boost your local marketing »

YOAST SEO PLUGIN

Last, but not least: the Yoast Local SEO plugin makes implementing your SEO strategy much easier. The local SEO plugin covers all kinds of technical things, like Schema.org for local business. As well as, what you need to be doing in order to rank in the local search results. On top of that, it will help you set up excellent local landing pages, and will allow you to add functionalities you’ll need as a local business, like a store locator to your website. When that’s done, you can truly focus on improving your SEO by writing the best content for your local business!

Keep on reading: The ultimate guide to small business SEO »

Congratulations! You have just been taught detailed Byter tips on successfully creating a local SEO strategy. Now it’s time to for you to build up the presence and awareness of your business through our helpful tips and tricks. Don’t forget to let your family and friends know about your newfound skills from a London Digital Marketing Agency. Also, be sure to let us know how you do on you do with your local business. We’d love to hear about it.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: ADAPTING YOUR CONTENT SEO STRATEGY