Local SEO Solutions- A Guide To Engage And Convert Your Local Customers
Digital transformation is the new buzzword. But even today, the online space hasn’t completely replaced buying from physical stores. This is why small businesses are the backbone of the global economy. With new entrepreneurs joining the ranks, the number will soon cross the 32.5 million mark. It is much easier to start a small business thanks to digital technology. But without local SEO solutions, you can’t think of growing and scaling any time soon.
Wondering why? More than 45% of Google searches look for local information. If your business isn’t leveraging the advantages of local search solutions, you are already missing out on the potential customers in your area.
If you want to stay relevant, engaging, and profitable, local SEO is the go-to solution for your business. This is why to help you scale your local business, we’ve rounded up all the actionable insights that will allow you to reach your potential consumers.
But before that, let’s begin with the basics. This will help new small business entrepreneurs understand the nitty-gritty details.
So, let’s begin!
What Is Local SEO?
What do you do when you want a dress urgently? You can’t place an order online, right? Instead, you start searching for nearby outlets. Isn’t it? So, how do you find that? You take your phone and Google: “fashion store near me.”
That’s where local SEO comes in. It helps you increase the search visibility that allows you to connect with your buyers face-to-face. Whether you have a grocery store, own a dentist’s office, or operate a service area business, this will come in handy.
How?
It will improve your organic traffic and help you position your services to local prospects searching for them.
Local SEO Solutions: Unleashing The Tips To Gain More Customers:
You will find different guides on “how to do local SEO.” But the endless advice and hacks might get a bit intimidating since it’s a complex subject. This is why we’ve created a list of the topmost local SEO solutions to help you get started. So, let’s dig in right away!
1. Claim Your GMB Profile:
Google My Business (GMB) is like the “Tesla” of local search. You can use this tool to share your company’s content, verify your business, and meet your business needs. So, if you want to claim your profile, the following are some steps.
- Create a Google account associated with your business.
- Go to google.com/business and click on the option “Start now.”
- Enter your company’s name.
- Now add the address of your business. Make sure you check the box “I deliver goods and services to my business.” This will give you the added benefit of expanding your clientele. Make sure to select your delivery area.
- Then, choose the business category. The more accurate you will be here, the more your customers will find you when looking for similar services.
- Add your phone number or website.
- Then, hit the verification option. If you think you aren’t ready to verify yet, you can click “later.”
There are so many ways to verify your business on Google. For instance, you can do it using a postcard, phone, email, instant verification, or bulk verification methods. It can take around a week before Google verifies your business.
If your profile is authentic, the search engine will reward your business with a coveted side space in local search results. This will help you improve customer service and satisfaction.
2. Engage On Social Media:
If you believe only GMB will help you gain the correct traction from local customers, social media profiles must be your next step. The best part is that you have so many social media platforms. You can benefit from using them in sync with your local SEO strategy.
Do you know that more than half of customers rely on social media to research the brand and its services? Plus, Google also shows social media profiles on the first page of Google.
This is why professionals advise you to use social media to get better SERP rankings. Hence, you must optimize your social media profiles to take the consumers directly to your website.
Further, this practice helps you access several opportunities to generate linkless backlinks. It will be a net positive on Google. Here are some platforms you must use to boost your local search rankings.
Facebook:
With more than 2 billion active users, it should be one of your top priorities. In fact, many believe that it could be a replacement for any traditional website. This platform allows you to showcase your services, promote them, and accept bookings directly. It is a goldmine of potential traffic and customers if you optimize the profile correctly. Below is an example of an optimized Facebook profile.
Let’s not forget that Facebook reviews also get placed alongside your GMB reviews. So, if you want to win over your customers, optimize your Facebook profile now.
Instagram:
It is yet another platform that helps businesses flourish. It might seem like an underrated traffic source, but the changes in the last few years have made sure that Instagram gives a boost to your search presence. Using user-generated content will provide your physical location a boost.
Take this place as an example. They promote a hashtag so that customers can take photos and use them to show on their profiles. It helps generate new business and garner some attention online.
Twitter:
While many people might debate whether it is a good fit for local businesses, it is worth trying. The content distribution can help you get the links. Plus, hashtags will help you expand your reach.
You can also use Twitter moments to boost your local SEO results. For instance, when creating a Twitter moment, you must include city and service in the title and description to nichify the content.
