Local SEO Services

Did you know that 46% of all Google searches are seeking local information?

If you are not ranking locally, you are missing out on a huge chunk of traffic and consequently, you are losing a lot in terms of conversions and revenue.

Simply put, local SEO means optimising your website for local searches. This is boosting your online visibility in your local area. To reach many people in Sydney, for example, you need to optimise for your presence on Google because it is the preferred search engine in Australia. As of March 2020, the percentage of Google users was a whopping 94.67! If you are not ranking locally on Google, you are preparing for failure.

Still not sure whether you need local SEO. Well, look at these figures. Google reports that 33% of clicks are on the local pack results. Have you seen the local packs on your search results? An example is illustrated below. I did a search for a party DJ and these were the results:

Oh, did we mention that 40% of clicks go to the organic results? So what do we do now? Simple, have a spot on the local pack and on the organic results and your chances of getting clicks will increase massively. With traffic numbers on mobiles increasing, is becoming more and more relevant to have this feature set up properly.

Optimising your site to rank locally will have a positive impact on your business.  Your website will eventually start generating more organic leads, conversions and ultimately, you will generate more consistent revenue without having to pay for companies like Google for leads. 

What about national SEO?

Ranking nationally is a great thing because it puts you on a pedestal across the country. If done right, you get massive traffic and you can get leads across the country.

When you are ranking well in the regions where you operate, your revenue is boosted massively. And with local SEO, you have higher chances of conversion because people tend to trust businesses that are close by. If you are a small business or a start-up, local SEO should be an important part of your overall SEO strategy. 

How to Boost Your Local Rankings

Like any other venture, to rank locally, you need to put in some effort. You need to be fighting on different fronts. Besides the on-page tactics, you also need to go out of your way and even meet people physically to have a name on the local listings. Here are the
important things you need to do to kick start your local SEO success.

Claim Your Listing on Google My Business

Google my business is one important tool every business should use. When you are listed on GMB, you are likely to rank high in local searches because Google goes through a series of verification steps to list you. When a business is successfully listed, Google has confidence
in you and your authenticity can be proven.

When setting up your GMB account, you are required to share information that will be helpful to the online user such as the name of the business, the location, hours of operation and your logo.

Currently, there are many businesses that haven’t claimed their listing on Google My Business.  This is your chance to outsmart them by completing these simple steps.

Research on Local Keywords

Want local customers? Then the best thing to do is to build your content around local keywords. Google has the necessary filter systems to determine which keywords are relevant in different localities.

When doing your keyword research, ensure that you use a tool that can give you suggestions based on the geolocation. The Google Keyword planner can do this as well as a host of other keyword finding tools.

Create Local Content

To rank locally, you need to show interest in the goings on of the local community and how this impacts your niche. When you create content around local stories, news and other happenings, you put yourself on the map. Google can piece up this information and conclude that you are relevant to a certain locality.

Be creative and create a variety of content in different forms such as videos or audio clips, brochures and webinars. You need to pick on things that affect your niche.

Get Reviews On Google

Do a quick search on Google and you will see the businesses on the local packs with their ratings. Getting people to review your business helps in local rankings because more people will choose you if other customers are happy with your services.

To encourage people to review your business, you can send them an email after they have completed the purchase or you can ask them directly to give a review if they don’t mind. You also need to respond to the existing reviews in a professional way and give genuine information.

Local Pages

If you are operating in many locations, you can have local pages for each of the locations. These pages should provide detailed information about your business in your specific region. If you are running a store in Melbourne and Queensland for instance, you need to specify what products are offered at the different locations, the addresses and the hours of operations. The big mistake that people make is to have duplicate content on the different
location pages with the only difference being the name of the city or town. This old trick used to work but as Google gets smarter, it might not help you. If you are lazy to create unique content, then give up the idea.

Though most people might not be keen on optimising their ‘about us’ pages, it is important to consider that. If you are operating in a single region, this is the page where you should include those local keywords and ensure that your local visibility is boosted.

Have Consistent Contact Information

Set up your Name Address and Phone number (NAP) on your website. These should be consistent and placed preferably on your website’s footers or headers. They should be coded well to ensure that search engines can be crawled.

This consistent contact information should be included in online directories and citations. Also make sure to remove duplicate listings.

Get Backlinks

Quality backlinks will help you rank well locally. When you have websites linking to your webpages, Google rates your content highly and you are better placed to feature on local packs and top positions on organic results.

To benefit from backlinks, you need to have sites with a high domain authority linking to you. You can achieve this by doing guest blogging on highly reputable sites. Alternatively, focusing on delivering quality will attract people to link back to you.

Ranking locally has lots of benefits for your business. This should be your aim if you are doing business because it leads to the generation of more leads, contacts, clients, revenue, traffic etc. Web performance media is here to ensure that you rank high in local searches and trounce your competition. Our proven SEO strategies will help you get to the promised land.

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