Your work does not end once you have a designed and well-rounded website. In fact, in some ways, it has just begun. Your beautifully designed website will be nothing but a page with some content if it cannot be seen by people. How do you make your website visible to your target market? The only way you can accomplish this goal is by getting higher rankings in search engine results. However, getting a good ranking in local search engine result is extremely tough due to the level of competition. Only when a website is visited frequently, it will be ranked high by Google and other search engines.
You cannot just go up to your potential customers and prospects and ask them to visit your website frequently. This will happen automatically after your website has gotten a good ranking. In order to do so, you will need to devote some attention to local search engine optimization. This concept is quite confusing and you to have a proper understanding if you wish to use it to your advantage.
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What is Local SEO?
Local search engine optimization is about getting high rankings in search engines when customers conduct a local search. In most cases, people first do a search for products and services available locally.
Local SEO
is slightly different from traditional SEO because it doesn’t just consider the number of links of a website as it is only accessible in specific areas and its traffic will vary accordingly. If it is done in the correct way, local search engine optimization will be able to give your website better rankings, which can lead to more sale leads, conversions and revenue.
Once you understand the concept of Local SEO and are ready to implement it, here are some effective ways that can be extremely helpful:
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Make local place page
The first and foremost step to local SEO is to create a local business page for popular search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo etc. This is very straightforward as you only need to provide accurate information such as contact number, hours of operation and address amongst other details.
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Online reviews
It is widely believed that Google takes your website reviews into account when assigning rankings to websites. Furthermore, reviews are an excellent platform for customers to get easy and authentic information about the products and services. Offering your customers the option to leave quick reviews is beneficial as they can land you in a better place in search engine result pages. You can simply add a button on your webpage that can be used for posting quick reviews.
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Focusing on right keywords
When you are after a better position in search engine results, using the right keywords can do wonders. Geo-specific and long keywords should be your focus when you are thinking about local SEO. This is primarily because you are focusing on a specific area rather than appealing to a worldwide audience and being particular can get you better results. You will be able to compete with your rivals in a better way as you can get ranked high.
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Photos
Pictures can play a very important role in local SEO as one image is worth a thousand words and rightly so. When potential customers do a local search for your business, they are very much interested in seeing photographs. You need to ensure that original pictures are posted rather than fake ones as they can give your customers an idea of your business and your offerings.
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Citations
Citations can play a key role as far as local search engine optimization is concerned. They are basically considered votes by search engines like Google. Nevertheless, it is essential that the information mentioned in the citation is in accordance with the details mentioned on your local webpage. While citations don’t play a major role in traditional SEO, local SEO can be heavily impacted. In simple terms, citations are just non-link mentions of the brand name, contact number, address etc. The entire purpose of these citations is to garner positive reviews and to get listed on different directories. Adding quality links and blogs can also be a boost.
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Conversions
No one is going to stick around if it takes more than a few seconds for your website to load. They will immediately switch to other websites that are listed in search engine results, which means that you can lose customers. Statistics reveal that slow openings of websites has led to reduced conversions. This means that conversion rates can be enhanced and boosted when the pages load quickly. Don’t make the mistake of lagging behind because it will give your competitors the opportunity to edge forward.
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Social media integration
You can most definitely get high exposure due to social networking sites. Therefore, a healthy presence on social media platforms is definitely recommended. According to a post
here
by SEO Expert Neil Patel, it gives you the ability of reaching out and interacting with a local audience. You can take advantage of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and others.
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High ROI
You can get a higher return on investment through local SEO. This is because there is considerably less competition when you are doing business locally. You have a better chance of getting a high ranking in search engine results when there isn’t a lot of competition.
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Results
As far as SEO is concerned, a lot of businesses aren’t aware of the importance of getting quick and quality results. Local SEO is slightly different in this regard because it can offer quick and measurable results so you can know exactly what you are doing and make changes accordingly in order to move in the right direction.
When you understand these practices and rules concerning local search engine optimization, you are in a much better place and can get a leg up your competitors. Most searchers don’t move past the first page of search engine results and that’s where you want to show up with proper strategies and tactics.
