Small Business Marketing Tips: Increase Your Search Rankings with Local SEO

People no longer search for local businesses in the Yellow Pages. Today, they type what they’re looking for into Google search and pick from one of the top results. This is why it’s so important for small business owners to invest time in local SEO. Even on a very basic level, some local SEO work can make a difference in your search presence, website traffic, and eventually sales.

Here are a few essential SEO tactics you can implement for your local small business:

Optimize Your Website

Local business websites typically aren’t that complex which means that there aren’t too many pages to optimize and the process isn’t too difficult. Every page of your website should be optimized not only with relevant keywords but also with local keywords that people will be using when they search. This means adding localized keywords like city, state, neighborhood, region, etc. into title tags, meta descriptions, and on the page as it makes sense. For a local business, it’s especially important to include the business address and phone number on every page of the website. The footer is a good place to start.

Claim Local Profiles

It only takes a few minutes to claim a local profile listing and update it with all of the relevant information (including the website). This is often a missed opportunity since search engine local listings often appear at the top of a search result for local searches. Even if the listing does appear, if it’s not complete and verified and doesn’t include a website link, it could get passed over by the searcher. In addition to Google My Business (the top priority), it’s important to spend a few minutes verifying Yahoo! Local, Bing Places for Business, Yelp, and Mapquest listings.

Write for Your Local Audience

As a part of your content marketing strategy, it’s important to incorporate content that has a local flair. Content that showcases your local community, local clients, customers, and partners naturally incorporates localized keywords, and it’s also the kind of content that is more likely to be linked to and shared among a local audience.

Build Local Links

A variety of relevant, high quality inbound links is a top SEO ranking factor. Your business should look for local link opportunities that strengthen ties to its geographic area. In addition to local directories, look for other local link opportunities like the local chamber of commerce or local events/organizations/charities that you can sponsor and be featured on their website.

Small business owners don’t have a lot of time, but doing these things really can make a difference. If you don’t have the time or inclination to tackle SEO yourself, contact us to learn how we can help you improve your local SEO.