Snapchat:
It is pretty a new entry. But do you know you can target a younger audience using this platform? However, your typical marketing strategies won’t work here. This is why you must use it to spread brand awareness to grow your business locally. You can partner with local influencers and spread the word locally. You can use on-demand geofilters to reach your target audience.
Besides these platforms, Tiktok and Pinterest can also help you reach the right audience to boost your local SEO strategies.
3. Optimize Online Directories And Citations:
Citations are the key to boosting local SEO outcomes. Providers often give importance to this when they provide details about local SEO solutions. Citations are nothing but a reference of your business name, address, and phone number.
They are usually the part of online business directories that allows you to spread details about your brand at every critical place where customers look for your services. Ideally, Yelp, GMB, Trip Advisor, Apple, Yelp, and others are pretty popular regarding citations.
In fact, you will find hundreds of potential websites to list a business online. But not all of them are for your business. This is why you must align citations with your category. But whatever you choose, consistency is the key to citations.
4. Optimize NAP Online:
With Google updates recently, the importance of consistent NAP increased tremendously. It is especially important if you want to appear in Google’s Local Pack results. That’s how yours will be deemed a legitimate business to improve trust among your potential customers. More listings with similar information will boost your local SEO solutions strategies, and hence it will help you engage with valuable customers.
5. Do A Local Keywords Research:
If you keep on creating strategies without knowing how your customer searches for the products/ services, the entire local SEO solutions will be a waste. If you want to understand your industry and consumers well, it would be wise to expand your scope by performing keyword research.
For instance, if you own plumbing services in New York and believe that customers are only searching for plumbers in New York or Plumber, you leave your money on the table. You can use SemRush or Ahrefs to find relevant keywords with search volume. That way, you can get started with other steps like website optimization.
6. Create Local Content And Engage With Locals:
The search engine is getting smarter day by day. This means you need to create content for your end-users, not the search engines. This is why you need to hone your focus and share content about what is essential for the locals. That will help you connect to the locals and promote your ideas, services, and other content.
The more you value your local persona and provide them solutions, the more you have the chance to connect with your target audience.
This is how you can diversify your local content strategy. While you are quite aware of all content types, you must build a strategy to encourage your users to talk about your services online in the form of reviews.
Even Google says that “high-quality and positive reviews from your clients can help improve the visibility of your business.”Also, they are one of the critical factors in improving your search rankings online.
7. Ensure Your Website Is Local-SEO Optimized:
How can you attract your target audience to your website? It’s simple. You have to look for the keywords and optimize your website. If you create the content around what your customers are looking for, they will naturally land on your website.
Ideally, you must create landing pages for the services. For instance, if you are a plumbing service provider, you can’t only create content around “Plumber.” After all, people aren’t only searching that way.
You will have to include keywords like boiler replacement, bathroom fittings, and kitchen plumbing services. This is why you must focus on finding the right keywords. But when creating content, ensure that you aren’t stuffing keywords.
Make it natural and solution-centric. That’s how you can engage with your customers. For instance, you must avoid creating content like the one given below:
Here’s what you must do:
- Check for keywords on the keyword tool.
- Look for similar pages like yours.
- Filter the “people also ask” rankings.
- Create a content strategy after narrowing down the keywords.
8. Use Geofencing Advertising:
This is one of the most beneficial local SEO solutions that can help you create a robust engagement between your customer and business. If you use precise customer targeting and include transparent messaging, it will increase your ROI compared to the investment in ads.
This strategy will use GPS and IP addresses and allow you to enter a determined area and hyper-localized audience for quality leads and better clicks. This is why it is quite an essential strategy amongst the local SEO solutions.
- The message is quite relevant to the customer. The conversion becomes even more definite since you reach a hyper-localized customer.
- Since you will get highly qualified leads, you will have better marketing budgets and ROI.
It will allow you to bridge the gap between advertising and action.
9. Participate In Local Community Events:
You can sponsor a webinar or meet up or host a community event that will help you engage with your local community. The idea is to build relationships with people and influencers so that you can feature on their partner directory.
You have an understanding of what all comes under local SEO solutions. Clearly, it isn’t a free world. You have to pay for quality services.
Thinking about how much you need to invest? Let’s find out in the section below.
How Much Does Local SEO Cost?
