Every business, no matter the industry or location, needs a strong online presence. In plenty of cases, you don’t even need to have a physical location for your business to be successful in today’s market. While fully remote businesses that provide services and products all over the country and even the world are becoming increasingly popular, communities are still filled with brick-and-mortar businesses. If you have a locally-owned business that depends on having a physical location, you need SEO services that target your audience in a specific location.
Local SEO can help you achieve the same goals as SEO, but it’s tailored to local businesses. What exactly is the difference between SEO vs. local SEO? Learn more about local SEO and how it can help your business!
What is Local SEO?
SEO is the process of optimizing your website for search engines to enhance the way it ranks and increase visibility in users’ online searches. For many businesses, this can mean improving the way your website is positioned for a national or global audience. However, for local businesses with a physical location, bringing in a huge amount of traffic from places farther away won’t lead to any conversions. Likewise, users looking for a business near them don’t want results for something two states away.
Local SEO is needed for a local business to target the audience it needs in its area. You aren’t competing against every business possible, only those around you. Today, search engines are incredibly advanced and understand the intent behind a user’s search. If you’re looking for something like a store, law firm, or doctor’s office, and don’t specify that you’re searching outside of your current location, it’s understood that you want a business close by. In 2020, around half of all searches on Google were local queries, so there are many users who only want local results showing up for their searches.
Local SEO Best Practices
If your business only provides services in certain areas, you need to understand how local search best practices can vary from SEO best practices. While many regular SEO tactics are still beneficial and necessary for local businesses, there are some more specific efforts you can make.
Targeting Local Keywords
Localizing your keywords is essential for targeting users making local searches. The content on your website should make it clear what area your business provides services for. Rather than having generic keywords, you need to include long-tail keywords that include your business’s location. For some businesses, you may need various location pages for the areas you serve.
Keeping NAP Information Consistent
If people need a way to contact your business offline, this should be easy to find. However, your name, address, and phone (NAP) information can change over the years. This can lead to you having one address in one place, and a totally different one elsewhere. Not only is this important for local SEO, but consistency is also important to ensure you aren’t providing clients and customers with the wrong information and creating a poor experience.
Utilizing Online Listings
Local SEO is about more than just your business’s website. While few people are opening phonebooks to find a business, many rely on online listings for this information. There are various listings and directories meant for different industries and specific locations. Local businesses need to know what opportunities there are to get their name in front of the right audience through listings and directories.
Gaining Backlinks
You want your business to be seen as a trustworthy pillar of the community. One way of working towards this is through building backlinks. While backlinks are an important part of any SEO strategy, local businesses can benefit from gaining links from other reputable sources in their area. The audience you need already knows and trusts these websites, so a link may help get you far in terms of credibility.
Target the Right Audience for Your Local Business with ENX2 Marketing
Local businesses make up an important part of our economy and community. In fact, small, locally-owned businesses make up about 44% of our economy. However, getting your local business to thrive in today’s market is not an easy task. Fortunately, there are many opportunities for businesses to succeed in the SERPs with local SEO. At ENX2, we can provide the SEO services your unique business needs to appeal to its audience.
Our SEO specialists can help you improve your business’s online presence. If you aren’t sure what services are right for your business, we can help you figure it out. Contact us to learn more.