SEO Expert Interview

Local SEO Strategies That Will Help Your Business Stand Out in the Crowd

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by

Jeanette Staten
in

SEO Local

Local SEO Strategies That Will Help Your Business Stand Out in the Crowd

Local SEO is a targeted approach to optimizing your website and listings so your business appears in search results for users in a specific geographic area. Unlike organic Search Engine Optimization, which aims to raise a site’s ranking across unpaid search queries in general, Local SEO focuses on ranking for keywords tied to a city, place, or town so nearby searchers find you first.

What Is Local SEO and How Does It Differ from Organic SEO?

Organic search engine optimization is the practice of increasing a site or a page’s ranking in the results of an unpaid search query. Organic search results are the ones that show up on the first page of results for a given keyword or key phrase.

Local SEO seeks to target search results where searchers will be looking for a particular type of information. For example, if a searcher is looking for a pizza place in New York, a Local SEO optimization strategy would focus on the search words city, place, or town in order to direct the user to your website.

How Do You Choose Local Keywords?

Before launching a Local SEO campaign, decide how you intend to use the keywords you choose for your website. Local SEO will target specific keywords in your local geographic area. If you live in the city of Boston and want to rank for the words “pizza” and “baked chicken” in your local search, the targeted keyword phrases will be “pizza”, “cheese”, or “chicken” respectively. Instead of targeting the search term “Pizza” in the overall organic category, you would target “Pizza in Boston” or “Cheese Pizza in Boston” and so on.

Should You Stick to One Optimization Technique?

Once you have chosen the targeted keywords and placed them in your optimization plan, the next step is selecting the best optimization approach for your site. When you begin your Local SEO optimization, it is best to stick to one technique. This will help you keep your site relevant by staying local, and you will not have to learn several different techniques in order to maintain the rankings in all of the major search engines. Local SEO will also ensure that your website is included in all of the other websites that link back to your main page, which will bring additional traffic.

What Should Your Local Business Pages Look Like?

On your Local SEO optimization website, you will need to provide your visitors with a list of businesses in your area. These pages should be easy to find and informative. Many people are more likely to click on a business in their immediate geographical location if they feel that the website is well-designed and relevant to their needs. On your business website, use a professional template or an affordable one, but stay away from the free ones as they often end up being riddled with errors that can damage your ranking. Local SEO is one of the most effective strategies you can take to increase your page rank and increase your visitors to your site.

How Do Search Results Boost Your Local Visibility?

The number one way that your local SEO strategy is going to help your website is through the various search results that it will appear in. When people search for items in your particular industry, your business will be one of the first results displayed. Your website will also appear in sponsored links, which can bring additional organic traffic to your website. You can further increase your chances of appearing in search results by using keywords in your content that are highly related to your company and your products or services. The more tightly your content is woven together with relevant keywords, the better chance it has of appearing at the top of search results and the higher up in the listings it will be listed. You will likely need to do some research on your own to find out what terms will rank well for your business in order to make sure you are targeting them effectively.

How Should You Word Your Pages to Avoid Spam Signals?

When a potential customer types in a search term that is descriptive of your company and your products or services, your website will come up in the search results. Be careful with how you word your web pages so you are not promoting your business instead of yourself. For example, if you are selling carpets as a business, you do not want to accidentally advertise your carpet store when someone searches for “carpets”. Likewise, if you are selling window blinds as a business, you do not want to have advertising on your main webpage for your store, as that can also be seen as spamming. The more carefully you target your keywords in your web content and on your business website, the better chance you will have of increasing your search engine rankings and increasing your website traffic.

What Ongoing Tactics Should You Track?

There are several different local SEO strategies that you can implement, including tracking your keywords and monitoring any back links that point back to your business website. You can also use social media monitoring to track the amount of people that are mentioning your business online. These are a few of the local SEO strategies that you can implement to help you get ahead in the online world. There is no reason for your online business to not be top ranked by the major search engines and there is no reason for your customers to not find you easily.

FAQ

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO is a targeted approach to optimizing your website and its listings in search results pages so it ranks better in local searches for particular keywords and key phrases tied to a location, such as “Pizza in Boston” or “Cheese Pizza in Boston”.

How is Local SEO different from organic SEO?

Organic SEO aims to increase a site’s ranking in unpaid search results for general keywords. Local SEO targets searches in a specific geographic area, focusing on city, place, or town terms so nearby searchers find the business first.

What ongoing tasks support a Local SEO strategy?

Common tasks include tracking your targeted keywords, monitoring back links that point to your business website, and using social media monitoring to track how many people mention your business online.

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