K.I.L.S. (Keep It Local Silly)
#SMB Strategies for Local Search Engine Optimization #SEO
The worldwide web allows for people all over to connect with your business. This is a wonderful thing that allows for global exposure of your product or service. Millions if not Billions of customers await, just itching to purchase your product and/or service. As the story goes, simply connecting with these mythological consumers, is the key to unlimited riches, and wealth beyond your wildest dreams.
In reality, your digital marketing strategy may be a bit dated. Let me paint you a ‘hypothetical’ picture…
You set up a website 3-5 years ago as part of a plan to attract and retain clients. Your website was intended to be the central focus of a comprehensive content marketing plan including social media, electronic newsletters, and reputation management. Now, with your last social media post 6, 12, or even 18 months ago, you haven’t visited your analytics page to determine monthly traffic. You feel as if you are on an island and maybe even considering giving up this digital stuff.
It’s OK! Honest! There’s still time.
SEARCH & SHOP LOCAL
There has been a number of changes along the road for local search practitioners and you may have saved significant investment. By not jumping in early and optimizing your website according to dated practices, you have avoided numerous pitfalls. Black & greyhat tactics have proven damaging to search rank and unscrupulous content marketers have been pushing content with no relevance to your business other than keywords.
The good news is, Google is getting smarter. They are able to gauge consumer behavior and accurately present sites of interest to the query in mere seconds. Eliminating the businesses who are ‘gaming’ the system and focusing on those who paint an accurate picture of who they are, what they do, and where they do it. Especially locally!
You are most likely looking to do business with people located within a 25 mile radius or less. If you are local to the Arlington Heights, IL area, you probably want to feature your services to folks who may potentially do business with you. How can your small business, operating on a limited budget, leverage digital marketing strategy to increase local search rank. Starting to optimize your site for search engines and structuring your website correctly can assist with increasing your search rank with Google as well as other search engines like Bing and Yahoo Local.
A few key items when optimizing for local search:
Keyword Selection is vital – something accurate to what you do and not overly competitive.
Remember your locale – include your city/state in title tags, H1 Headings, Content, Alt Text, and URL.
Post content updates frequently – developing useful, interesting content and promoting it through targeted organic and paid avenues can build your reputation — and your customer base.
Ask Customers for Reviews – do not incent reviews, your advocates will rave with a simple request.
Don’t have a Responsive Website; Get One FAST! – As of 04/21, mobile friendly websites are a search rank factor with Google, Bing is following shortly.
Quality Links – not quantity.
Greg Gifford, is a well-known local SEO and strategy expert who is currently the Director of Search and Social at AutoRevo. Greg shared the following recently in a Search Engine Journal Article,
“Small businesses have a website that’s entirely dedicated to a single location in a single city. There’s much more local relevancy because there’s more local content. Small businesses are also able to make fast decisions and quick changes. If something needs to change on their site, they can just jump on the site and make the change.”
If you are having trouble figuring out how to make an impact with your marketing activities, give us a call! Coffee’s on me and ideas are free…
