Creative Local SEO Strategies for Local Businesses

Incorporating local SEO strategies is vital in increasing traffic to your local business website and storefront. Even then, local SEO seems confusing too many local business owners who are unsure of where to begin. If you have found yourself at crossroads or do not see the effectiveness of local SEO strategies to your business, do not give up just yet. Here are some creative local SEO strategies to improve the ranking of your local business in the ever competitive search engine results.

Source: PositiveResultsMarketing

• Directory listing – Many people rely on local directories for information on goods and services within a given locality. Therefore, you will do well to ensure you get listed in some if not all the free local directories like Google Places.
• Targeted keywords – Using keywords to target the local market is a great step in achieving high rankings because it is less competitive here. For instance, if you are targeting phrases like general contractor, then you will be in competition with just about every general contractor online. However, if you add the name of the location to have the keyword phrase as New York general contractor, then your competition will be limited to those general contractors in New York that have a website with optimized content.
• Include the name of your business in your domain name – Google takes into account your domain name when ranking search engine results. Thus, you will do well to include the name of your business in your domain name.

Top Resource for Local SEO

• Importance of Local SEO
• Local SEO – MOZ
• Local SEO Checklist
• SearchEngineLand Local SEO
• 11 Must Read Local SEO Tips

• Pay attention to multiple search engines – For many businesses, a lot of SEO efforts are often directed towards Google search engine results because Google Local SEO offers the potential for the best and quickest return. It is recommended that you can also target other search engines and make a remarkable difference.
• Stick to your target – Having and sticking to your target is critical in ensuring that you get traffic from a specified location. Even then, it can also mean that you do not receive traffic from other locations – hence the need to have a defined target.

• Use multiple domain names – if you are offering services across different countries, then you might as well have multiple domain names. How is this important? Having multiple domains can be a necessary and good local and international business strategy.

Local SEO Factors 2015

• Search Ranking Factors 2015 – Search Metrics
• Local SEO for 2015: Don’t Set It and Forget It
• How to Have a Successful Local SEO Campaign in 2015 by MOZ
• Local SEO In 2015 – Look At The Big Picture – Search Engine Land

• Encourage online reviews – Reviews by users, as well as your response to them, is a great local SEO strategy for increasing the visibility of your business in the search engine results. Reviews are an easy and quick way of getting traffic to your page. Therefore, you will do well to encourage customers to leave reviews and ratings of your business.
• Categorize and optimize your page – Optimization of local pages includes adding information on your hours of operation, the services you offer, and several high quality photos, among other things. In addition, accurate categorization of your business is also a creative local SEO strategy as it lets potential visitors know what your business is all about.
• Have a proper link strategy – Link building is vital in promoting SEO visibility for your local business. This is because links help in establishing credibility and authenticity for your business. Even then, be sure to only work with links that are related to your business.
• Optimize your local business website – Optimizing your website is an important local SEO strategy because apart from pages and listings, your site is usually part of the search. Hence, be sure to have all your contact information on the site and include regional or city keywords that are specific to your location.

Info-graphic on The Basics of Local Search Engine Optimization for Business

Source: PoweredBySearch.com

In conclusion, when properly executed, local SEO strategies are the key to obtaining traffic and sales for your local business!