Many local businesses believe that they can do things on their own to save the cost of local SEO solutions. We aren’t saying you can’t. But:
- Can you find the title tag and meta description on the SERP and understand how the search engine uses them?
- Do you have any knowledge of what Google looks for?
- Do you know how to set up Google analytics and search console and drive your SEO efforts?
- Do you have any knowledge about sitemaps?
We are assuming that amidst all the client meetings and scaling your business, you wouldn’t want to invest your time in marketing.
So, if you are looking for local SEO solutions, this is what you can expect to pay.
- A one-time project that includes analysis, research, cleanup, and optimization might cost you $300-$800.
- If you exclusively look for local SEO solutions, it will cost you around $1000 per month.
The price will vary according to the number of locations and your final aspirations regarding leads, conversions, and ROI.
Clearly, you have reached here means you are interested in local SEO solutions. But if you are still hesitant about why you should go for it, the reasons below will help you make an informed business decision.
Why Should Local Businesses Leverage Local SEO Solutions?
Whether your corporate business operates from multiple locations or a brick-and-mortar store that is locally owned, local SEO solutions will be a beneficial option. After all, more than half of Google searches turn out to be local searches. This is why Google is also keen on showing more results based on proximity, relevance, and prominence.
If your business is close to someone searching for similar services and has optimized websites and listings, you are more likely to be found by your potential customers.
So, it is pretty simple. If you want your customers to find you, you need to give them the chance to find your storefront online. Local SEO solutions help you appear on Google search and Maps and reach your customers.
Let’s find out more about its multitude of benefits.
Stay Competitive With Other Local Businesses:
The need for local businesses will always be there. But if you aren’t available on the platforms where local customers are looking, you can push your customers towards your competitors. Local SEO solutions allow you to show up along with your nearby competitors.
Gain Repeat Customers:
Everyone knows that customer retention is one of the best ways to generate more revenue. With local SEO solutions, you can easily capture these customers and provide good services so that they can come over again. After all, repeat customers convert more quickly than new customers.
Earn Trust With Higher SERP Rankings:
Let’s be honest. When someone searches for a product or service online, they trust the first five listings online. With local SEO solutions, you can rank higher and gain more trust without changing your offerings and services.
Show Up In Google’s 3-Pack:
It means the first three listings. Usually, Google displays the first three listings depending on the local intent. If you are using the proper local SEO solutions, you can drive your revenue by landing your business in the 3-pack results since this will increase clicks, leads, and conversions.
Improve Brand Awareness:
If your website is locally optimized, your chances of appearing in local business directories and other platforms increase. Hence, you can boost your credibility and let your customers find more about you. This will also increase the chances of customers leaving positive reviews and improve brand credibility even more.
Bonus Points To Remember For Better Results With Local SEO Solutions:
- But creating a GMB profile isn’t enough. You will need to optimize it so that your GMB profile ranks higher. For that, you must use Google posts with your account, encourage your customers to rate your services, and leave online reviews. You must respond to the reviews using the location so that your potential customers can get in touch with you.
- When creating citations, avoid discrepancies like misspellings, abbreviations, and phone numbers. Remember, if Google can’t determine the correct information about your business, it will not show it in search results. This is why you must delete all the duplicate listings and garner the right attention.
- Getting online reviews is important. But responding to all your reviews must also be on your to-dos list. While you know how to respond to a positive review, ensure that you are compassionate when someone is satisfied with your services. Try to show that you are willing to make it a positive experience.
- If you are looking for the right local SEO solutions pricing, here’s a breakdown of why it varies. Ideally, local citations, number of website pages, local links, content marketing, GMB management, and Local SEO reporting are responsible for the varying price ranges. This is why talking to a strategist and local SEO expert is necessary.
Final Takeaways:
Local SEO solutions are the need of the hour if you want to stand out from your competition. So, if you are in the middle of creating a revised local SEO strategy, it’s time you hire experts that will help you:
- Find local keywords and optimize websites and listings.
- Manage citations and business directories.
- Create a better local content strategy that converts better.
- Manage online reviews.
And many more. So, are you all set to rule your local business location? It’s time you talk to the right people to improve your local search rankings for better customer experience, retention, engagement, and conversion.
If you want to start local SEO for your business, or are interested in any of our marketing services, we’d love to hear from you!
For additional information, please contact us via our website or call at +15186206920 for further details.