Local SEO Denver is a crucial marketing strategy for businesses with a physical location or serving a specific geographic area. People who conduct local searches are often much more motivated and ready to buy, making them a great target for your business.
The best way to improve your local SEO is through your Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business). This includes ensuring your listing information is accurate and consistent across all listings.
1. Optimize your website for local search
Optimizing your website for local search is crucial to ensuring people searching for the products and services you offer in your area can find you easily. This can lead to a significant increase in traffic and conversion rates, as searchers are more likely to buy from businesses they feel are relevant and trustworthy.
While website content is a big part of local SEO, so are other signals like Google My Business listings, citations and reviews. To maximize your chances of ranking in local packs, make sure all the information listed on your site is accurate and up-to-date, including your NAP (name, address, phone number).
A good place to start is by focusing on local keywords. Using tools like Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool can help you identify keywords that are popular in your area and potentially relevant to your business.
You should also consider creating separate pages for each of your business locations. This will allow you to provide targeted content to your audience, which is one of the biggest factors in determining local search rankings.
Lastly, don’t forget to optimize your website for mobile. Most searches take place on smartphones, so your website should be responsive and easy to navigate on all devices.
Another important factor in boosting your local visibility is by building backlinks from local websites, blogs, news outlets, and community pages. These will establish your business’s authority and relevance in the community, and it’s a great way to improve your local search rankings. However, it’s important to note that not all links will be considered equal. Focus on gaining links from sites that are authoritative and relevant to your industry, and ensure they’re placed in the body of your content, rather than as site-wide footer or sidebar links.
2. Focus on local keywords
A local SEO strategy that includes targeting the correct search terms is a critical component to any business’s online visibility. While keyword research is essential for all SEO campaigns, focusing on local keywords can help you achieve even greater success by reaching searchers who are likely to convert and provide a strong return on investment.
When conducting local keyword research, it’s important to think like your customers. Consider how they might word a search query and what modifiers may be used. Depending on the type of service or product you offer, your customer might add a keyword such as “near me,” “close to home,” “in my neighborhood,” or “in downtown.” These modifiers can significantly affect search volume, so it’s important to incorporate them in your local keyword research.
Using tools such as Google’s Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, and Semrush can help you source local keywords with high search volume. But a little creativity and ingenuity can also go a long way. Try typing your main service or product into Google and take note of the autofill suggestions, which can offer a wealth of inspiration for potential keyword combinations.
Once you’ve compiled a list of local keywords, it’s time to prioritize them. Focusing on those with the highest search volume can ensure your efforts are being used effectively, but don’t sacrifice relevancy for traffic. Keywords that don’t align with your client’s search intent are a waste of time and can even hurt you in the long run.
Keeping an eye on the competition is also crucial for local keyword research. Seeing what your competitors are doing can give you insight into how to differentiate yourself from them and ultimately increase your online visibility.
One great tool for this is the Google Autocomplete Suggestions feature, which shows you keywords that are ranked well by your competitors and their associated search volume. Identifying and prioritizing these keywords can help you outrank your competition and rank higher in the local pack. In addition, doing this research ahead of a website redesign can ensure you preserve the pages that currently rank organically and avoid dropping pages in the search results inadvertently during the transition.
3. Build citations
Citations are mentions of your business online that boost its local search rankings. They are a critical part of any local SEO strategy. They are important because they tell search engines that your business is credible and legitimate. This is important because search engines want to display accurate results that are relevant to searchers.
There are two types of citations: structured and unstructured. Structured citations are found on business listing directories like Yelp, YellowPages and more. Unstructured citations are in blog posts, social media and other online forums. It’s best to focus on building citations on authoritative sites that are relevant to your industry. For example, if you are an attorney, it’s good to get listed on law directories or business directories. If you are a healthcare business, you can get listed on websites like HealthGrades and RateMDs.
When you’re building citations, make sure you have a consistent NAP (name, address and phone number). Inconsistent NAP data confuses search engines and can hurt your local search rankings. Also, don’t forget to include a website URL in each of your citations. This helps searchers find your business and will increase the chance of them visiting your website.
Another underrated way to boost your local SEO is by getting reviews. Studies show that customers trust businesses with high ratings more than those with lower ones. This is why it’s so important to get positive reviews from your customers. It’s also a good idea to build a review strategy that includes asking your customers for reviews and rewarding them with incentives.
In addition to citations, you can also improve your local search visibility by adding images and videos to your listings. This will make your business stand out from the competition and attract more potential customers. Finally, don’t forget to optimize your citations by optimizing their titles and descriptions. This will help search engines understand what your business is about and how it can help people solve their problems.
A well-optimized local SEO campaign is essential to improving your website’s visibility and ranking on Google. By following these tips, you can create a strong foundation for your online marketing efforts.
4. Get reviews
If you’re a local business looking to get more online traffic, boost your website’s ranking in search results, and generate more leads and sales, local SEO may be the solution for you. Local SEO includes practices like optimizing a website, creating and managing local business listings, and getting reviews and building citations.
In order to rank in Google’s Map Pack, your Google Business Profile (GBP) must be optimized. That means that your name, address, and phone number need to be consistent across all platforms. It also means that you should be adding NAP citations from reputable sources. A great way to check your NAP consistency is using a tool like Whitespark, which offers local listing management, identifies where you need to correct your citations, and analyzes your competition.
One of the best ways to generate more online reviews is to have a click-to-call button on your website and GBP. This will allow customers to contact your business directly from a search result, which can lead to more positive reviews and higher rankings in local searches. In fact, a recent study by Moz found that reviews are one of the most important factors in local search and snack pack rankings.
Another way to get more reviews is to encourage your satisfied customers to write a review on Yelp, Facebook, Thumbtack, Angie’s List, or whatever other consumer directories you are using. You can also do this by sending out a follow-up email after their purchase or service. Just be sure that you’re asking for authentic reviews from your actual customers.
You can also use a free desktop program called Screaming Frog to analyze your website’s links, images, CSS, script, and apps from an SEO perspective. It will give you an idea of what areas need improvement and help you find opportunities for organic growth.
The benefits of local SEO can be substantial for small businesses. Increased visibility in search results can lead to more online traffic and more foot traffic in your physical office or storefront. In addition, local search engine optimization can help you rank for keywords that are highly relevant to your target market and can drive more qualified leads. And, when done correctly, local SEO can also increase your brand’s credibility and establish you as a trusted and reliable business in your industry.