We’ve probably all searched on Google for a business in our area at least once, if not several times. Whether that be a hair salon in your city or a coffee shop while you’re on vacation, one of the main uses of a search engine is to help you find a local business.
Local SEO can play a pivotal role in your marketing strategy. Not only does it help get your company’s name in front of targeted demographics, but it also boosts foot traffic from your community. By understanding the ins and outs of local SEO, you can make sure that your marketing strategy is as effective as possible.
We’ll talk about what local SEO is and why it’s important to your marketing efforts. Then we’ll discuss what local SEO actually looks like as a strategy.
Defining local SEO
Let’s start off with a basic definition. Local search engine optimization, or local SEO, is a marketing strategy that increases your website’s visibility in local search engine results for relevant keywords by people in the area. To put it plainly, if you’re a healthcare clinic, local SEO ensures that you pop up as a result in Google when someone in your city types in “healthcare near me.”
While it can be useful for any business, local SEO is mostly used for businesses that have physical buildings, have multiple locations or serve a particular area.
Local SEO is one of two types of search engine optimization that can be used in a marketing strategy. While local SEO focuses on keywords for specific geographic areas, traditional or national SEO is for a broader net with industry-specific keywords. For example, a clothing company based in Oregon would want to come up for “unisex clothing stores in Portland” for local SEO as opposed to “unisex clothes” for traditional SEO.
Why local SEO is important
Every type of marketing strategy can benefit you in some way, but local SEO is one of the go-to strategies for many businesses that want to become well known in their community by catering to their target demographics.
Local SEO is an effective marketing strategy because it provides a variety of benefits that will help you earn revenue and grow your business. Local SEO can help you:
- Increase conversion rates.
- Boost both targeted website traffic and foot traffic.
- Increase online brand visibility.
- Improve brand awareness.
- Enhance visibility on Google Maps.
- Gain advantage over local competitors.
How local SEO works
Now that you’ve learned what local SEO is, let’s talk about how it actually works to get you the results that you’re looking for. At BURG+CO., our goal with local SEO is to get you to rank as high as possible on Google for relevant searches. It’s one thing to rank on Google in the 10th spot, but it’s a completely different story to rank high on the first page.
There are a few components involved in our local SEO strategy, including:
- Finding relevant local keywords — What are people in your area searching for that relates to your business? With proper keyword research and using tools like Semrush, local SEO helps you pinpoint what locals are searching for so that you can make sure your website caters to it.
- Optimizing your Google Business Profile — Does Google understand how your business relates to local searches? By making sure that your business’s information is as up to date and descriptive as possible on your business profile, Google will recognize how you relate to local keywords and rank you higher on the results page.
- Creating relevant content — Are your core pages, resources and blog posts reliable and informative for the target audience? Once you determine what’s important to the locals through keyword research, you can ensure that your site’s content appeals to them by making sure that it showcases your value for what they’re searching for.
Want to attract new visitors to your website through local SEO? BURG+CO. can help
Increasing traffic to your website plays a role in increasing conversions and leading to new clients. However, it’s difficult to attract visitors to your site when you don’t know what to do. Fortunately, this is what we specialize in at BURG+CO.
Our team has years of experience in helping businesses improve their digital presence to attract new leads and retain existing ones. If you’re looking to perform better in search engine results and attract more visitors to your site, we’re ready to talk to you to see how we can help. Contact our team today for more information about digital marketing or to schedule a complimentary consultation.
