Are you taking advantage of local SEO? If not, you could be missing out on a major revenue boost. A whopping 46% of Google searches are made with local intent, and nearly one in three people (28%) make a purchase after a local search.
You’re eager to dip your toes into the evergreen potential of local SEO. But what does it take to get to that point, and how do you even get started?
This article covers everything you need to know about local SEO for your growing business. Once we cover the four-step process, we explain how a Google search marketing firm like Autumn Consulting can put it on autopilot so you can focus on your business.
4 Steps To Boost Your Local SEO
Local SEO isn’t rocket science — but it does require you to follow a formula to get results.
Here’s the four-step process you need to start showing up in your local service area.
1. Boost Your Positive Ranking Factors
Before you dive into the specifics of local SEO, you need to figure out how and where your business appears online.
This means:
- Checking your click-through rate (CTR) to see where traffic is coming from.
- Discovering what keywords your site is ranking for (so you can optimize later).
- Building a good social media presence with active engagement.
Once you have a good understanding of each of these ideas, you can quickly move into the next phase of the process: optimizing your GMB.
2. Optimize Your Google My Business Page
Your Google My Business page (or GMB) can provide a powerhouse of SEO magic for your brand. If you don’t have one already, you can head to Google’s official page to claim one for yourself.
If you already have a GMB page, you need to work on optimizing it for your searchers. Thankfully, this isn’t terribly hard to do.
- Make sure to verify your business locations and list accurate information about your brand (like business hours, addresses, phone numbers, and social media accounts).
- Update your GMB description with keywords and facts about your business. Ask yourself: what should a new customer know about your business in under 300 words?
- Ask customers to provide reviews on your GMB page. If possible, see if they’re willing to include keywords that are relevant to your business.
- Add eight to 10 high quality photos of your business location, products, services, equipment, employees, and more.
- Post regular updates (at least once per week) with images, keywords, and key information about discounts or special offers.
By now you should be seeing a slight uptick in web traffic. However, we’re only halfway through the local SEO process — and it’s time to start zeroing in on long-term tasks.
3. Focus On Your Website’s SEO
Local SEO inherently requires updated SEO for your website. In addition to focusing on keywords and anchor text (and including links around your site), you need to enhance your website signals using the following steps:
- Optimize your site for mobile traffic as well as desktop users.
- Build consistency between your title tags, meta description, and page titles.
- Create a separate landing page for each location in your service area (like ‘Google Search Marketing in Fort Lauderdale’).
If you want to navigate this process the easy way, you can use our Google prioritization checklist to determine next steps.
4. Build Local Links And Citations
Backlinks and citations are one of the biggest contributors to domain authority — something your website needs if you want to rank on page one. That said, backlinks can be hard to come by. Plus, stooping to spam or paid referrals can create all sorts of problems for your domain.
Instead, we recommend taking a long-term, slow-burning, high-quality approach:
- Sponsor local events to earn quality backlinks.
- Create great content for other brands to cite and link back to organically.
- Get listed on Yelp, Yellow Pages, FourSquare, and other similar websites.
- Partner with local companies or your Chamber of Commerce to build authority.
- Take part in community events or establish discounts and coupons.
If you need some additional backlink ideas, feel free to contact Autumn Consulting for help.
How Autumn Consulting Can Grow Your Business With Local SEO
If you’re looking to improve your Google rankings and get new eyes on your brand, you need to start upping your local SEO game to contend with competitors online.
Thankfully, you don’t have to be a Google search marketing whiz to get started with local SEO. And if you partner with the professionals at Autumn Consulting, you don’t need to do anything other than give us a call.
We offer a multi-pronged process to help your business succeed, including:
- Targeted keyword campaigns to help your business show up in the cities customers are searching.
- Google My Business (GMB) management campaigns to help searchers find your business and make their first phone call
- Curated pay-per-click campaigns to advertise your services and help local buyers make repeat purchases at your business.
When you’re ready to reap the rewards of local SEO without sacrificing valuable time on the clock, just contact Autumn Consulting at (813) 618-7554 to discuss the WOW moments in store for you.
