Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a vital strategy used to help businesses grow. With SEO your business’s site can appear higher on Google, gaining you more relevant organic traffic and in turn more leads and sales. However, if your goals are centered around attracting local customers, you may be wondering how you can effectively use SEO. Considering the fact that 46% of Google searches are looking for local results, deciding to use local SEO strategies can help your business grow quite a bit. Below are a few small ways you can use SEO to attract local customers to your business.
Target Keywords With Geo Tails
One of the main parts of SEO includes targeting specific keywords that are relevant to your business. For example, if you’re a dentist, you may want to target keywords like “dentistry” or “dental care.” In order to help attract local customers, though, adding in a geo tail is extremely helpful. Adding the city or town that you’re located in or targeting can be key to helping relevant customers find you. For an auto repair shop in Chicago for example, you may want to target “auto repair Chicago” or “collision repair Chicago.” By adding the geo tail, customers in your area will have an easier time finding you.
Optimize Your Google My Business
Google My Business, or GMB, is a key tool to helping local customers discover your business. To optimize your Google My Business, you’ll have to create a verified Google My Business page, utilize the Google post tools, try to get as many positive reviews as possible from your customers, and respond to those reviews.
Make Sure Your Name, Address, and Phone Number Are Consistent
An important part of making sure you can attract local customers is ensuring that they know you’re a local business. Adding your name, address, and phone number (often referred to as “NAP”) to the HTML of your header or footer can help your site be recognized as local by search engines like Google. If you have any other pages on your site that mention your NAP, you should make sure that you consistently include the same information, including the area code for phone numbers.
SEO is a great technique to grow your business locally, and by using the above techniques you can increase your organic online traffic from local customers and clients. If you aren’t sure where to start, you can turn to the digital marketing team at eTegrity Digital to help grow your local SEO. We look forward to helping your business grow!
