For many small businesses, it can be challenging to find the right local market. In a rapidly evolving, digital landscape, small to medium-sized companies can suffer under the weight of larger corporations dominating markets.
Improving your SEO - or Search Engine Optimization – means creating a better online presence for your business. This is a fundamental way for any business to reach a wider audience.
SEO copywriting is a dynamic field that observes patterns, trends, and behavior to create compelling content for a specific market. For a small business, the generation of local SEO strategies is much more important. Local SEO practices emphasize improving the search engine visibility of a business to a local audience first.
Around 98% of consumers use the Internet to find information about local businesses. This can help a smaller business build a community and loyal customer base by ensuring that their content is locally accessible. In this article, we go over some of the best local SEO strategies for smaller businesses to succeed:
A business directory is a great way for people to find all the relevant information about your business online in just one click. Smaller businesses should make the most of the business directory resources at hand to tap into a local market. The way you describe your business and the keywords you use will directly influence your SEO rankings.
Try to include as much information about your business in these listings – including accurate trading hours, locations, photos, and contact details. Google My Business is one of the most used business directory tools.
Using this directory tool, you can create and verify a Google business page for your customers that gives legitimacy to your business and elevates your SEO rankings in searches done nearby. Other great listings to make use of include Yelp!, Facebook, Bing, and the Yellow Pages.
One of the worst experiences is searching for a place online and having to deal with outdated information. NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone number - these are the 3 crucial elements you need to create a crawlable HTML text on your business website that allows Google to list your establishment locally.
Try to include this information as text on your website’s home and contact pages instead of putting it in an image as those cannot be picked up and crawled by search engines. Ensure that your business’s data is always updated and correct across all listings.
Around 76% of people regularly read online reviews for local businesses. Reviews are a great way for businesses to build credibility. However, your business needs to actively facilitate the process of leaving a review.
65% of consumers have left reviews in response to requests from a business. Having a longer list of customer reviews signals that you have a wider audience and a growing business.
According to Google, there are 3 main local SEO ranking factors - relevance, distance, and prominence. The search engine giant stated that the “Google review count and review score factor into local search ranking.” The more reviews and positive ratings your business has, the better your local SEO ranking.
The key to getting the best customer reviews is to make the process simple and to offer incentives for leaving reviews. Email is the best way to get a customer review, however, for brick-and-mortar businesses, you can also ask for a physical review at the checkout counter.
Customers are also more drawn to businesses that respond to reviews. Around 88% of consumers are likely to use a business if they can see the business owner responds to all reviews - whether positive or negative.
Naturally, your content needs to engage with the local community as well. SEO rankings pay attention to specific local topics and trends to give you the most relevant information first. This is why your business needs to promote local events, engage with local influencers, and build a local market. Using locally relevant content invites the community and encourages interaction.
A major element of SEO is using the right keywords to gain traction in a search query. When dealing with local SEO, you need to still maintain the right keyword or search term in your content for better rankings.
This means using both long-tail keywords and non-local keywords to boost engagement. Try including your location and product or service in your chosen keywords – for example, a florist based in Texas would include “Texas florist” as an SEO keyword.
Trying to climb the SERPs – or Search Engine Results Page – can be a daunting challenge for a smaller business in such a diverse digital landscape. Your online presence is forced to compete with much larger corporations that easily rank higher. This is why building local SEO is key to building your business.
To optimize your web pages for local SEO, you need to focus on the main keyword-optimized title tags, headers, and meta descriptions. However, you also need to pay attention to customer reviews, interactive maps, and information accuracy. Businesses can also use SEO tools like Semrush or Moz Local to scan existing listings to check for issues.
Your business website also needs to be more efficient and easier to use. Accessibility and easy navigation are key to keeping customers on your page for longer. Almost 82% of mobile searches are local – which is why local SEO for businesses requires a mobile-friendly website structure. Mobile searches asking for places "near me" have increased almost 250% since 2017.
Additionally, your website needs to load quickly and be able to handle large amounts of traffic to work effectively. Around 53% of mobile visitors will abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. Ensure that your website can perform better and faster to keep a local audience engaged.
Backlinks are a great way to enhance your SEO rankings. These are links to other websites that direct readers to your content. Most search engines consider backlinks a vote of confidence from an external source – which can help to build a credible reputation for a growing business. Local backlinks include popular domains in your area, reviewing websites, and news platforms.
Being involved in local events can give your business online coverage and cement your business into the SEO of that area. Collaborations with local media outlets and forums also establish your business as one with the community.
The digital age is all about staying connected and staying current. Your business has a better chance of gaining local SEO traction with a stronger social media presence. Google searches rank businesses according to their popularity and online engagement.
With a running social media presence, your business can engage directly with customers, drive local market relevance, and encourage online buzz. Try to keep an updated and relevant social media position across different platforms to properly engage with the local community.
Trying to master SEO copywriting in 2023 can be a difficult task for any business – especially a smaller one. This is why it’s important to make use of all the SEO tools available to let your business succeed. Outsourcing your copywriting is a great way to ensure that your SEO content ranks higher and pulls in more engagement.
At TMG Global, our group of intelligent, skilled, and efficient writers is ready to amplify your brand’s voice through enhanced SEO content that drives engagement from local and global audiences. Contact TMG Global today for a free content audit or to learn more about how we can help your business grow.
