Local SEO Solutions – 6 Ways to Stand Over the Competition

Most companies use multiple outbound strategies to gain leads.

However, those outbound strategies can take time, resources, and money. 

How can businesses make leads come to them when they’re so busy with other daily operations?

If your company is looking for ways to better its inbound strategy, one way to make clients come to you is by investing in local seo solutions. If you need some help getting your strategy up and going, you’ve come to the right place. 

In this article, we’re discussing: 

• What exactly local seo solutions are
• Why it’s important 
• Strategies that will grow your online visibility while targeting local prospects 

What Are Local SEO Solutions? 

A local SEO strategy consists of a plan to increase your online visibility to expand your reach and be found easier by other local businesses. Having good local SEO means your website will rank higher when other local businesses are searching for your business on search engines.  

Why is Local SEO Important? 

One reason is because a lot of people search for local establishments on Google.

Statistics show that 46% of all Google searches are looking for local information. That includes people who make key decisions at businesses. 

If you don’t have a local SEO strategy, you’re missing out on a large (and valuable) portion of online traffic that’s searching for local results for their search.

Local SEO also helps your business increase its online visibility. 

The more you prove your local value and authority online, the better the chance that Google will think your business is valuable and reward it by ranking your page higher than others. 

The higher your business ranks, the greater the opportunity you have to be found by a large number of online visitors. 

This is especially true for hyper-local searches, such as “digital marketing near me” or “business accounting services Boston MA” (or wherever your business is located). 

Local seo solutions also help your business establish credibility both online and in your community. The more trustworthy and valuable your business seems, the better your chance is of ranking higher online and people actually clicking on your business’ page. 

Local SEO Strategies 

Now that you know what local SEO is and why it’s important, let’s discuss some strategies you can use to capitalize on it. 

Set up a Google My Business Page

One of the best things you can do for your local SEO strategy is to set up a Google My Business page for your company. A Google My Business page helps you manage your company’s online presence across Google. On it, you can list: 

• Your company’s name 
• Your business hours 
• Your address (if you have a storefront) 
• Your location on Google Maps
• Your phone number 
• Photos of your business and/or services 
• Customer reviews 

Having this page is like having a one-stop shop for your company’s information on Google. 

The more you include, the easier it is for Google to determine if you’re a valuable page to show for searches. 

Google My Business also helps people find information on your company faster. 

In fact, studies show that between 70 % and 80% of people research a company online prior to visiting a small business or making a purchase with them. 

Consumers and other businesses will want to vet your business and its information before contacting you, and having a Google My Business page can help make that process a lot easier for them. 

Get Customer Reviews

Something else you can do for your local seo strategy is get customer reviews. 

Customer reviews are critical for any business’ credibility, but they make a big difference online. 

Northwestern Medill has compiled statistics that highlight the importance of reviews for customers.

 Visitors looking for services will also likely want proof that your services work, and customer reviews and testimonials can help provide that proof. 

Reviews serve as social proof that your products and services are reliable. If your company has good reviews, Google will reward you since good reviews establish authority. Plus, good reviews help establish trust in the online community. 

You can get reviews from customers in a number of ways. You could: 

• Ask clients to leave a review during check-ins 
• Reach out to past and current clients via email and ask them to leave reviews 
• Run a promotion that rewards clients for leaving reviews 

Don’t forget: the best way to get good reviews is to provide products and services that get results and to have an attentive customer service team that customers can trust. 

The better your services and products work for your customers, the more likely they’ll leave raving reviews. 

Optimize Your Website

Another important thing to do for your local SEO strategy is optimize your website for local products and services. 

Make it clear that you serve the area your business resides in. 

Mention that you serve your area in your “About Us” page, sales pages, or even on your home page. That way, Google can recognize that you serve that particular area and help you rank better for local searches. 

Another way to optimize your website is to make sure it’s mobile friendly. 

These days, more than half of all searches happen on a mobile device. 

If your website isn’t mobile friendly, it could hurt its reputation with Google since it wouldn’t provide a good user experience. 

Take the time to develop a mobile optimized website so your leads can have a good experience on your website on all fronts.  

Create Local Content

Another way to use local SEO solutions is to create local content. 

Quality content that helps solve a user’s problem, or best answers a user’s query, is ranked well on Google. 

Therefore, if you create content that meets the needs of local search queries, your content has potential to rank well online. 

Content you can create includes: 

• Blog posts 
• Social media posts 
• Videos 
• Podcasts 
• Free resources 
• Webinars

You can use one content idea and break it out into multiple forms of content. 

For instance, let’s say you run a real estate business in Massachusetts, and you’re looking for more clients. 

You’ve done your keyword research (a must for content creation and SEO strategy), and realize that the term “how to buy commercial real estate in Massachusetts” is highly searched and is searched by people in your target audience. 

You can create content that satisfies the intent behind “how to buy commercial real estate in Massachusetts”. 

You can create a whole guide for it, then take part of the guide and turn it into multiple blog posts, videos, and infographics. 

That content can help other businesses searching for an answer to that specific query, and since you gave them some insight about it, they may trust you more and want to learn more about your services. 

Quality content creation that seeks to fit the user’s intent can help your visibility online, especially when it comes to local searches.

Utilize Business Listings 

Getting your company’s information on online business listings can help your local SEO strategy. 

Adding your company’s name, address, phone number, and a link to your website to business listings can give you more authority online by making it that much easier for potential clients to find you. 

This is especially helpful if someone searches for your branded keywords, since the information on how to contact you can come up quickly. 

It’s a strategy that takes little effort but can help tremendously when trying to figure out how to get local customers. 

Explore Backlinking Partnerships With Other Businesses

Backlinking is an essential part of any SEO strategy.

Backlinking is when you link to another website on your website or in a piece of your content. 

Backlinking is important in SEO because if a website links to your website, Google sees it as a sign that your website has authority. The more authority you build, the more likely Google is to highly rank your website. 

One way you can build your backlinking strategy is to reach out to other local businesses and form a backlinking partnership. 

You can work out an agreement where you both link to each other’s content or website a certain number of times. That way, you can both establish authority online. 

It’s important to strategically pick your potential backlinking partners, though. You don’t want to pick a company that has the same exact services or products as you, as they’re your competition. 

Instead, pick businesses that have products and services that relate to yours. That way, if a business finds their services, they can see that your related services are also linked, and they may need those services. 

Another way to build your backlink strategy is to do backlinking outreach. 

This is a strategy where someone from your team reaches out to other companies and publications to see if they’d be willing to include a backlink to your website if you include a backlink to theirs. 

Make sure the companies and publications you’re reaching out to are relevant to your services, products, and/or industry. That way, the links feel natural being incorporated into each piece of content. 

Final Thoughts

Coming up with a strategic and comprehensive SEO strategy will help your company’s online presence grow and help prospects find you easier. 

There are many pillars to a good local SEO strategy, but the core of it is providing goods and services that serve your prospects’ needs. 

If you do that, you can produce information and content that makes a great impression online and gets your company found by more people.