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Published September 01st, 2016 by

How to Achieve SEO Success for Small Businesses

There are ongoing debates about the relevance of SEO in today’s digital marketing strategies, ever since that Google released updates about their search engine’s algorithm. Now that search engines wanted to gain back the role of ball rolling in web page rankings, even without direct declaration, they wanted to downplay SEO and implement their own strict (in a positive way) rules regarding who goes up in the web page rankings.

How to Achieve SEO Success for Small Businesses

Basically, SEO was being regarded as dead, because its supposedly “techniques” are slowly becoming outdated.But in another perspective, it just calls for some re-aligning or re-thinking of another set of strategies in order to be effective again with SEO.

More local SEO companies are renewing their commitment in improving their SEO strategies that are relevant to the updated SEO protocols being implemented today. They continue to invest in the development of SEO optimized infrastructure on the web in order to make websites drive more traffic and become more search friendly.

Tips for Effective Local SEO

Local SEO services gives more emphasis on a more targeted approach in marketing, thus influencing the way they do their strategies. But the one that runs a small business can be discouraged from thinking about how to wade in the oceans of internet data with what little they can offer. Is it really possible to somewhat, “control” your way all through the world wide web search page rankings? Would your content be enough to at least have that influence over your peers, so that you can drive your own traffic?

A loud and resounding yes! There are a lot of ways in making your efforts to realize tangible results, by focusing on local SEO.

The benefits of local SEO gives you a lot of options to boost your visibility on the web, and at the same time, incorporate effective marketing strategies using the same media such as outreaches, social media, reviews and ratings. Localizing your SEO can let you focus on the competition within your geographical and industry based area which in turn, can let you personalize your methods and approach.

Your local SEO checklist is also strengthened by the explosion of mobile internet capable devices such as smartphones and tablets. According to a mobile internet statistics conducted by Statista in 2015, the mobile internet penetration worldwide has reached 52.7%, and is expected to rise to 63.4% in 2017.The Internet Society, in their global internet report for 2015, cited that there will be already around 3 billion internet users by May of the same year, wherein mobile internet penetration is said to reach 71% by the year 2019. The mobile device and technology industry have skyrocketed in the past years, which serves as good news for businesses in need for another dimension in their digital marketing and SEO strategies.

Local SEO strategies are simple yet effective still to achieve your goal of dominating the search results. Here are some tried and tested tips for implementing local SEO techniques using positive content and reach:

  1. Website Content Optimization

Your website is your online asset, therefore you must ensure that it is optimized according to the standards and regulations implemented by search engines so that it stays on top of the search results.

One can begin by improving the domain name by making it straightforward and specific to the nature and location of your business.

Next, strategically place relevant keywords within your page titles and content so that search engines will have much basis coming from your site when returning results.

Make sure that you put your business name and contact information (NAP) in every page of your site in a creative fashion. You may notice this to be mostly located at the end of each page.

To optimize further, one can also put relevant content concerning nearby vicinities and attractions to further associate your local business with its location. Citing establishments such as parks, malls, or tourist attractions within the area may also contribute traffic being linked with popular and familiar places. Through this, it not only promotes your visibility online, but in your local area as well.

  1. Update Business Listings on Local Web sites

One of the simplest yet effective ways of boosting your local business is to update its information in as many web directories as possible. This implies consistency and availability of your business which search engines take note of also, thus gaining you sustained visibility in higher page results. It is also the basis of search engines in understanding what you do so it can be more effective in including it in the results.      The same impact is done when either you have a web listing or you have it posted inaccurately. This can both negate your online profile, and is potentially harmful in your business.

Include in your action items to hunt for popular, local web directories and listings and have your updated business information to be listed in all or any of these. Next, when permitted, add other enhancements like photos, videos and interactive elements to make your listing appear attractive and informative. Make sure, too, that your business is appropriately listed in its right category, so that search engines can easily recognize it.

If your business have multiple branches, make separate listings for each in order to boost your visibility in multiple locations. Search engines recognize each of these listings individually.

  1. Use Appropriate Link Strategies

Link building strategies are effective ways of boosting your web presence. But in order to be in line with the existing regulations of search engines, all links associated to your site must be relevant within the scope of your business. Remove unnecessary links inbound to your site, or consider a nofollow back option. Having inconsistent and irrelevant links to your site can create a negative impact on your website profile. On the other hand, associating your business with the right links can imply an authentic and trustworthy business that both search engines and clients recognize.

Email marketing and SEO also make a powerhouse strategy that can benefit your business significantly. You can include a clickable links towards your website and other relevant content on every newsletter that you send your clients.

You may consider creating a local blog site and incorporate all nearby establishments and reviews of each, and establish a community based website listing. You can link their own websites to this, and can gain reciprocal links as favors returned. When the network and relationships among your partners have strengthened, you can organize events and give out sponsorships and engage all combined clients to participate. This way, you and your business can have different audiences to present to.

Through all of these, just make sure that your strategies are  authentic so that everybody can positively benefit from the collaboration.

  1. Respond to Online Reviews

Encourage your clients to make reviews for you willingly – whether positive or not, and respond to it accordingly. This fosters an atmosphere of reliability and reachability for your business in general.

So what are the ways to encourage your clients make reviews for you?

  1. A simple after sales email that encourages them to make feedbacks about their experience.
  2. Send put flyers when customers check out of your physical store asking them to suggest
  3. Website callout or working link to a survey.

Be proactive when dealing with client reviews, no matter how bad it impress. This is an opportunity for you to handle them positively which can also impact your business. Diversifying your feedback communication channels can also encourage more reviewers.

  1. Social Media Engagement

Develop a strong social media strategy by empowering your social media accounts with regular updates, promotions, photos, videos and content that are relevant in line with your expertise. Also make sure that you respond right away when customers are making queries through these social media accounts too for them to gain full customer experience.

  1. Widen Your Digital Media Coverage

Gaining media attention can result to more positive impact for your business in the long run. It needs some effort on your part, for example, sending over some samples to a community of bloggers for them to try and then ask them to give reviews. This will impress a more reliable feedback since it came from third party sources. It will also broaden your audience when you remain visible in other channels too.

Also, a local SEO company can help you broaden your audience reach by incorporating their own tried and tested strategies that already worked with other similar businesses that they may have handled in the past. Top local SEO companies are the ones that have evolved alongside the many changes in search engine algorithms, and is willing to invest more on how to help other businesses reach greater success in building their own local SEO guide and system.

Need some more convincing? You may try to check out CrowdReviews.com’s local SEO company reviews so you can get initial insights how these companies had helped others, which may be beneficial for you as well.

John Tovar

John specializes in the creation and planning of business-centric mobile applications and mobile website design and development.

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