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Local SEO

Looking for a way to rank your local business on Google and other search engines?
Here’s how Local SEO can help you out!

Does your business have a physical location or serve a specific geographical area?

If that is the case, you need local SEO services. Local search engine optimization increases your business exposure to people near your location. When users search for keywords related to your business, we help you appear among the top results.
There are billions of websites on the internet, so you need to do a few things differently if you want to stand out. Let’s look at Digital Marksmen local SEO services and why engaging our SEO company is a good business decision.

What is Local SEO?

There are many things to write about local SEO solutions, but what is it? Local SEO also referred to as local search, is the process of effectively marketing your business online to people near your area. With local SEO, you can promote your products or services to local customers.
Billions of people take to the internet to find information about services and products they need. Out of these people, many have a local intent, meaning they are looking for something near them.
At Digital Marksmen, we provide local SEO marketing strategies to help tap into this customer base. Our techniques promote the business online, thus increasing your business visibility. In addition, local search engine optimization ensures your business is visible to nearby customers.

Effective Local SEO Strategies

There’s no quick fix with SEO. We develop a local SEO strategy following guidelines from Google and other search engines to achieve tangible results. Below are effective local SEO strategies we use to improve your ranking.

Directories & Citations Optimization

Customers need to find your business, making directory optimization crucial in your SEO strategies. At Digital Marksmen, we ensure customers can find your information in popular local listings. Google, Bing, Apple, Trip Advisor, and others use the following map data aggregators:

  • Yelp
  • Yello Pages
  • Factual
  • Foursquare
  • Neustar Localeze
  • Express Update

We check all your citations to ensure they are correct and consistent in these directories. Discrepancies such as misspelling business names, lack of suite numbers, wrong abbreviations, and phone numbers can bring about issues. Additionally, Google won’t display your business on search results when it fails to determine the correct information. 

Our local SEO consultants remove all duplicate listings found. Also, having a Chambers of Commerce membership in your location earns you bonus points because of the external link. 

On-page & Off-page Local SEO

GMB is specific to google, but you need to complement it by having a solid website. Potential customers refer to this information when making a decision. For this reason, you need to optimize the content with local on-page and off-page SEO. 

  • On-Page SEO refers to anything done on your site to increase its online reach. It includes keywords in the content, meta title and description, and a smooth user experience. 
  • Off-page SEO refers to activities outside the site that improves its performance. The goal is to improve your site’s reputation, thus making it more prominent; such includes guest posts and listing your site in relevant directories.

We use the following strategies for on and off-page SEO to improve your website’s performance

  • Ensuring your website is indexable
  • Creating pages that are easy to navigate and read
  • Including images and other visuals in your content
  • Adding social share buttons to your site
  • Contributing in business PR product-related online forums
  • Asking for feedback from influencers in your industry 
  • Listing your business in relevant directories and articles

Local Keyword Research

If you want to succeed with google local SEO, you need to know the words and phrases to target.

For example, if you have a barbershop, you want to rank for the relevant keywords used in the industry and location. We help you answer questions related to your business that clients are searching for. For example, if someone is looking for a unique shaving style, we create an FAQ section to help you rank. Finally, we optimize your brand name by indicating it alongside the keywords you want to target.

We understand your potential clients to anticipate a searcher’s intent and deliver just that. Optimizing your business name with the keywords creates new opportunities for your business. As a result, you can penetrate new markets.

Our affordable local SEO services will help you identify the best keywords, as you focus on other business aspects. We also research competition to see the keywords they are ranking for and use the information to outdo them.

Google My Business Optimization

Google My Business
Google My Business should be a priority for any business. The platform helps you to verify your business to improve credibility. Google My Business is the primary tool that allows the search engine to generate local results. It is also known as GMB in short,
You can google your GMB profile to see how it looks to a user if you already have a profile. If a profile exists, claim it by clicking on ‘Own this Business’ where you can follow instructions to verify its ownership. You can also set up a new Google My Business profile to boost your local SEO.

Essential GMB Information

If you don’t have a GMB profile, you should create one. Below are some of the things you need to fill in.

  1. Business Name: Ensure the name is correct, without duplicate entries. 
  2. Address: If you have a physical location, ensure Google shows the correct address. If you have operated a business from home where you deliver goods and provide services, click on the section indicated “I deliver goods and services to my customers” and leave the address section blank. You can also click on “Hide My Address (It’s Not a Store). 
  3. Contact Information: It’s crucial to indicate the correct information. Enter your phone number, email address, website URL and ensure the details are accurate. Double-check the contact to confirm the number is going through and the link indicated is not broken. 
  4. Service Area: Ensure you indicate the regions your business operates.
  5. Select Business Category: Your chosen business category influences your business’s appearance in Google searches. GMB features for some industries like hotels tend to indicate the services and amenities. There is always an option of changing the category, but a business verification is required when making these changes. 
  6. Verification: Once you verify that all details are correct, you can go ahead and submit all the information. 

