Want to outrank the competition? Here is an article with 12 local SEO
solutions to help you outrank the competition.
This is in two parts. Today this
article will cover solutions 1-6. Come
back tomorrow for solutions 7-12. Leave
a comment below.
12 Local SEO Solutions That Will Help
You Outrank the Competition – Part 1
Why should local SEO solutions matter to your business?
Out of all of the ways to market your business, more and more people are
focusing on local search. For the first few years of internet marketing,
business owners and marketers were all about SEO. Then around 2009, the
marketing topic was social media. Today, the big marketing topic is local
search.
There are a couple of simple reasons why it’s so important to your
business.
44% of clicks go
to the top search result. The top three results get on
average 75% of all of the clicks.
Are you starting to understand how improving your local search results
can mean more money in your pocket?
Would you like to know how you can make that happen?
Read on for 12 local SEO solutions you can use to improve your search
rankings.
How Does Your Site
Look in Searches Now?
If you have a goal to improve how your website appears in local search
results, it helps to know how your site currently appears. This will help you
track your progress as your search results change.
The trick here is to understand that people in different locations will
have different search results. Even if they’re in the same town or the same
room.
Google’s search results can vary depending on the device you use, your
search history, your Google account and your IP address or location.
With so many variables, how can you get an accurate picture of how your
website appears?
One workaround is to use a local search
emulator. This will help you figure out how you appear according to location. A
search emulator will allow you to change your location, so you can see how your
site appears throughout your service area.
Know How Your
Audience Will Look for You
Do you know how your customer thinks? In other words, how will your
customer search for you?
There are a number of questions you should ask yourself to answer this
question.
·
Is your customer at home or at work?
·
Are they on a mobile device or on a desktop computer?
·
Are they searching in the middle of the afternoon or late at night?
·
What is the problem they want help with?
·
What are 15-20 search terms/phrases they would use in Google to find
you?
Answering these
questions will give you a better understanding as to what keywords you should
try to rank higher for.
You should also consider positioning yourself for long-tail keyword
searches vs. broader searches.
Think of it as the difference between searching for “fitness centers”
and “fitness centers with a pool.” Fitness centers will have much greater
competition, while fitness centers with a pool serve a genuine interest and
will have less competition.
A Three-Pack Is Not
Related to Beer
Currently, when you search for local businesses, you’ll see the top 3
search results. It used to be 7. That’s why improving your ranking is more
important than ever.
Local SEO solutions such as filling
out your MyBusiness listing
can improve results.
The process to claim your listing is straightforward. Click on the above
link and fill out your information. There is a verification process. Google
will send a postcard with a PIN number to your address. It does need to be a
physical address.
Once that part is complete, go into your account and fill out your
profile. Make sure your description gives people a reason to contact you and be
as specific as you can. Fill out your hours accurately, upload a few images and
your company logo.
Content, Content,
Content!
While these local SEO solutions are important, it’s also important to
remember that as crucial as it is to get people to visit your website, they
need a reason to stay there. You can do this by creating value for your site
visitors.
The best way to create value is by creating content that will make
people return to your site over and over again. That’s how you get people to
like and trust you.
The more relevant content you have
the better. A recent study by Traffic
Generation Caf? showed that websites that have 21-54 posts
get 30% more traffic.
There are case studies of businesses
who have reported using content marketing to increase revenue by a whopping
438%
Improve Internal
Links on Your Site
Linking your website’s internal links together helps customers use your
website, and add link juice between pages.
Link juice is a way to let search engines know which pages on your site
are the most important.
One word of caution: When adding internal links, it may be tempting to
add a bunch of internal links on all of your web pages. Don’t do it!
By having a few internal links on each page, you maintain the quality of
your links.
Get Quality
Backlinks
Out of all of the local SEO solutions, one of the most talked about
today is backlinks. A backlink is simply another website that links to your
website.
The trick to making backlinks work for local search is that you have to
get QUALITY links.
A shotgun approach to backlinks no longer works.
We go over a couple of ways (directories and Google’s My Business
listings) to get started throughout this article.
You can also write guest articles for industry and local publications to
get quality backlinks to your website.
Source: by Dale Harris
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