Local SEO for Small Businesses
Small businesses need SEO especially at the local level. For example, if someone is looking for a restaurant, they will first search in their local area. Local listings improve your visibility and help you rank higher in search engines, even if your main business may attract larger searches.
Is your business listed on local online search engines?
You must be listed in the following directories: Yellow Pages Online, Yahoo Local, Bing, Google+, and local online directories for your cities. When your business is linked to local directories, it’s much easier for people to find you. You can increase your ranking on these sites by asking happy customers to post reviews below your business listing and give them a thumbs up, like +1, etc.
Link Building is another way to position your business in search engines.
You can do this by adding comments and links to other businesses similar to yours. You can also cross promote with other businesses and offer to exchange links. Make sure you build your links slowly and naturally. Regular them by doing a few one day and a couple the next. This way the search engines will not penalize you and think that you are sending spam.
Promote your business on social media platforms.
Use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ and they should reflect the location of your business. It’s nice to have a lot of followers, but they don’t mean anything if these people don’t become customers. Direct your posts towards your local community. You can post specials, videos and images to grab the attention of your followers.
It could be something as simple as mentioning that you saw this post or sending a tweet today and get 20% off your next purchase. You increase the reach of your business and encourage more customers to visit it. It’s a great way to get back into business and build relationships with your customers.
Online advertising
Pay per click advertising is one of the most powerful ways to target your local community. Use location-targeted PPC for your online campaigns. For example, your business is in Denver, Colorado. You can post ads that are targeted to specific areas of Denver. People who are not in this geographic area should be excluded.
It’s all about getting the right kind of traffic to increase your sales and keep your customers coming back again and again. These are just some of the ways you can use local SEO for small businesses to increase their online presence.