For brick and mortar service providers and retailers, optimal local SEO results can make or break business. You simply must populate the results when potential customers search for the services you offer or products you sell in your area.
If you don’t, your business will be leaving money on the table. Of course, this is a job for the best local SEO services providers. But just how do they get your website to generate results for local keywords?
Here are the four main ways.
Local Keywords
This is the lesser of the three ways that a local SEO services provider will get you on the proverbial map.
By optimizing key pages for local keywords, or by spinning up location-specific landing pages, the best local SEO companies can get you to show up for those local keywords, in the regular search results.
Doing so can also get your website to show up in other search features, like the AI overview, and potentially also in the People Also Ask section, supporting your local SEO strategy.
Location-Specific Keywords
Let’s say your business only operates in a specific market, or in a few markets in a number of select locations. Creating location or market-specific landing pages for those keywords can be a real bonus and can get your website to show up in the local listings.
The other good news is that these location-specific pages don’t just potentially benefit your local SEO efforts. As usual, marketing channels possess a certain synergy, and location-specific pages can be used as landing pages assigned to PPC campaigns.
An Optimized Contact Page or Contact Information
Optimizing a contact page with accurate contact information, including an accurate mailing address to your proper, physical location, is also a cue to Google to rank you for relevant, location-based keywords.
Of course, while a contact page is better, if your website doesn’t have a dedicated contact page, the contact information in the footer must be kept up to date.
An Optimized GMB Listing
This right here is what constitutes the bulk of effective local SEO services. Without an optimized GMB listing, or one that is dormant and doesn’t have good or up-to-date contact details, there is little to no chance your listing will show up in the local market’s map pack – and that’s the first place that online shoppers in your target audience will go to find goods and services in their areas.
Keeping your GMB listing up-to-date and fresh, with an accurate business description, contact information, hours, address and other relevant information, and if possible, high-quality photos, is one of the keys to driving local traffic and supporting your overall online presence.
One other aspect of local SEO that’s tied up with an optimized GMB listing is the presence of positive reviews. Some of the best local SEO services providers will also help you out with reputation management by gathering, publishing and optimizing reviews so that your GMB listing appears more legitimate and trustworthy, which drives not only organic visibility but also engagement.
Today’s the Day to Get Started with the Best Local SEO Services Provider
Ten years ago was the best time to get started with local SEO efforts, but as in everything else related to digital marketing, the second best time to get started is right now.
Get in touch with the best local SEO services provider you can find and start going over your goals, whether they revolve around higher visibility, more foot traffic, or more revenue. Either way, local SEO service providers can help you get there.
Get started and be patient. Most SEO campaigns take months to a year to generate legitimate results. The worst thing you can do is start, balk at the investment, and pull the plug.
