What is SEO & How It Works
SEO stands for search engine optimization. Which in simple words means, managing or adjusting a website depending on the algorithm of the search engines. This process helps to rank the website higher on the SERPs against a specific search made by the users.
The more optimized and relatable your website is to a particular search intent, the more likely it is to rank higher on the search pages. This eventually gives you advantages in the business compared to your competitors.
SEO is a very cost-effective and efficient process to drive traffic to your website and boost it to rank higher on the Search Engine Result Pages. So, SEO is a must for any business to survive in the competitive market.
Why Local SEO is Important for Businesses
Local SEO is not any different from SEO. It is just a more specific and pointed strategy for a business. SEO can have a wide range of targeted audiences. It might be strategized to promote business throughout a larger coverage area, maybe a state, country, or even worldwide. Whereas, Local-SEO is the process that solely targets to rank higher in the local searches.
You have to target your local audiences and focus on local keywords on search engines. Local SEO is highly recommendable for a local product or service-based business. This will help you to reach more audiences in your area than your competitors and turn them into conversions.
According to a report, 70% of all small businesses don’t follow any local SEO strategy. So, for you to follow it will already take you ahead of most of your competitors.
Some stats that you should look at –
- 46% of the global Google searches are looking for local information.
- Around 75% of the local searches lead to conversions.
- 88% of the local searches either call or get in touch with the business within 24 hours.
These are some of the most interesting facts that you should look at if you are running a business in your area or planning to start one.
Now coming to the know-how part. SEO is a lengthy and time-consuming process. But you should always keep working on it to get the best result. Here we are going to talk about some of the most basic and effective steps for business owners to follow to generate more revenues.
Local SEO Tips for Small Businesses in 2024
1. Google My Business (GMB) Listings
Creating a Google My Business account is the first and most important step for local businesses. GMB listing is an important ranking factor that helps businesses in local SEO. Ranking higher in the local searches gives you more leads.
Creating a GMB account is not very hard. You just need to take care of your provided information. Fill up the full info sections with the proper name, place, services or products, images, full bio, etc. This will help Google to understand better about your business. This eventually will help your business to get a better response in the search engine algorithms.
The more precise and authentic information you will provide, the better the chance to rank higher.
2. Encourage People to Reviews
Only creating a GMB account is not enough. If you have a GMB page but with no ratings at all, then it’s lacking something. Google review badge is a very reliable factor that users look at when looking for a service or product online.
With more positive reviews on your GMB page, it helps not only the users but boosts the authority in Google’s eyes. Even in the case of negative reviews, it is very important to respond to the user with the intent of resolving the problem, this also creates a good impression in Google’s eyes.
You can ask your customers to give the necessary reviews on your GMB page. Apart from that, you can encourage your customers to give reviews on other platforms as well, like social platforms, websites, or other review pages.
3. Focus on Local SEO Keywords
Keyword research is the most vital thing behind any SEO campaign. Without the proper keywords implemented in the SEO strategy, the result is not going to happen, whatever you do. So, do your keyword research carefully.
In the case of local businesses, it is highly important to do proper local keyword research. For example – if someone runs a business for interior decoration in the city of Melbourne, then he should focus on the local keywords like – interior decoration in Melbourne, etc.
If you have noticed the example, you can see that the keyword consists of 3-4 words, these are called long-tail keywords. It helps SEO ranking even more. Long-tail keywords are more specific to definite search intent and have a lower keyword difficulty.
4. Optimize Your Website
Having a website for your business is very important. It creates an identity and trustworthiness for your brand. Having an attractive website that perfectly defines your product or services not only helps the users but creates authenticity in the eyes of Google as well.
Creating a good website is not a hard job to do. There are many free website builders available in the market using which you can create almost any kind of website as per your needs.
Some of the most reliable website builders are – Wix, Weebly, SITE123, etc. SITE123 is a website builder that encompasses a lot of features that help users create their personalized websites.
Once you have your website and the list of targeted local keywords, now is the time to optimize the website by implementing those keywords. Optimize your homepage, landing page, and other pages that you want to rank against a definite search query.
Tips to take care of –
- Meta Tag
- Meta Description
- Title
- Footer
- Body
- Alt image
- Tags etc.
5. Directory Submission
This is another important step to do for local SEO. Depending on the business that you do, you have to do directory submission to get better authority from Google. A business providing services or products is required to go for a business listing in various directories.
Make sure to provide authentic information throughout all directories. Providing genuine and the same info helps the business in the search rankings. It helps Google to understand your business better, Different information in different directories will lead Google into confusion that will adversely affect the SEO ranking.
Apart from the local SEO, if your business is covering a wide range of areas then you should take part in the global SEO as well.
6. Mobile Optimization
There are more mobile internet users than on the desktop. According to a report, around 53% of the global website comes from mobile phones. And 30% of all the mobile searches are specific location-related. So, you can understand the importance of mobile optimization for your business to get a better response to the competition.
A website that doesn’t look good in mobile view, won’t get a good response from the audiences. This would create a bad user experience and increase the bounce rate, which will adversely affect the SEO of the website. So, make sure that your website is well-mobile optimized.
Conclusion
SEO is like an ocean. Numerous strategies are there to follow to get a good response in the search engine rankings. The above-mentioned points are the most basic and important areas to take care of. Using the tips any business can experience a positive result. Hope this helps you.
