Ways You Can Boost Your Local SEO Strategy in 2022/3

A company's SEO strategy is important as it can allow businesses to raise their profile and get noticed by customers, as well as increase their sales. Local search engine optimization is often forgotten, yet it should make up a large part of every business's SEO strategy. A local SEO strategy is especially important for businesses that have a brick-and-mortar store or whose target audience is a local community. Then, if you believe that you are not paying enough attention to your company's local SEO in 2022, here is a guide that will help you to give it a boost as we approach a new year.

1. Call in a Local SEO Agency

If you are struggling to make your local SEO strategy sparkle and have the desired effect on your sales, you should consider calling in a local SEO agency to help you, no matter how experienced you are in digital marketing and search engine optimization. Even if you and your team have a lot of knowledge of SEO between you, an agency that specializes in local SEO can be advantageous to you as it will be aware of the latest trends and developments and will be able to ensure that your local SEO is at the forefront of your digital marketing campaign. For instance, at YEAH! Local, they can help your business to reach the first page of search results, get more leads, and implement a new local SEO strategy that works for you long-term. This can then take the pressure away from you in terms of finding the time and energy that is required to set up a new local SEO campaign while ensuring that you can focus your attention on the other urgent elements of your business.

2. Perform a Local SEO Audit

It is impossible to improve your local SEO if you do not know what is wrong with it in the first place. Without knowing the errors within your SEO campaign, you will not be able to smooth these out in the next one or instruct SEO agencies on how to help you. Then, before you take any other steps, it is paramount that you perform a local SEO audit on your company. This will involve looking at all the strategies that you are using and checking that they work. For instance, you might need to examine your website to ensure that backlinks and keywords are working effectively, that your website is being indexed and ranked by Google, that your website is easy to navigate, and that any blog on your website is full of exciting and fresh content. You should also keep an eye on certain SEO metrics. By doing this, you will be able to spot the weaknesses in your campaign and will be able to know which parts of your SEO strategy need work. If you are struggling to perform this audit yourself, most local SEO companies will be happy to carry this out for you in minutes.

3. Choose New Key Words

An integral part of any local SEO campaign is the keywords that you are choosing to sprinkle throughout your website. It is these keywords that Google latches onto and that allow your website to rank highly when users search for the words in question. Then, you need to ensure that your keywords match the terms that users are typing into Google when they are searching for a company like yours. For instance, you should make sure that your location is a keyword throughout your website, especially if you own a brick-and-mortar store, as this will help customers within your community to find out about your presence. For instance, if you run a business that sells carpets, you might consider using keywords such as ˜carpet store New York' as this will ensure that your website appears on the search rankings of local users. Once you have worked out the best keywords to use, you should then ensure that these are placed naturally throughout your website, although you should try not to sprinkle these in too much, or you may find that this negatively impacts your ranking. Before you choose these, though, you should conduct alot of keyword research or speak to a local SEO agency to ensure that you have made the right choice and that these keywords will be effective.

4. Add Your Business to Google

Do you ever search for a local business and find that Google shares information with you about this business without even having to click on the company's webpage? These businesses have signed up for Google My Business, which allows you to enter your contact details and address into an online directory of local companies. This is an essential step that you need to take if you are a local business, as this will allow you to update and change your company's details. When you do this, your business will come up on Google at the very top of the page when customers who are in your local area search for your company's name or similar businesses. This can be incredibly helpful to you as it can allow customers to quickly find your business and get directions to it without giving up because they cannot find where your business is. It will also enable them to find out the opening hours of your company so that they do not turn up only to find that your business is closed. This will mean that there is a clearer line of communication between you and your customers and that they never end up going elsewhere for products that they could purchase from you.

When you are editing your Google My Business account, though, you should also take a look at your Google Maps marketing. When your potential customers are out and about, they may look at local businesses like yours on the Google Maps app. Then, you should make sure that you add your business to Google Maps so that you are consistently appearing when people search the Maps app for your type of company.

5. Get Reviews

Although you might think that your reviews have a lot more to do with public relations than they do SEO, this is not the case. Google takes your ratings and reviews into account when deciding how to rank search results. This means that the more positive reviews that you get on search engines and beyond, the higher up your company will appear on search rankings. Then, you should try and collect a constant stream of reviews from customers. It can be difficult and even embarrassing to try and glean reviews from customers. Therefore, you should try to encourage customers to do this by offering them an incentive, such as a discount on their next purchase or a free gift. You might also consider putting them into a prize draw if they leave a review either on Google or your website. By getting reviews and by handling any negativity within these reviews well, you will be ensuring that you can maintain your place at the top of local search engine rankings for a long time to come.

6. Focus on Your Blog

Your company's blog is often the place where you inject most of your location-based keywords. Although you might struggle with content marketing if you are not a writer, developing and creating regular content for your blog can keep your ranking high by ensuring that your website appears to be active and related to your location. Then, you should create unique and interesting content within which you can drop your keywords and backlinks to other local businesses or informational sources naturally. If you find it difficult to constantly think of new content, you should consider hiring an SEO and content management service that will be able to ensure that your blog never flounders and that posts regularly appear on your blog. This can also entice more people to your website who might not usually be customers as they may come to your website to read your blogs and stay to find out what products you offer.

Instead of believing that there is nothing you can do to improve your local search engine optimization strategy or that it must remain the same, there are a huge number of steps that you can take to make sure that your local SEO benefits your business. From ensuring that your reviews are positive and that you have set up a great Google My Business account, to hiring a local SEO agency that specializes in SEO audits and location-based keywords, there is an almost endless array of options that can ensure your SEO thrives again and that you are found by local customers before too long. Whether your business is online or based in a brick-or-mortar store, there are always benefits, including increased sales, customer loyalty, and awareness of your company, to sorting out your search engine optimization on a local scale.