For businesses owners with a website and an online strategy,
search engine optimization (SEO) is an important factor. If much of your
business comes from local customers then local SEO, which helps businesses be
found in a specific geographic market, should be part of your web strategy.
If you're seeking the greatest stream of web traffic in the
ever-changing search engine scene, there are some non-technical ways to take
advantage of local SEO. In addition to hiring an SEO professional like Scott
Pierson from The Executive SEO,
try to increase your rankings through a combination of simple tasks, some of
which Scott recommended in our recent meeting.
Here are six tips to get you started:
1. City and State Info
Include your business city and state in your web site's
title tag, alt tags and in your website content. Ideally, your landing page should include the
name, address and phone (NAP) of your company and it should match your Google+
Local listing.
2. Blog
To become a local authority and to be found online,
write/blog about the subjects your target audience wants to know about. To strengthen your local strategy, include
blog posts and press releases that focus on local business transactions and
community events your business is involved in.
3. Inbound Links
Quality links that point to your site will strengthen your
online presence. Remember to link back to
your site from social media sites, when you guest blog or comment on a
blog. Ask your business partners to post
links to your site on their Resources page and do the same for them.
4. Claim Local Profiles
One of the best ways to optimize for local SEO is to
completely fill out your local profiles
on sites such as Google My Business, Yelp, Bing and Yellow Pages(to name a
few). For an $84 fee, Moz Local
(moz.com) will ensure that your business listings are correct and
consistent on sites and directories that
factor most in local search engine results.
5. Use Location-Based Hashtags
Increase your relevancy and visibility for local audiences
by using location-based hashtags. Use your business' and your target audiences'
neighborhoods, cities or towns (#Milford #Devon or #Bayview, for example) in
your posts so your content will be found by your local market.
6. Reviews
Periodically ask your clients to favorably review you on
Google+. A steady flow of positive reviews will go a long way in building your
SEO.
Staying current with local SEO is a challenging but
important task for entrepreneurs. If you're overwhelmed or not getting results, enlist
help from an SEO expert to advance your local SEO strategy.
