Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most powerful tools for increasing your brand reach and visibility in the digital marketplace. The first market that any business owner targets are the local market. Localizing your business website is the first power move and local SEO contributes to it. It offers great opportunities to grow your business and help increase your brand presence locally.
Studies have shown that more than 40% of the searches on Google is about looking for local businesses or brands or service.
Let’s get a brief idea of what local SEO is all about
Local SEO is nothing but another avenue of search engine optimization that helps your business or brand to rank higher in local search queries. When any user in the same locality is looking for any generic product or service, local SEO helps your business/brand to be showcased in the top results organically.
If your business has higher rankings in the local search results, you will have a better click-through rate and therefore enhanced conversions. Hence, a higher conversion rate will boost your revenue generation too.
But do you know how local SEO enhances the conversion rate?
In digital marketing, conversions can be defined as when any customer completes any desired action by you on your business website. The conversion goal depends on the business owner and their objectives. For some, it can be buying a product, while for some, it can be installing something, and so on. If you work with local SEO to improve your conversion rate optimization (CRO), your website can enjoy the best of both worlds.
Local SEO helps your business website to rank top in the local search queries organically, so that searchers can interact with your site and take action on it. This way the conversion rate is enhanced and profitability maximized.
7 Tips To Optimize Your Local SEO
Improving your CRO (conversion rate optimization) instead of local SEO is quite the task. Like any SEO strategy, local SEO has some focused areas that can enhance the conversion rate of your business website.
Here are some simple yet effective hacks to boost your conversion with local SEO.
Add Focused Keywords That Aligns With Local Searches
Every SEO strategy needs properly researched keywords that align with your business. The SEO experts will analyze which keywords are the best fit for your business goals and can be easily implemented. There are even various tools available that can help you with this task. Google has Keyword Planner which is mostly used by SEO service providers to research general keywords that work for you. But keep one thing in mind local SEO is not like other general SEO.
You need locally focused keywords that will trigger results when any audience looks for local or nearby results. For that, you need to understand the local market and how they appear on the local search engine results page. Analyze and identify which are the right keywords your competitors are serving and which are relevant to your business. Categorize each keyword and use them according to the search volume and competition. Therefore, you can put them to use on various platforms and channels like Google Business Profile, social media, and others to improve your conversion ratio.
These keywords should help you attract the attention of the local people and surge local traffic inflow on your website. This local traffic will help you boost your conversions and build your sales funnel. Additionally, you can use these focused keywords to build a targeted landing page, so the customers near you know about your business.
Get Listed On Google Business Profile
Google Business Profile or as was formerly known as GMB is very important to increase your brand’s online presence and visibility to appear in local searches. Google Business Profile is one of the global business/brand directories that helps you instil trust and credibility in the marketplace. According to various sources, it has been revealed that more than 90% of the total customers search online for local businesses. You need to immediately create your business profile if you have not before using Google Business Profile, as it enhances your local SEO significantly.
Ensure that your NAP (Name, Address, and Phone Number) are accurate. Then you can add your business timings, other branches, a review sections for more engagement. Remember to include your email address and contact details, if there so that audiences can reach out to you from any platform they like.
The integration of Google Business Profile with Google Maps offers convenient location-based navigation for your target customers to find your business quickly. If you have an optimized Google Business Profile, the search relevancies help out in traffic inflow and conversions.
Generate Authoritative Local Backlinks
Generating authoritative backlinks for your business website is a crucial step for SEO. Authoritative backlinks are essential to broaden your digital exposure and funnel high-quality traffic and conversions for your online business. Therefore, in the case of the local SEO is nothing different. Resource authoritative backlinks for your local business through Google or take help from the SEO service providers in India.
They can analyze and compare which backlinks will help your website to be optimized. Additionally, they can audit your website to ensure that your site is optimized for local keywords too. Remember, creating authoritative backlinks will only add a competitive edge to your business in the digital realm.
Build A Quality, Seamless & User-Friendly Website
Even studies have revealed that more than 90% of local searchers visit the business websites that appear on the first page of the Google SERPs. Therefore, you also need to focus on your website when you want a high rank on the local search results organically. Remember that while Google assesses your website, it considers the website’s structure, navigation, user experience (UX), and user interface (UI) in terms of your local audience to rank.
Foremost, you need to design your business website in such a way that it loads faster. Secondly, responsive or mobile-friendly websites add an upper hand while considering local SEO. It always helps in traffic surge and user engagement. The dynamicity of your site structure plays an important role too. The more seamless the user’s journey is on your site, the more improved your rankings are too.
Pen Down Informative, Relevant & Accurate Content For Optimization
Textual and visual content on your website is both equally important to attract visitors. Customize your content locally to reach local and neighbouring audiences. Along with this, you can use the locally focused keywords in your content to surge traffic inflow. While assessing your business website, the locally-focused keywords in your website can do wonders too.
But ensure that your website contents are aligned with your business goals and are maintaining the SEO standards for optimized results. Remember that informative and relevant content aligned with SEO guidelines will improve your website’s rank organically.
Promote Your Brand With Social Media
Social media platforms drive huge traffic inflow and user engagement across the global marketplace including the local market. Therefore, as a business owner, you cannot ignore this. The SEO service providers can help you create your social media handle and increase brand awareness. This way, you can target local audiences too to engage with your products/services.
Major social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, etc can significantly drive the right attention and increase your conversion rate. You can even link your social media handle with your Google Business Profile. That way more visitors and interested parties can visit your website and shop.
Always Keep A Close On Your Competitors
To be on the safe side, always keep a close eye on your competitors. Always run a competitive analysis, so that you know what keywords they are using, how they are marketing, and how they are handling their business online. This way you will know what to do and what not to do while working with local SEO.
The competitive research and analysis will be like a guideline for your local SEO and online business operations. Look for what keywords they are using for local searches and then plan or update your keyword selection. Additionally, check out what social media engagement pipeline they are following to drive the local audience. This will be a learning experience for you and help you strategize more accurately to improve your conversion rate through local SEO.
Conclusion
The gap between the search results targeting a global search and a nearby search is what local SEO is all about. Local SEO will help your business and brand with a local online presence and visibility. Thus triggering more local traffic inflow and conversions. More than 25% of the local searches end up in purchases and so local SEO is quite important. Implement these few tricks to get better rankings on the local search engine results page too.