How to Get GMB Verification Code

You need a verification code to verify your business profile. You can receive the code through: 

    • Phone: If you have this option, you can select to receive a verification code via your phone’s automated message.
    • Postcard: It is the most common way of business verification. It involves sending a postcard to your provided address.
    • Email: Not many businesses have access to this option. If you have the option, Google sends the code to your email.

Remember, you can hire a local SEO marketing company to do these services on your behalf at a fee. At Digital Marksmen, we help businesses set up GMB.

Once we set up the GMB, we also help you write a business description incorporating keywords and visuals such as store and product photos. Our local SEO expert will further include GMB insights and GMB Q&A to increase your exposure. 

You should monitor the reviews because they are crucial for your business’ ranking on the search results. You can respond to these directly and interact with customers by gaining constructive feedback. 

Location Pages for National Business

pages for such businesses. Location pages inform your readers of that region’s name, address, phone number, and operating hours. Additionally, you can include unique store descriptions, promotions, and customer testimonials.
It is crucial to avoid duplicate content on these multiple location pages. Ensure each business has unique descriptive content. Furthermore, you can include a Google Map indicating the location on respective pages. These tasks can be daunting if you are starting. That is why our leading Digital Marksmen SEO experts are there to help.

URL, Title Tags, Meta Description & Content Optimization

Every new content you post, when properly optimized, provides an opportunity for new users to find your business. Use keywords with high volume and low competition in the URL, title, header, body, and meta description. If you have issues generating geo-targeted content, highlight customer success stories. Our local SEO experts are also available to help optimize your content. 

Conduct Local SEO Audit

Once you have created a working local SEO strategy, you might think it is time to relax. However, SEO is always ongoing, and the process needs continuous tweaking. Therefore, you need to continue perfecting your SEO tactic by making necessary changes. We perform a local SEO audit helping inform where you need to add more details. The audit can entail:

  • Google My Business Audit: Check how your GMB appears on the search engine results page. Ensure the information is correct.
  • On-page SEO Audit: Ensure the information on the site contains relevant elements that allow for ranking.
  • Google Search Console Audit: Check the technical aspect of the website, ensuring it’s crawlable. Eliminate any errors affecting indexing.
  • Competitor Analysis: How does your site compare to the competition? Ensure you close any existing gaps. Check how you compare to competitors in ranking, content, design, or links. 
  • Citation Audit: Ensures all your citations are correct in all directories. 
  • Website Audit: Is your website performing as well as you expect? Vital aspects include speed and user experience.

Links

When improving local business SEO, links are crucial. You should have external and internal links. Internal links help boost your website’s ranking by guiding search engine bots to related pages. Internal links help with:

  • Supporting navigation through the website 
  • Build information architecture and website hierarchy 
  • Distribution of page authority and ranking among the pages

External links in SEO are known as backlinks or incoming links from other websites to yours. They are the most popular methods of building off-page SEO as they allow your business to get the spotlight. In addition, they help improve your site’s reputation. 

When you include backlinks to your site, you build local SEO. It helps you interact with the content creators within your niche. We work with you to improve the usage of links on your website.

Have Local Content

Google keeps improving its algorithm making it more intelligent. As a result, we develop content creators for users, not search engines. Though general content reaches a broader audience, you need to narrow it to your specific region for improved local SEO and quality leads. Writing for your target audience guarantees quality traffic to your website. 

Your content should aim to reach an audience in a specific location. The aim is to be a local authority in your industry. We help you achieve this goal by:

  • Generating location-specific tutorials, adding success stories from local customers, and providing regional case studies
  • Identifying local events you can attend
  • Using social media tools to reach your customers
  • Pointing out local businesses you can partner with

Mobile Friendliness and User Experience

Businesses should provide a good website user experience for more local traffic. Visitors don’t spend time on a website with a bad experience, increasing your site’s bounce rate, leading to a lower ranking. You can fix your site’s UX through:

  • Smooth navigation with internal links to help users to find relevant information
  • Include pictures, videos, and visual elements, thus engaging the users
  • Increase page speed

Apart from having an improved UX, pages need to be mobile-friendly. Ensure users can access all the pages from mobile devices on the go without an issue. According to Statistica, more than 60% of potential buyers search online before visiting a store. They use their devices to read reviews, find directions to your business or look for contact information. 

According to Google, searches for ‘near me’ have increased by 250% since 2017. We make it easy for potential customers to find your business first.

Get Custom Local SEO Services

You can’t neglect your online presence and still outdo competitors. Local SEO is crucial for companies providing services and products for a specific region. Users look for location-specific companies, thus saving time. Talk to Digital Marksmen for a Google My Business page, citation and directories, localized content, and a mobile-friendly site. Our services are affordable and tailored to meet your marketing needs.
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