The digital world is saturated with online businesses, and standing out is vital if you want to convert leads. To stand out amongst your competitors, you need to optimize your online presence, and to stand out locally, you need to make sure that consumers in your service area can find your information easily. You can do this  in several ways, all of which can help you cultivate the online persona you want for your business, and drive local traffic toward your web pages.

From optimizing your Google My Business (GMB) listing and prioritizing local keywords, to performing online reputation management, here are several steps you can begin implementing today to boost your Local SEO efforts.

Optimizing Your Pages for Local Keywords

As any marketer knows, keyword optimization is a key step in any successful SEO strategy. Including the most popular keywords and key phrases in your copy will direct traffic to your content. For Local SEO efforts, you will want to spend your time focused on the local keywords, as these are the words and phrases that will help you determine the needs and wants of people in the area.

Step one is to identify the keywords that local consumers are using to look for businesses that offer similar products or services to your offerings. Once you have this vital language identified, you can incorporate it into your copy. Be sure to work these keywords into various elements of your content, including meta descriptions and page titles, as well as the body of your copy.

Submitting Your Website to Online Business Directories

Online business directories are the phone books of the modern world. Local citations, or signals that search engines follow to identify your business listing and determine its relevance to the user’s search enquiry, are found in online business directories. Given the importance of these directories, it’s vital that you ensure your information is always kept up to date.

Start by making sure your information across all platforms is correct by submitting your website to online directories, the more relevant of which is Google My Business. There are other options out there, from Yelp, Bing, and others, but it is recommended that you prioritize GMB.

When you’re sure your information is accurate, you will need to check back in from time to time, or any time you change important information related to a client’s ability to find you online. Don’t forget any vital information, such as the business name, address, contact information, and operating hours. 

Link Building

Link building is a fantastic way to accelerate your Local SEO efforts, and maintain a reputable website throughout your business operations. The main way of carrying out this activity consists of obtaining backlinks from respected, nearby websites. This will drastically improve your local search engine rankings thanks to the reputation boost generated by being recognized as respectable from already respected entities. 

You should try and establish relationships with local businesses and groups to see if there are possibilities for collaboration. Along with obtaining backlinks, you can simply offer cross-promotion to other businesses, where you would promote their products or services and they would do the same for you.

The same goes for supporting local neighborhood organizations. If you show support to those local businesses and groups that support the neighborhood, they are more likely to assist you in your link building efforts, while also being able to position your company as a positive factor in the community.

Make Sure Your Website is Healthy & Up-to-Date

As we’ve established, good Local SEO requires a website that is current, fast, and in good condition. Your website is the only permanent advertisement for your business, and having a fast, functional site is no longer an option, it’s a must. 

One step that some businesses forget is to optimize their sites for mobile. Without mobile optimization, your website will miss out on the majority of potential visitors, given the prevalence of mobile use nowadays. Keep your website maintained, keep it fast, free of errors, and optimized for mobile.

Similarly, you can continuously increase the quality of your website by adding new information as it becomes available. Share detailed product descriptions, write blog entries, and highlight exclusive deals, all of which will give visitors the opportunity to continue browsing your site and finding interesting pages, rather than coming and leaving immediately, as most visitors will.

Kicking off a Local SEO strategy can be tricky, especially if this is your introduction to the ins and outs of Local SEO. If you’re looking for expert advice from SEO professionals, consider a collaboration with inSegment, one of Boston’s leading SEO companies.

inSegment’s team has helped businesses across various industries rank high and stand out in local search, increasing their website traffic and converting more leads. inSegment’s tailored approach depending on the client’s goals and processes is what sets the company apart, able to operate as a true extension of a partner’s team.