Imagine you are chatting with a friend about how they hired a cleaning service to come to their home each month. In your mind, you think, “that sounds amazing, why haven’t I done that yet?”
The next thing you do is head over to Google and search for “maids near me.” Before you know it you have the tops results for your area and can see everything about them from reviews to their business hours.
Nowadays, this is how a majority of people search for local businesses and how they make their purchasing decisions. In fact, Google recently released a statistic that 4 out of 5 consumers turn to search engines for local business searches. This means that if you aren’t utilizing local SEO for your business, you could be missing out on 80% of customers who are actively searching for services and products like yours.
Local SEO is the strategy of specializing your SEO efforts on local consumers. Where major chains and national companies may focus their efforts on broader keywords, your business can have the power of beating them through local SEO.
Today we’re sharing 5 sure-fire tips to help you get the edge on your competition and to start building your local SEO:
1. Create a Google My Business Account
If you haven’t done this already, run, don’t walk, over to Google, and create your listing. It’s a free online listing that can only help your business. It will also allow you to collect reviews, show up on google maps, and so much more.
If you already have a Google My Business account, now is the time to go back and make sure your information is accurate and up to date. You should also make sure that you don’t have any duplicate listings.
2. Attain Reviews
Online consumers today put their trust and confidence in online reviews. Even if you start small with just a few of them, it can make you more competitive in your local SEO strategy and lead to more sales. Research by the Spiegel Research Center reveals that the probability of a product being purchased increases by 270% when it gets five reviews.
The statistics here don’t lie. The local consumer survey by BrightLocal’s show that 91% of consumers between the ages of 18 to 34 are believers in online reviews, saying they trust them as much as personal referrals.
Make It a Part of Your Business Process
Once you’ve started obtaining reviews, it’s important that you keep asking for them. It can be as simple as sending an email or text message to your customers after they’ve received your product or service.
Getting positive reviews is often a slow and sometimes frustrating process, but over time it will give you a real competitive advantage that is tough for your competition to duplicate. The key to success is to incorporate asking for reviews as a part of your regular business processes. If you take the initiative to ask for reviews, you’re much more likely to actually get them!
3. Publish Regular “Posts” to Your Google My Business Profile
Your Google My Business profile will allow you to post to your profile with new events, updates, and important announcements. Think of them as mini advertisements you can post for free directly to your GMB listing.
It isn’t a form of social media but does mirror the look and feel of some social media platforms. You can create a captivating post using images and text to get people to interact with your posts. It also allows you to create a call to action for them to head to your website, book a consultation, or make a purchase right on the post.
Posting on your GMB profile shows Google and potential consumers your business is active. It also provides consumers with more opportunities to interact with and purchase from your business.
4. Optimize Your Website For Mobile
If your website isn’t mobile-friendly you will be missing out on a huge portion of consumers who do their searches right from their mobile devices. Statistics show that 60% of Americans use mobile devices to search for local products and services. That’s more than half of your consumers!
It is so important to your local SEO strategy that your website is mobile friendly and loads quickly.
5. Create Local Content
Google prioritizes businesses that provide content consumers are actually searching for. This is especially important for local businesses. Providing information specific to your target market will show Google you are a trusted resource for those consumers and it will help your local SEO strategy greatly.
Be the local authority for your industry by highlighting local news, industry meetings, and other educational content on your blog. This can be focused on more than just the products or services your business sells. The main thing is that you help local consumers connect with your local community and show them you truly are a trusted local business.
Conclusion
No matter which of these points you start with, it’s crucial to your business that you start somewhere. Improving your local SEO will have exponential benefits for your business. Increase your sales, the number of people interacting with your brand, and build trust with your customers all through your online presence. Even though the growth may start slow, the payoff will be well worth the wait!
If you would like more information on how to improve your digital marketing plan or other ways to optimize your business, contact us directly at https://fusiononemarketing.com/contact-us/