The planet is big. And the Internet is bigger. Unless you have founded a truly global company, like Yahoo or Google, you need to find a way to use local SEO to target your true market. You know that you want to ensure that your marketing strategy is speaking to the right people. How do you, as the owner of a local business in, say, Utah, do this?
This article points to some strategic steps that you can take to create a local SEO plan that works for you.
The first thing that you should do when building a local SEO strategy is to review your website. Is it engaging? Does it present your business in a way that is easy to understand? Is it visually inviting? Your website is the final destination for those customers that your smart SEO strategy attracts. If it does not capture a visitor’s attention, you’ve put energy into attracting new customers only to lose them –potentially – when they finally land on your site.
It is also important that you know which words are used by potential customers searching for businesses like yours. You want to target your local market, not the entire planet. (At least for now.) There are
some free online tools that you can use to identify these key words. Like the “Local Marketing Source-Kit”. You can create a list of popular local search terms with such a tool. Having located these key words, you can then include them in your website, hence bumping up your number of hits.
Check out your Google + listing.
First, make sure that you have one. If you are new to Google +, you should know that it is a button that can be added to your website. (You should also know that the Google + iPhone app became the most popular free app at the iTunes Store on the day it was released.)
Then, make sure that you’ve properly checked off all categories relevant to your business. One of the things it does is allow your website to be shared and searched with the Google+ social network.
In conclusion, the reason to build a solid local SEO strategy is to make sure that your local customers find you, when they are looking for a business like yours. Taking some simple steps like those described above can get you on a path to profit.