Local SEO marketing helps businesses get more website traffic, leads, and conversions. It’s a more focused marketing approach that targets customers in specific regions, helping brands build an audience in those areas.
However, local SEO is more than just creating a Google My Business profile. While Google My Business is undoubtedly important for local SEO, there are several other strategies you need to follow to get your desired results.
Here are a few local SEO tips for you to consider.
Create Customised Content
Creating informative and compelling content is a great way to boost your SEO rankings. When it comes to local SEO, you need to be even more specific and focus on topics that are more relevant to the region you’re targeting. In other words, you need to create authoritative content that is relevant to trending local issues and speaks to your audience.
This can be done in multiple ways. For instance, you can write blog posts centred on local news, events, or activities. Similarly, you can incorporate local news and events into your social media marketing campaign and create posts and videos that are location-specific.
Creating customised content for local SEO also means catering to the region-specific insights you’ve acquired. Use SEO analytics to determine what type of content is likely to do better in a certain area and use it to build your content marketing strategy.
Include the Location in the Title Tags & Descriptions
Meta title tags and descriptions are effective online marketing tools as they affect a web page’s click-through rate. They provide a concise description of what the page is about, informing internet users as well as search engines. To make them even more effective for your local SEO strategy, consider including the location in the Meta tags and description.
For instance, if your business is based in Sydney, include the city in your Meta tags. This will help your page appear in searches specific to the area. You can also create location-specific title tags and descriptions for landing pages targeting specific areas (location pages).
Moreover, if you’re focusing your local SEO efforts towards one region, include only that location in the Meta tags and descriptions, leaving out other cities and areas.
Use Location Pages
If your business has multiple locations, you need specific location pages for each region you cater to. Location pages are mostly used to target specific provinces or cities, but can also be used for locations within a city or a given region. For instance, if you have multiple stores in Canberra, you can create location or location-specific “about” pages for each area. This will help you target the local market more effectively, letting you optimise content according to each location.
Make sure you don’t duplicate content on each page. Each location page should include individualised descriptions centred on the target location. It should also include contact information unique to each location, such as business address, telephone number, store hours, and Google Maps. Additionally, you can also optimise the content by including region-specific promotions, events, and other related news.
Build Links
High-quality external links add to a website’s credibility and help improve its SEO ranking. This is why link-building is an effective practice that you must include in your local SEO strategy.
Link-building essentially means inserting third-party links in your web and blog content to provide context to internet users. For instance, you can add links to credible publications, statistics and reports, and other platforms. However, link-building is only effective as long as it links to relevant and credible pages. If you’re linking your page to a suspicious web page, an irrelevant article, or a competitor brand, you’re doing more harm than good.
Make sure the links you use are from credible sources and are relevant to your content. You can even link to your internal pages or social media platforms to direct internet users to the relevant pages. Also, refrain from adding too many links, as this can come across as spam-y.
Leverage Local Reviews
Finally, make use of local review platforms and encourage your customers to share their positive feedback and experiences online. Local reviews are extremely useful for optimising your Google My Business presence. Additionally, they also help you get more web traffic and sales by encouraging other local customers to visit your website and purchase your products or services.
Local reviews act as personal recommendations. When a customer reads a glowing review about another consumer’s personal experience with a brand, they’re more likely to choose that brand as well. This means you need to get your happy customers to write you positive reviews and give you the boost you need.
There are multiple ways to go about this. You can ask them to leave a review on your website or a reviewing platform after the close of a sale. Alternately, you can send them a post-service email or feedback form to share their experience working with your brand. Many consumers prefer using social media to review brands, such as in specific groups, standalone posts, or on the brand’s page and posts.
Additionally, make sure you respond to any negative reviews professionally to maintain your brand image and address the complaints of unsatisfied customers. This is also important for local SEO, as consumers want to know how a brand responds to negative feedback. They may still invest in your brand if they’re assured of your customer service and commitment to improvement, even if they’ve read a negative review.
Hire Our Digital Marketing Experts in Canberra
Ready to kick-start your local SEO journey? The team at TocToc is here to help.
While the aforementioned local SEO tips are tried and tested ways to get local traffic, they’re only effective if executed correctly. Our SEO experts can help you enhance your local online presence by implementing the right strategies and customising your SEO campaign.
In addition to search engine optimisation services, we also provide content marketing, graphic design, social media marketing, website development, email marketing, and other online marketing services to help businesses in Canberra. We’ll help you develop and maintain a successful local SEO strategy that enhances your brand’s online visibility and web traffic.
Get in touch with our digital marketing company today for more details.