4 Easy Rules of Local Search Engine Marketing

Did you know that 88% of customers who want to engage a local company read online reviews first to determine its quality? To stay ahead of the curve, companies are placing a focus on local search engine marketing to meet their customers in the moments that matter. Here are a few local search engine optimization (SEO) tips to help you do just that.

Register and Optimize Your Google My Business Listing

When looking for a local company to meet their needs, 64% percent of consumers will use a Google My Business (GMB) listing to get the firm’s phone number or address. Claiming and securing your GMB listing to meet customers in real-time when they need your services. When you make a claim, you will go through a verification process to establish you are the rightful business owner. GMB is a critical digital marketing element because once you get a listing, your business will appear on all local search results on every device. It also helps your firm show up in valuable Google positions.

Focus on Getting Online Reviews

Your local search engine marketing tactics will bear fruit only if people get to see other people displaying trust in your business. Customer reviews don’t just improve your GMB listing and grow your local search rankings. Reviews also get more local customers to buy from you. When you finish serving a customer, politely request them to leave an online review. In addition, don’t forget to respond to customer reviews, especially those from dissatisfied clients. Seek to find out why they felt underserved and find ways to compensate for that.

Create Content Relevant for Your Local Audience

Content marketing is the bedrock of local SEO strategies. Creating material that appeals to your local audience’s attention is a means to stay relevant. Develop blog posts around attention-grabbing or other issues essential to your local customer. If your business happens to be multi-location, then create location-specific web pages for each of the locales you serve and deliver high-quality material in each. That will help you get ranked for each of the individual locations in a local context.

NAP Consistency

For your firm to show up as a local result when a customer runs a search, the engine needs to have your name, address, and phone number (NAP). What many businesses may not know is that when your NAP is not in the same format everywhere online, it adversely affects your online local business marketing results. Your NAP should be based on the information on your website. Pay attention not just to the main NAP details but the tiny ones. For example, if you abbreviate street as ‘St’ in your address, it needs to appear like that everywhere else.

The internet has inspired customers to develop new behaviors when buying from your business. It is up to you to figure out how to respond to these changing patterns. Local search engine marketing is a critical tool in meeting your customers during those crucial moments of decision. Work on different SEO aspects targeted at your local search with an overarching goal to dominate local rankings.