If you run a local business, chances are Google plays an instrumental role in helping bring in referrals or new clients. Without being on Page One of Google, a large portion of business could go unrealized.
Local SEO business entails optimizing a website and online listings so they rank higher for locally focused search terms. This involves determining what search terms your target audience uses when looking for products or services like yours, then ranking your listings against them. In addition, managing customer reviews on both listings and website in an timely fashion as well as adding schema markup will all contribute towards greater local search optimization efforts.
There’s much more to local SEO than meets the eye, but these are its core components. Local SEO should be part of every business strategy; however, for some industries specifically it can be even more crucial than ever before. Here are some industries which should prioritize local SEO:
Plumbing is an industry that can greatly benefit from local SEO. People typically search online when looking for plumbers, so ensuring your presence on Google when these searches take place will ensure more revenue for you and less for competitors.
Local SEO allows your business to increase its exposure by claiming and optimizing its Google My Business profile, using NAP citations to drive website visitors, using relevant keywords on both its own pages as well as online listings and participating in local events that build brand awareness and trust with consumers.
Making sure your website is mobile-friendly is also key to local seo; over half of Google searches now take place via mobile devices and if it isn’t mobile-friendly you may miss out on significant amounts of traffic and customers.
Attracting customers locally requires having both an optimized website and strong social media presence; social media provides an effective means to connect with consumers while also improving your rankings in local search results.
Optimizing your business for local search requires optimizing relevance, distance and prominence – three of the most critical factors. Relevance refers to how closely your listing matches a search query submitted by users; distance refers to how close the business is located from searchers; prominence measures its rank within search results pages. In order to improve local SEO effectively and attract more local customers while expanding profits – give local SEO optimization a try today – you won’t regret it!