Susan opened her small bakery three months ago but had a problem. Although her food was great, no customers were walking through the door.
This is the reality for business owners today. You can have the perfect recipe, a beautiful shopfront, years of experience and passion for your craft. But, if people can’t find your business, you may struggle to generate sales.
The best local businesses can remain hidden gems without care and attention paid to their online marketing strategy.
Local SEO is one strategy that can help you to stand out in your local area. It’s different to traditional advertising, such as a leaflet drop or newspaper ad. With Local SEO, you can connect directly with people actively searching for what you offer.
For many small business owners, mastering the basics of Local SEO can be the difference between thriving and just getting by. Let’s explore how you can ensure your business shows up to those local customers looking for your products or services.
Understanding Local SEO
Local SEO is the process of optimising your online presence to attract local customers looking for your products or services. Local SEO differs from general SEO as it focuses on geographic-specific searches, such as “plumber in [your town]”. One of the core elements of Local SEO is your company’s Google Business Profile.
Mobile Searches are local
Most local searches happen on mobile devices. These searches typically occur when a customer is ready to visit or purchase. As part of your Local SEO strategy, you must ensure your website is mobile-friendly, easy to navigate and loads quickly. Adding click-to-call functionality is an easy way of converting a local search into a customer.
Three key Local SEO elements
Three key elements work together as the foundation of Local SEO success. The first element is your Google Business Profile, which is free to set up and allows you to share information with potential customers. The next element is authentic customer reviews. Your happy customers can leave reviews on your Google Business profile. Finally, you should create locally relevant content on your website, which sends a powerful signal to search engines like Google.
Citations & NAP
Building citations can help your business gain trust with search engines. A citation is a source of business information on a third-party website, such as a business directory, social platform, or review website. With any citations, your Name, Address, and Phone (NAP) information must be consistent, which helps build trust.
The power of reviews
Reviews from happy customers can boost your visibility in search results and encourage potential customers to shop with you. Set up a strategy to ask happy customers to leave a review for your business on Google. Don’t forget to respond to reviews, both positive and negative. A negative review can easily become a positive outcome for your business by responding professionally and politely.
Creating a local content strategy
As part of your ongoing optimisation, you’ll want to create a local content strategy. This starts on your website, where you’ll have location-specific service pages, coverage of local events, blog posts about community involvement or sponsorship, and more. You can also add regular posts to your Google Business profile, which shows your business is active and ready to help local customers.
Measuring your success
The first element of success in Local SEO is having your business appear in the top three results when users perform a relevant local search. From a metrics perspective, you can look at your website analytics to track traffic from local searches. You can also review your conversion rates, number of phone calls, requests for directions, and how these all translate to in-store visits and sales.
