There are many ways to get your business noticed, but for retail companies, there’s no better way to attract customers than local SEO. Local SEO is a marketing strategy that helps your website appear at the top of search results for users in your local area. This can be a very effective way to reach new customers, especially when combined with other tactics like social media ads and targeted email marketing campaigns.
This guide will cover some of the best practices for improving your website’s performance in Google searches so that more locals can find you when they’re looking for something specific, such as clothing stores or restaurants.
Create a Google My Business Page
Google My Business is a free tool that allows you to create a page for your business on Google Maps. It’s an essential tool because it receives many queries, and 33% of them receive 1,000 or more views on maps.
Google My Business pages can help attract customers looking for what you have to offer online. This can increase sales and brand recognition as people learn about your business through search results. Using this tool also enables you to add photos, videos, hours of operation, and other information, making it easier for potential customers to find out more about your products or services before they even come in person.
Optimize Your Website for Local SEO
If your e-commerce business has a website, make sure it’s optimized for local SEO by using the following tips:
- Use a mobile-friendly website. 55.4% of internet users use mobile phones to buy online, so your site needs to be user-friendly on mobile devices and desktop computers.
- If you have an existing site, ensure it is compatible with Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool and consider updating your template if necessary.
- If you don’t have a website yet, consider building one with Shopify or Magento. Or another platform explicitly designed for selling online so it can be fully optimized for local search engines.
- Use a local address, phone number, and hours of operation when adding information about yourself on social media profiles and directories like Yelp! This will help increase the likelihood that customers will find you in search engine results when they’re looking up businesses near their location.
- You can also include these details on other website pages where they apply—for example: “We’re located at 123 Main Street” or “Our phone number is 407-123-1234.” These details are beneficial if potential customers search for shops along their route home from work or school.
If you’re unsure how to implement the above tips, you can always hire a professional SEO company to help optimize your website. It’s, however, best to hire one from your region. Suppose your business operates in Orlando, hiring an SEO expert located in London won’t be of much help.
While he or she will help you with general SEO practices, the expert will not know the local trends. Hence, it is advised to find an Orlando Local SEO expert. Similarly, if you are operating in Oklahoma, collaborate with an expert from the same location.
They’ll be able to help with everything from location-specific keyword research and analysis to content creation and implementation targeted at Orlando residents, so you don’t have to worry about anything technical.
Get Listed on Review Sites
Are you a business owner getting the word out about your company? If so, it’s essential to ensure prospective customers can find you. One of the best ways to attract new customers is through online platforms like Yelp and TripAdvisor. Millions of people use these sites daily and have an enormous amount of traffic.
For example, 91% of customers between 18 and 34 believe in internet reviews as much as they make personal recommendations. Thus, businesses must ensure they are listed on these sites to reach new customers and keep existing ones happy with their products/services.
Getting listed on Yelp and TripAdvisor is relatively easy if done correctly, but some crucial tips should be followed when doing so:
- Ensure all information (i.e., phone number, email address, business location, etc.) is correct on each listing since this will help guarantee positive reviews when someone calls for more information about what you offer at your store location(s).
- Responding promptly after receiving feedback from unhappy customers will also increase trust among potential shoppers who could otherwise post negative comments about how poorly treated they were during interactions with staff members who ignore them instead.
Use review sites to interact with customers and show that your business cares about their experience. This could include posting photos or videos of happy customers using your products/services, responding to comments quickly and politely, etc.
Build Local Links to Your Website
Link building is the most valuable SEO practice, according to 13% of SEO specialists. This means it’s one of the most important things you can do for your online store.
The benefits of building local links include:
- Increased organic traffic
- Increased rankings
- Increased brand awareness
- Higher conversion rates
So how should you go about doing this? There are two main ways: link outreach and content creation. Link outreach is essentially getting in touch with local businesses who would benefit from linking to your website, i.e., companies that offer similar products or services.
At the same time, content creation involves regularly creating high-quality pieces that will be relevant, interesting, and engaging for readers to share on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter — which will eventually lead people back to your site.
The more quality content you have on hand, the better off you’ll be when it comes time to get links from other sites since their owners won’t hesitate to add yours once they see plenty available.
Create Blogs Intended for Local Audience
Blog posts are one of the best ways to engage your customers and can be used to generate organic traffic. According to a study by Blogher, 81% of Americans believe the information and advice they receive on blogs. Blogs also allow you to showcase your expertise in the area while providing valuable content. You can use blog posts to generate local traffic by targeting specific keywords, which will help you rank higher in search engine results and give you more exposure within a specific geographic area.
If you want to reach out beyond local audiences, consider writing an informative post geared toward a national audience. This will help build up backlinks from relevant websites across multiple regions. These links could then enhance your site’s overall authority level with Google, improving your rankings for popular search queries related to retail businesses. Finally, blog content is easy for social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter because it’s already written out for them.
Use Schema Markup
Schema markup is a way to add structured data to your website. It helps search engines understand the content of your site, which can help you rank higher in search results and get more traffic from search engines.
For example, let’s say you provide cats and dogs services. You may want to add schema markup so that when someone searches for “pet grooming Orlando,” they see your business as one of the top results.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, there are several ways to enhance your local SEO standing. You can follow the tips mentioned in this article. You can combine all these tips or try different combinations to test what works for you.