Having a website gives you the opportunity to target the entire online community. In 2019 alone, there were approximately 4,083,105,000 internet users around the world. But what do you do if your target audience is in a specific area, such as your hometown?

That’s where local search engine optimization comes in. A local SEO company will optimize your website specifically to be discoverable by people in the geographic area where you operate. To learn more about the services a local SEO company offers and why they’re so important, keep reading.

What Is Local SEO?

If you run a blog or an online-only business, you usually want to attract people from all over the internet. But if you run a local business or storefront, you want to optimize your website to bring people to your physical location. That means your site needs to be found by people living within your geographic area. Optimizing your website to be found by people living nearby is called local SEO.

If you know how to do regular SEO already, local SEO is easy. But to get the best results, it’s a good idea to hire a search engine marketing agency to do the work for you.

How to do Local SEO

Before you or a local SEO company can optimize your website for local discovery, you need to know two things: what type of product or service you offer and what city or town you’re targeting.

When people search for businesses and services in their local area, their search query usually combines their city name with the product, service, or type of business they’re looking for. For example, “shoes in New York City,” or “best Italian restaurants in Phoenix.” Having a clear understanding of your business’s identity and offering is key to getting search traffic to your website.

How Local SEO Works

Traditional search engine optimization involves using keywords to show Google what your website is all about. A local SEO company will use keywords on your website in the same way, and they might even establish backlinks to your site to improve your website’s reputation with search engines. But local SEO is about more than simply optimizing a site with keywords and links.

Besides featuring your city’s name and your business address on your website, the most straightforward way to let Google know where you operate is with Google My Business.

Google My Business is an online tool that connects searchers with nearby businesses. Having your business listed there is a lot like having it featured in the Yellow Pages. Google My Business will allow you to tell Google about your business — your niche, location, main products and services, contact information, and business hours. This lets Google know directly where you’re located and what you do, which helps them direct people to you when they search for the products or services that you offer.

Once you have your organization listed in Google My Business, you should make sure the information on your website matches and expands on the information you’ve given Google. As long as your website doesn’t violate any known rules of SEO, doing this should be all it takes to put your website and business listing near the top of search results for your area.

Boosting Your Success With Reviews and Social Media

No local SEO strategy would be complete without taking customer reviews and social media marketing into consideration. Although social media doesn’t necessarily contribute to SEO, it’s particularly useful and effective for small businesses targeting people in a local area. But getting reviews on reputable websites, such as Yelp and the Better Business Bureau, can potentially improve your search ranking. Not only that, but positive reviews are perhaps the single best way to entice new customers to give your business a chance.

While Yelp, Facebook, and the BBB are obvious places to promote reviews for your business, you should do some research to find out where your competitors are being reviewed. Chances are those are the websites people are already looking at for recommendations in your niche.

Just like search engine optimization in general, there are many factors that go into a local SEO campaign. When you’re ready to invest in the local SEO company you can count on, rely on Fasturtle today.