Supercharge Your Google Rankings With Local SEO

Local SEO is crucial for businesses. It helps you target potential customers in your service areas by increasing your online visibility. A well-run SEO campaign can make a huge difference in your online presence, attracting more visitors to your website and increasing sales.

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO is a subset of SEO (search engine optimization) that focuses on optimizing a website for specific geographic locations. This type of online marketing is designed to target potential customers who are searching for products or services in their local area, close to where they live. The main goal is to help businesses rank higher in Google making it easier for customers to find them when they are searching for the product or service that they provide.

Why SEO is Important for Local Companies

1. It improves your rankings and increases your online visibility, making it easier for customers to find you when searching for products or services you offer. This leads to more traffic to your website and more leads and sales.
2. Local SEO helps to improve your company name and brand recognition. When your business appears at the top of search engine results, it establishes your credibility and makes a positive impression on potential customers.
3. It helps you to stand out from your competition. Folsom is a very competitive market and it can be difficult to make your business stand out. Local SEO can help you appear high in the Google search rankings and other places to attract more customers looking for the specific products or services you offer.

How to Optimize Your Website

There are several steps to optimize your website for your local searches. Here are some of the most important ones:

Claim and Verify Your GMB Listing (Now Called GBP or Google Business Profile)

Your Google My Business listing (GMB) is like your online business card with Google. The official name is now GBP, Google Business Profile, but it is still often referred to as your GMB. This is the listing that you see next to the Map at the top of the search results, typically with the first 3 listings next to it. You can enter your business details, service areas, and hours, upload pictures, and more. You can create posts about your business, events you are having, or specials you are running. You can also list out the products and services you offer with descriptions of each. The first step is to claim and verify your Google My Business (GMB) listing if you have not done so already. The second step is to fill it out with all of the above information.

Optimize Your Website

Your website should be optimized for both search engines and users. This includes using relevant keywords, having a clear and user-friendly design, and providing valuable and relevant content. To make it attractive to Google you should have “behind the scenes” optimizations such as Title tags, H1, H2 and H3 tags, Alt image descriptions, and interlinking pages.

Get Listed in Online Directories

It is important to list your website on other online directories such as Bing, Yellow Pages, Yelp, Manta, and others. These all provide places to enter information about your company and a link back to your website. Getting listed in these directories helps your visibility and authority, making it easier for customers to find you.

Get Positive Reviews

Positive reviews from customers can have a significant impact on your rankings and conversion. Reviews are a ranking factor with Google. Also, when looking at the search results, a person is more apt to click on a listing with lots of good reviews which increases your conversion.

Encourage your customers to leave reviews on sites like Google and Yelp. Google is the most important for most businesses so I’d start there. Often customers will leave a review at both if you ask them to.

Use Location-Specific Keywords

Incorporating location-specific keywords into your content is important for local SEO. For example, if you are a Folsom, CA business, you should use keywords such as “Folsom, CA” and “Folsom + your industry”. For example, “Folsom Locksmith”. It is important to not overdo this as this is considered keyword stuffing and is basically spam. Work it into your content naturally so it is not awkward and always think about it being customer friendly first.

Conclusion

Local SEO is crucial for businesses that rely on local customers. It helps you increase your online visibility in your surrounding areas, and improves brand recognition helping you stand out from your competition.

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