While there is so much emphasis on competitive keywords when it comes to ranking websites on the search result pages, people often overlook the huge ROI that local seo keywords can offer. Despite their relatively low monthly search volumes, local keywords can deliver a stream of serious traffic with a higher intent, leading to increased conversions.
Having the right local SEO strategy gets you more traffic, conversions, and leads since it targets your potential local customers. You need to see this strategy as a way of competing against the big players in your industry who have unlimited funds and resources at their disposal. By having a specific local SEO plan, you can have a competitive edge over more prominent companies that target broader keywords.
Here are 10 leading ways to implement a solid local SEO plan…
1. Identify Your Potential Audience
Before you begin building your keyword list, you need to identify your target audience and what they search for when they go online looking for products and services. If you are yet to come up with buyer personas for your target customers, you can start right now by creating a minimum of two for your primary target audience.
After identifying your ideal customers’ behaviour, figure out what they are typing into search engines to find your offer. Identify their research pattern and ensure you put an offer in front of them at different stages of the buying cycle.
Focus on buyer intent keywords. In your niche, think of keywords that make people act immediately. An example of this is “iPhone 11 mobile phone features.” People searching for features of a specific product are at an advanced stage in the buying cycle. You should focus more on these kinds of keywords.
Analyse your products and services and identify the keywords with which potential buyers are searching for your products.
If you’re still struggling with this then we can certainly help steer your business in the right direction then have a no obligation discuss with one of our Melbourne Marketing Consultants who can help you with a Marketing Workshop and Plan.
2. Do An Analysis Of Your Target Keywords
Once you have successfully identified your potential customers, you need to brainstorm keywords that are used by searchers. There are lots of tools out there for keyword research, but you can always start with Google.
You will even get suggestions of the most search keywords once you start typing a search term into Google search box. For example, at Bright Owl Marketing, we target keywords such as “Marketing Firm Melbourne,” “Marketing Agency Melbourne,” “Marketing Services Melbourne,” “Marketing Company Melbourne,” and so on. Here, aside from optimising for your specific products and services, you also need to optimise for exact locations, including cities and even suburbs.
At the end of the day, the goal is to find less competitive keywords that have lots of monthly searches.
With Google’s keyword planner, you can find location-specific keywords, allowing you to identify popular keywords in a particular region. This will enable you to build a list of locally searched keywords. Once you’re done with this process, you should see them appearing in your site’s URLs, copy, and Meta content.
During keyword selection, one critical piece of data to also keep an eye on is “search volume.” There’s no point ranking on the first page of Google for a keyword that only gets ten searches a month. It’s hard to succeed that way. Instead, you should go for search volumes that reward your keyword optimisation effort.
Also, another vital thing to note when choosing keywords is to think “semantically.” Google has implemented a technology called “Rank Brain,” which makes it possible to recognise synonyms and figure out many variations of phrases. That way, you can write content using variations of your primary keyword, and Google will still know what they mean. (Note: you don’t want to repeat your primary keyword more than three times on a single page).
It is also vital to mention region-specific hotspots and landmarks in your content. For example, if you have a local restaurant that offers dinner in Melbourne’s CBD, be sure to have references such as “just steps from Melbourne Central,” “dining near Melbourne Central” or “dining by the Rialto Tower” in your website’s content.
DID YOU KNOW: 5-word keywords get less than 50% of clicks from search engine result pages?
Broad keywords are usually less profitable than Long-tail keywords (e.g., “content ideas for small businesses”). Long-tail keywords, however, are sometimes too wordy. Data from Google shows that broader keywords get less than half the number of impressions and clicks on average.
3. Use Keywords Appropriately
You need to include your keywords (including phrases) in the headings, descriptions, and Meta titles of your webpage, as well as in the page content. Ensure you include your keyword within the first paragraph of your copy.
See every page on your website as an opportunity to optimise for the search engines. Don’t just focus on homepage optimisation.
Ensure every page is optimized for search. Ideally, you should be targeting 2-3 keywords per page. This means you need to meticulously include a specific set of keywords on every page.
