Local SEO Tips to Sustain Your Business A solid SEO strategy will help your business compete with much larger entities.
By Brett Relander Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
One thing sustains startups and existing businesses. With business, sustainability is everything. Massive sales are awesome, but they have to be sustainable. New growth is great, but it has to be sustainable. Come up with another business/startup maxim and you can couple the word sustainable to it as well. If you want long term success, you have to create something that is sustainable. Local SEO is one of the best ways to do this. It levels the organic traffic playing field and keeps you front and center in local search results. Look at these top local SEO tactics from experts at Auctus Marketing and put them to work for your business.
Related: Here's What Really Matters for SEO in 2016
To begin with, let's think of it like this, in a world dominated by keywords, you want to make sure you have a seat at the table. True, the big boys spend a lot of dollars ranking for top industry keywords. It can be hard to compete with that. But you can compete in a different space, local SEO. In fact, change the "can compete" to "must compete" and you have a more apt statement. Local SEO is not forgiving though. You have to set it up right in the beginning. Here is how you do it.
Get listed on Google
Get your business listed locally on Google as soon as possible. Prepare to be amazed when you behold the power of Google for your business. Contrary to what you might think, they really want your business to be discovered. They do not exist solely for huge corporations. They will walk you through the steps to get your business listed locally on Google; just make sure you choose the right category during setup.
Choose appropriate title tags
This is one of the easiest things you can do to make a big impact on your search rankings. When filling out titles on your web pages, makes sure you include localized SEO information. This piece of code is important. Remember, Google does not rank sites, they rank individual pages. This makes it imperative for you to localize each page to impact organic search results. According to Moz, the best format to use is Primary Keyword -Secondary Keyword | Brand Name.
Related: 5 Ways Small Businesses Can Compete With Giants in SEO
Get listed in the right directory
The nutshell version of this is.... go to Moz local. They have a lot of great resources. The reason to go there first? You want to get listed in good, high quality online directories used by your industry. These directories help with your search ranking. Also, consider applying to Yahoo and Bing. The Yahoo business directory costs money, but is money well spent.
Take advantage of Google+
Make sure you set up a Google+ business page and maintain an active presence. Activity on Google+ pages are weighted differently than activity from other social media platforms. This probably has to a lot to do with the fact that Google+ is owned by Google. When you own your own universe, you can make your own rules, right? Maybe. Either way, the reason Google+ works so well for rankings is because it was designed specifically for SEO. Post similarly to how you would on Facebook and encourage customers to give reviews as well. Reviews on your Google+ business page are a powerful local SEO one-two combo punch.
Related: Why Every Entrepreneur Should Focus on Local SEO
Location pages
Be sure to build geo-targeted location pages that target the top locations your business serves. Doing this will increase your rank for specific locations over time. On these pages be sure to add the actual location in the URL, in the title tag and be sure to use the city/town name a few times on the page itself. (e.g. www.BobsPlumbing.com/Boston , Boston, MA Plumbing Services | Bob's Plumbing). You can add as many location pages as you want, but it's really best to build ones for your main target areas and focus solely on those.
Be mindful of NAP
NAP stands for name, address and phone number. Put this information somewhere on your homepage in a highly visible area (menu, header or footer). Check your mobile page; you will definitely want NAP there. Also, if you have just one location, make sure NAP is on every one of your pages. This will keep you right in front of your customer while they check out your online presence. They can reach out with a phone call at any time. Also, place a Google map on your page that allows people to navigate to your business from their location. Besides boosting your search rank, it is a helpful service to the user.
Now you have an SEO strategy to compete with major industries and corporations. When you think about it, every great company started off by first reigning as king or queen over their local space. Use these tips and do the same. They will do more than keep you viable and sustainable. They will position you for long term success.
