Unlock the Power of Local SEO: Get More Customers Onboard Today!
Hackworth Marketing provides effective and customized local SEO solutions to help businesses improve their online visibility and drive more targeted traffic to their websites. Ready to take your business to the next level with local SEO? Contact us today!
In a world where attention is scarce and competition is fierce, being found online is crucial for businesses that want to succeed. That's where local SEO comes in. Local SEO is the practice of optimizing a website's online presence to rank well in local search results.
It involves a variety of tactics, from creating local content to building local citations and backlinks, all with the goal of increasing visibility and engagement with potential customers in a specific geographic area. Hackworth Marketing offers local search engine optimization or SEO services to businesses in Chesapeake, VA as well as throughout Hampton Roads.
Why Is Local SEO So Important?
For one, it helps businesses get discovered by people who are searching for products or services in their local area. This can lead to more foot traffic, more phone calls, and ultimately more sales. Local SEO can also improve customer engagement, as businesses can use tools like Google My Business to share important information, like hours of operation, customer reviews, and special promotions. Finally, local SEO can help businesses stand out from the competition and position themselves as the go-to choice for customers in their local market.
Local SEO is a powerful tool for businesses that want to succeed in today's digital landscape. By optimizing their online presence for local search, they can reach more potential customers, engage with them more effectively, and ultimately drive more revenue.
Key Elements of Local SEO
The world of local SEO can seem like a vast and intimidating landscape to navigate. But fear not, dear reader, for in this column, we will provide a concise yet comprehensive overview of the key elements of local SEO. These elements include Google My Business, local keywords, local citations, and local backlinks. By understanding these four pillars of local SEO, you'll be well on your way to optimizing your online presence and improving your visibility in local search results.
Google Business
This tool is the cornerstone of local SEO. It allows businesses to create a profile that appears in Google search results, complete with important information like hours of operation, contact information, customer reviews, and more. By optimizing your Google Business Profile, you can increase your visibility in local search results and improve your chances of getting discovered by potential customers.
Local Keywords
These are the search terms that people use when they're looking for products or services in their local area. By including these keywords in your website's content, you can improve your chances of ranking well in local search results. Some examples of local keywords might include "digital agency in [city name]" or "best restaurants near me".
Local Citations
These are mentions of your business's name, address, and phone number (NAP) on other websites, such as directories, social media profiles, and local business listings. Local citations can help improve your visibility in local search results by indicating to search engines that your business is relevant to a particular geographic area.
Local Backlinks
These are links from other websites that point to your website. They can help improve your website's authority and credibility, which in turn can help improve your search ranking. Local backlinks from other websites in your geographic area can be especially valuable, as they indicate to search engines that your business is relevant to a particular local market.
Benefits of Local SEO
Local SEO can seem like a daunting task, but it offers a host of benefits for businesses seeking to improve their online visibility and connect with local customers.
Improve Visibility
Local SEO can improve your visibility in local search results, making it easier for potential customers to find your business and ultimately drive more traffic and sales to your website.
Engage With Customers
It can also help you engage with customers more effectively by providing them with important information about your business, such as hours of operation, reviews, and promotions, right when they're looking for it.
Higher Conversion Rates
It can lead to higher conversion rates by attracting more targeted traffic to your website and providing customers with the information they need to make informed purchase decisions, ultimately increasing sales and revenue for your business.
On-Page Optimization
According to the defacto expert of all things SEO, Rand Fishkin, CEO of Moz, says that there no such thing as a "perfectly optimized" page but there are some elements your website should try to include to make it more search engine friendly:
- Title and meta elements
- Bot accessible technology
- Uniquely valuable content
- Pages that are built to be shared
- Phenomenal user experience
- Keyword targeted
- Multi-device targeted or responsive
- Metadata inclusive
Off-Page Optimization
Offpage SEO is often simply referred to as link building which is finding other sites to link to your website. To get the most out of offpage, it has to go beyond this concept. While somewhat complicated, Joshua Hardwick of Ahrefs took at stab at defining the top 6 strategies of offpage SEO:
- Contributing to your audience's online community
- Guest blogging on other sites
- Building mutually beneficial relationships
- Citations, NAP*, reviews, etc. for local SEO
- Co-citations + co-occurrence
- Advertising (Yes, plain ole ads)
*NAP - Name, address, phone number: these are business listings on websites like the Yellow Pages, Yelp, Manta and many other similar pages.