Crafting quality content that contains your keywords is a crucial skill on its own. Pay close attention to the keywords you choose and how you incorporate them into your content for maximum search-ability and readability!
4. Do local SEO (even without a website)
Sometimes you don’t even need a website to become visible on Google (although it’s not the smartest thing to do). If your business has no website, you can still show up for your chosen keywords on Google by following the following procedure:
Listings in Local directory: identify the directories that rank high for your niche in your local area. Listing your business on the right one will give you a massive edge.
Get a Google My Business page: having this page setup is critical. It allows you to input your opening times and location, as well as other details. When created, you will start showing up on Google map listings.
The benefit you get from ranking for local keywords depends largely on your type of business. Businesses that have a website and cater to a global audience may not benefit much from local keywords. For most small businesses, though, a reliable local SEO plan can make a huge difference.
Follow these steps to optimize Google My Business:
- Get your listing verified
- Provide accurate info
- Include business details such as your payment methods, logo, lots of images, hours of operation, and services and products
- Ask customers to drop unbiased reviews about your business online
- Reply to your customers’ review promptly when you can
- Leverage the power of Google posts and create quality content within your account
5. Regularly Getting Satisfied Customers Reviews Are Crucial
When your satisfied customers leave heart-warming reviews, it doesn’t only help in the optimisation of your Google My Business presence; it helps increase local sales. Studies also show that online reviews can be as good as personal recommendations.
These tips will help you get more reviews from customers:
- Personally ask customers for a review after every successful sale
- Email or text your customers after a purchase asking them to leave honest reviews (but ensure they have been screened via an internal survey to be sure you are only contacting satisfied customers)
- Respond swiftly to reviews as they come in, commending them for doing business with you, and resolving any issues with negative reviews
6. Adopt Location-Specific “Bio” Or “About Us” Pages
Having location-specific about pages is crucial if your business has multiple locations in an area. These pages should at least offer the following:
- Address, Name, and phone number
- Store hours
- Testimonials
- Individualised descriptions
- Parking space availability
- Google Maps incorporated into each location page
- Promotions
When you have more than one location, be sure the content for each page is unique.
If your business is only based in one area, you need to ensure your “About Us” content is focused on relevant, local information. For instance, if you run a catering business, you can use your “About Us” content to talk about the fact that you can deliver food to specific areas in your city or town.
7. Make sure your site is mobile-optimised
Aside from climbing above non-mobile-optimised websites in the search results, mobile-friendly websites will be highly beneficial if you are targeting local seo keywords. The reason for this is that most people search for businesses using their mobile phones as their browsers are already equipped with map-based apps.
8. Set Up A Specific Page For Each Of Your Products Or Services
While stuffing all your services and products on a single page might sound like a time-saver, it can be counterproductive. Instead, ensure there’s a page for each unique product on offer.
You won’t be able to get maximum benefits from your local SEO inputs if all products are lumped into a single page because search engines won’t consider you an expert in your niche. This hampers your ranking.
If your business offers only one product but operates from various locations, the best solution is to make use of location-based SEO copy for every page. For example, dental marketing becomes “Melbourne dental marketing,” or “Bayside dental marketing.”
9. Build Quality Backlinks
Link signals are one of the most important ranking factors used by search engines to rank businesses in organic search engine result pages. Link signals refer to backlinks that point back to your webpage.
Getting links to enhance your local SEO copy is crucial, but you need to focus on the quality of those links.
Need quality backlinks to your website? Here are some useful tips:
- Publish unique, high-quality content on your site that is worth linking to
- Secure guest posts on authority websites in your niche
- Contact social influencers by email or via social media and ask them to link to you
10. Keep crafting more content
If you are looking to serve various locations, one of the smartest strategies is to create blog content or guides that are location-specific. (e.g., “how to locate good event planners in Melbourne.”) Generally, publishing unique and quality content on your site’s blog regularly will help you rank for local or non-local long-tail search terms.
Contact Us Today
Contact us today to find out how your business can benefit from local search engine optimisation. We also have some great SEO packages to help get your business seen on major search engines.
One of our friendly marketing consultants will ask questions about your business, industry, target audience and current marketing activities to see if our services are a good fit.
