SEO strategies to rank top on Google have come a long way than just to use keywords in blogs. There are different types of keywords that must be used to actually turn your e-commerce into a profit generating business. General SEO keywords can only take you so far but if your business is targeted to the local community, local SEO is the way. Local SEO can target specific audiences in your area to attract leads and increase income therefore.
If you are implementing all tactics to optimize your website for organic ranking in the search engine results pages (SERPs), you can’t ignore local SEO. Your consumers are more likely to search for information or services offered in their specific geographical area. Moreover, Google shows results to the services that are easier to avail by the users. So use keywords that can help your business rank locally. If you are providing a product or services nationally or globally as well, you can create a mix of both keywords.
Difference Between SEO and Local SEO:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the strategy used by web marketers, optimizing your website to make it more visible on search engines globally. It uses high searched keywords according to their ranking to meet the Google algorithm. Whereas, Local SEO does the same thing for a specific area.
For example, if someone were to search for an Interior designer, it is only feasible for them to get one in their vicinity. So instead of using just “Interior Designer” as your keyword, try adding “Interior Designer (location)”. With that, the competition will be cut short and the business will get more leads.
Benefits of local SEO: It generates more potential customers!
In this era of online shopping and retail giants, local sellers can finally get noticed avoiding the competition with Walmart and Amazon, etc. with local SEO. It favors smaller businesses over the e-commerce giants any day. Small business web designs can definitely gain many benefits by optimizing with local SEO practices.
Google itself recognizes the value of local businesses. In fact, Google has a specific set of local ranking factors to identify if your business is relevant or not to the user. The ‘near me’ searches spot geographically relevant businesses to the users. So with targeted local keywords, you don’t need to worry about competing against large international corporations.
Pro Tip on Local SEO:
For a small town business, Local SEO searches may not be enough to calculate the actual search volumes. So how can you know if it works?
Here’s a quick trick,
● Swap out your location modifier (e.g., “Annapolis”) for a larger, nearby city (e.g. Baltimore).
● See the search volumes for this location.
Put the data in this equation:
● (Population of target town / Population of nearby city) x Search volume for nearby city
By reverse engineering using this equation, a rough search volume can be deducted. It will be only an approximate estimation but something is better than nothing. Try it!
Every business can benefit at some level from local SEO. Research shows that most consumers who search for a local business on their smartphone visit a store on the same day. Optimize your website to get more traffic today. Contact Digital Sprout for further details and expert SEO services.