Scroll to top

2020 Local SEO Strategies: How to Outrank Your Competitors


Digital Manohar - January 2, 2020 - 0 comments

Optimizing your website should be an ongoing part of your business strategy. If you want your business to be found, then Search Engine Optimization (SEO) should be part of your digital maintenance.

Local search is powerful for small businesses: four out of five consumers use search to find local information, which means if your business isn’t optimized for local search, you could be missing out on 80% of your local customers. In short, local SEO is critical if you want your business to stay relevant.When it comes to outranking your local competitors, these will help you get your business the visibility you deserve in 2020;

GET LISTED LOCALLY IN ALL DIRECTIONS:

When you are increasing your visibility online, it is much easier to put yourself in front of your current customer than to try to attract new customers. Business directories do an outstanding job of  your business right in front of your potential customers. Business listings on directories usually provide a small endorsement about your business, reviews of your business and contact information.

There are essentially two ways to get listed in directories; the hard way and the easy way. The hard way requires going to each directory one by one. As we know there are 100 total. Many of them you won’t be able to access directly yourself but you will be able to get to the big ones like Google, Yelp, Foursquare and Yahoo.The you can work your way out to the lesser known ones.

Make sure you run a directory report before creating any new profiles so you can get an idea of where your business is already present, as you don’t want any duplicate listings. Duplicate listing will hamper your ranking rather than help. The easy way..well..easier You create a single master directory listing and have it control all of the directories listings for your business contact us to learn more about easily correcting your directory listings.

KEEP YOUR CONTACT INFO CONSISTENT ACROSS ALL DIRECTORIES:

Consistency is key when it comes to local SEO. You want to keep your contact information consistent across all of the directories where you are listed. This not only boosts your SEO, but also helps keep your branding correct.

Your contact info should always include your name, address and phone number, or NAP. We recommend that you use a Master directory listing so you can easily update the directories. If you have ample of time to burn you could keep a spreadsheet or document with all of your directory listings. When your contact information changes you can go through your list and can make changes. While, it’s time consuming and not all directories can be done manually.

Your logo and brand messaging should remain consistent throughout. Don’t use an old logo for one business listing and a new logo for same business but on different directory. This will be confusing for your customers and undermines all your efforts to build your brand.

GET A GOOGLE MY BUSINESS LISTING:

Google is the largest existing search engine. Google My Business can give you huge visibility, especially locally. There is a process you must go through to get your listing and verify it, but it is well worth it. Once your GMB listing verified make sure to completely fill it out. Even minute details can help you be found in a local search. So add photos and videos and store hours etc.

When your listing is looking sharp it’s time to put Google My Business to work for you. Create posts of offers, news and events and share them. The Q&A feature can be helpful with SEO. You can ask and answer of your own questions on the Q&A but make sure to answer the question like a customer, not the marketer. other directories you should get listed includes:

These are a good place to start if you are new to local SEO strategy.

OPTIMIZE YOU CONTENT AND WEB-PAGES FOR LOCAL KEYWORDS:

Local keywords will definitely help you to found but that doesn’t mean we should make any compromise with our content quality. Google likes high quality and valuable content on your website. Sites with these of contents ranked higher than sites that don’t.

Use keywords in your blogs and on web-pages that people will use to look for your business and add location keywords to them. Of course, any combination of the term is fine, and it is OK to use “stop” words – the words that link the keywords and make them coherent.

OPTIMIZE YOUR WEBSITE FOR MOBILE:

In recent years, Google has been shifting towards favoring sites that are mobile friendly, ranking them higher than sites that are not mobile friendly. Recently, Google’s algorithm changed again, placing fast loading mobile sites in higher positions than the slower ones.

Having a website with a fast loading pages is already a well-known SEO strategy, with a good cause. Now a days website visitors require fast user experience. When it comes to load time , 30% of visitors will click off a page if they wait longer than 6 to 10 seconds for a page to load. So, a mobile friendly site that loads quickly should be necessity for optimization.

DO INBOUND MARKETING BY DEVELOPING HELPFUL CONTENT:

Creating content that adds value is very effective inbound marketing strategy. High quality and valuable content is gold when it comes to online visibility and search engine rankings. This is why it is important to know about your buyers and what they are looking for.

When you create relevant content for your ideal customers, they will look to you for resources, and ultimately for business. Having content with lots of errors is not going to get them there. Always make sure your content provide solutions to your customers questions and give them information that they need.

Inbound marketing strategy

Inbound marketing can deliver powerful results. A Raleigh, NC Dentist achieved 300% growth in website traffic using inbound marketing strategy.

GET REVIEWS ON “THE  BIG THREE”:

The three big powerhouses right now for reviews are Google, Facebook and Yelp. You should be actively seeking reviews on those platforms. Don’t make the mistake of discounting your company’s online reviews. Researchers found the more than 91% of the people read reviews occasionally or regularly. Even more important, 84% says that they trust the reviews they read online as much as they do recommendations from friends or family members.

GET BACKLINKS FROM AUTHORITATIVE SITES:

Backlinks are links that are posted on other sites that point to your site- and you need them. There are several ways to get backlinks from good sites, and the first is to produce high quality good content. You want it all to be very organic without any forced backlinks.

Make sure, quality is your main goal. When your content get shared it will get noticed, and is more likely to be referenced in other’s content. You can also publish content on website for well-known publications and include a link to your company in the byline or even in the body.

OPTIMIZE YOUR LISTING FOR VOICE SEARCH:

Just few years ago, the only way for users to enter information into search engines was to type. Those days ended when Google introduced their voice capabilities for searching.

Today, more and more people are using their voice to search for the things they want. The only difference is that the way people talk is usually different from the way they type. This could be mean some revamping or at least the addition of, more voice friendly keywords. You will need to stop thinking in textual terms and more in natural speaking patterns. Answer the Public is good place to start. Ramping up your local SEO strategy will get you big wins, but can be overwhelming. 

The Digital Manohar can show you how to outrank your competitors and get the results you want. Whether you already know the areas where your business’s website needs help or are unsure where to begin, our team of friendly experts are always  happy to help. Get in touch today for consultation!

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Author avatar

Digital Manohar

hhh
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments