Do you have a business that would need more local SEO rather than global search traffic? If yes, then you should be looking into optimizing your website for local search engine traffic. It can be very powerful depending on your offline business, and lots of brick and mortars do very well with it. This article concerns local SEO, and we’ll talk more about how you can get started with it so you can drive more traffic from your local area.
When it comes to local SEO, the most effective tip you can get is to put yourself in your customer’s place and start thinking like them. To understand the way your customer searches online you need to look into their mind. So, you have to try and analyze what someone would put into the search box when they are looking for your site or for the products you are selling. Let’s say that you are running a furniture store where you sell all types of furniture such as tables, chairs, beds, etc. On the other hand, will the searcher be able to find you if you specialize in office furniture and they search for “table?” Will the match your site and products? Certainly not. An ideal match, though, would be something such as “office computer desk.” You need to avoid broad keywords as much as possible because they might be popular and bring in lots of visitors but they won’t convert. You need to employ less popular keywords that are more targeted but offer a greater chance of you getting a customer.
If you want everyone on a local level to know about your site then you need to be open about asking for people to post reviews. If you shy from this one tactic, you’ll lose many good opportunities. The majority of the local sites are completely fine with your interacting with your customers and asking them to review you. So why not enjoy the benefits of this strategy?
It’s just about taking out the time to personally tell your customers to review you. Now, that doesn’t mean you have to go out there and do it on a one to one basis. You can simply post a message like “We would really appreciate it if you could review our business on Google/Bing/Yahoo local.” This request can be put in your email signatures, on your thank you page – which they see after signing you for a newsletter or contacting you – or on your website. These reviews, regardless of the fact that they are good/bad/ugly, they do add up to your business and its credibility, which brings in more customers in the future.
If you are trying to rank in the search engines for a particular location, it is often a good idea to have your site hosted by a server from the local area. This will earn you SEO points as the search engines will connect the location of your site with the server. Since it can have a fair bit of impact, it is best to check the location of the server where you are considering hosting your site. Overall, local SEO is set to be around for a while and it will simply expand as time goes by. So make sure you take advantage of it right now before it gets difficult.