Local businesses need local website traffic. But the only way you’re going to achieve that is with a solid digital marketing strategy.
It’s important to know that 81% of consumers use the web to research before making a big purchase. This means your consumers should be able to find your website when performing their research.
And the best way to do this is with local search marketing. If you’re not already implementing local SEO techniques in your strategy, then this guide is for you.
Let’s take a look at what you need to know before getting started.
What’s Local Search Marketing?
If you’re completely new to local SEO, then you’ll find this to be a clever tool. It’s the process of using location-based keywords to optimize your website and content to show up at the top of search engines.
There are multiple aspects of optimization to focus on in this manner. For instance, you’ll have to use keywords in your titles, meta descriptions, and throughout the content on your web pages (and blogs).
But what’s also essential is making your site and content mobile-optimized. Not doing so will greatly hurt your ranking on search engines. This is why it’s important to have a responsive design that accommodates any type of device and screen size the user is on.
Why does mobile search even matter? Well, because roughly 60% of Google searches are on mobile devices. When you search on Google using a mobile device, it showcases local results. That’s another reason why it’s so important to use local search marketing in your strategy.
What Factors Determine Your Local Page Rank?
In order to make use of local SEO, you first have to understand what affects your ranking. In this case, it’s all about local signals, such as long tail keywords with a city name.
For example: Toronto Brand Shoe Store.
Now, as you’re setting up your website pages, it’s important to ensure that your business name, address, and phone number (known as NAP) are all accurate. This is what will show up when your audience types in search terms related to your business.
Then to really give your brand some local rank juice, you can go and claim all of the business listings on Google, Bing, and other sites. In doing so, you should ensure that your NAP info is consistent with the details on your website.
The local keywords you’re targeting should be in the titles of your website, inside your business listing description, and in your blog content.
Also, it’s good to have social media accounts to help give your local brand a boost. If you’re getting likes, follows, comments, and other forms of engagement on your social media pages and posts, then it’ll help you rank.
Next, let’s take a look at some ways you can put local SEO marketing to use to rank higher in search engines.
Add Reviews and Testimonials to Your Site
Now that you have business listings on Google My Business, Facebook, Yelp, and other platforms, it’s time to harness the ranking power it can give you. One way to go about this is to ask your customers to leave reviews on these sites.
Then you can add a review section on your website to help encourage more feedback. This will help with your local SEO and potentially earn you more business. Roughly 83% of consumers trust peer reviews so if you’re getting enough positive feedback, it can have a great impact on your business.
It’s also good practice to comment on reviews publicly, saying thank you.
Prepare for Voice Search
As we already mentioned, the majority of internet users are on mobile devices. This means they’re using voice search quite frequently. And what sets this apart from typical searches are the results that show up.
You may already notice the answer box that shows up when you ask certain questions. Most mobile users are using Siri and other AI assistants to search Google in question format.
This makes it imperative for brands to begin crafting content specifically for these answer boxes. For instance, you can create an FAQ page that answers the questions your customer commonly ask.
Or you can create content around these common questions and have a paragraph with an overview of the answer (which shows up in the answer box).
Direct Business Listings to Location
A lot of brands link their business listings to their homepage. It’s common practice because the home page has more authority than location-based landing pages. However, if you’re looking for better SEO and conversion rates, then you’re better off doing the opposite.
Linking to your location landing pages helps to boost their ranking. Plus, it’ll help drive quality leads to these pages. If customers are finding your business listings, then chances are they’re looking for your products or services.
Just make sure the pages are localized so you can draw more foot traffic to your brick-and-mortar. It’s also important to note that 85% of consumer engagement occurs on local pages (social media, website, etc.).
Use Google Analytics Tracking
You’re not going to know if your local SEO strategies are working unless you’re monitoring the campaigns with a tool like Google Analytics.
This is quite popular among business owners and marketers. It allows you to build campaigns to track specific metrics. For instance, you can track all of the engagement and conversions for your local ads, local landing pages, and social media posts.
Create a Local SEO Campaign
Having reliable experts on your team to help with your local search marketing strategies is key to your success. Not only will they help to build your campaign, but they’ll implement, analyze, and tweak it as well.
The pros at nuBranch can help you with creating a campaign that’ll drive traffic to your local business. Contact us today to learn more about our services.
