Why is Local SEO Important for Small Businesses?

The business landscape has become highly competitive today and ensuring that your online presence is strong and very visible is the only way of ensuring that you and your business do not get sidelined into the world wide web. Marketing strategies change every day, and there really is no standard mantra when it comes to the “correct” online marketing.

By Alain Houle, Alco Web Design LLC

The Local SEO Strategy
Many small business owners believe that having a website is enough- but very frankly, it’s not to get your website on top of the Google search results. If you are a niche business that caters to local customers in your town, city or region, the SEO strategies you follow will be very different from the ones that are followed by global corporations who also deal with international customers. This is what will help:

• Local Maps- A large number of people now use Google, Apple map and Bing technology to look for local businesses. Having good pictures, reviews and content from customers is one way of ensuring that you are noticed. All of this should also have all the relevant keywords placed in it
• Indexing- It is important that your site be indexed on local search engines. This step is one that comes before ranking 
• Ranking- Your sites will have to be ranked locally. Keywords that are specific to your community is what comes next. These should be targeted based on geography
• Common Local Searches- Your business should be listed in applications like Facebook, Foursquare and CitySearch. When any prospective customer looks for your product/service via their mobile phone, your business will show up there
• Keyword Optimization- It is important to maintain a balance between the service/product you are selling, the target location and the keywords that are used on your site
• Local Directory Listing- Your website should feature on all the local website directories which are specific to your product/service
• Social Media- These sites are a great way of getting more local visibility and they offer Local SEO
• Google Analytics- This is a vital point and installing Analytics on your business website helps you make smart marketing decisions and will help you strategize from a local marketing perspective

We can help in all kinds of smart, intuitive and innovative web design and Local SEO strategies and you will notice the boost it gives all your online marketing initiatives.  Contact us or visit our website, www.alcowebdesign.com to understand how we can help you with Website Design and online marketing.