It is essential that your business expands in a geographically manner in order to maximize your return on investments. While it is true that many businesses make ends meet by only creating an online presence, both online and offline traffic will keep the profits rolling in. In this article, we will expound on tactics that will help you build and optimize a website for your locality.
1. The Google My Business Listing
If you are attempting to draw in a local crowd to your business, you – most definitely – need to create a listing in the Google My Business space. This is an excellent way of controlling how your business looks in all those searches on Google. By claiming your listing and verifying that listing, you will be taken a key step in providing a boost to the SEO of your industry in your locality. If you already have a listing, check it every few months or so to make certain all of the information is correct. You may also add pictures, an optimized description, and customer reviews.
2. Backlink Building
When creating a website for your locality, it is essential that you build backlinks for that website. In short, you will simply get your site listed on any and all business listings and/or directories for your area. You should also strive to get backlinks from websites that are high in quality and are in the same niche as your business. This is especially beneficial if that website is in the same geographic location as your business. There are many backlink research tools available on the market today that you can use. These include – but are not limited to – SEMRush, and UberSuggest. There are also support tools that you may use to help in building backlinks. These often help business owners by posting backlinks on top sites quickly.
3. Mobile-Friendly
The next strategy for building a website is to make sure that it is one that is mobile-friendly. That is, it is easily viewed on a mobile device. It is just a matter of looking great, and being easy to use on the smaller screens of cell phones, tablets, and similar devices. This is essential because of the fact that most local searches are performed on mobile devices.
4. Use of Keywords
When trying to make a local website for your business, it is important that you use keywords in your titles, descriptions, and sprinkled throughout your content. You should also include meta descriptions. Your website will have metadata. You need to make sure that it is formatted correctly and that all relevant information is included that is needed to provide a boost to your local SEO. Examples of this information include the name of your business, the address and phone number of your business, and the URL associated with your website.
5. Local Keywords
While we are on the topic of keywords, you should make sure that you include local keywords. These are keywords that people in your area would use in searching for the products and/or services that you offer. Examples include the name of your city or neighborhood and the general terms that you use to describe your business. For example, if you specialize in HVAC, some general keywords would include “central AC”, “heat pump”, “air conditioner repair”, central heat and air maintenance schedule”. Put yourself in the place of your customer. If you were them and needed to use your business, what keywords or phrases would you use? When you get those down, be sure to integrate them throughout your website.
6. Customer Reviews
When attempting to build a website for your locality, it is important that you include customer reviews. You should encourage your customers to leave a review on Google for your business. Not only does this make your business appear reputable, these reviews are factored in by search engines when ranking a website in their results. The better the reviews, the higher up your website will be. If you happen to get a bad review, do not worry. Just respond professionally and try to help the dissatisfied customer. If you are able to do so maybe they would be willing to update the review stating that you worked hard to ensure their overall satisfaction.
7. NAP Citation Updated
When you are building a website for your locality, it is important that you update your NAP citation on a regular basis. This is simply your name, address, and phone number. If you have a physical location, make certain that the NAP reflects that location on your website.
8. The 7 Cs
When building a website for your locality, you must consider the 7 Cs of design. These are content, customization, context, commerce, community, communication, and connection. These are important because it boosts the user experience, trust, credibility, reputation, and the goals of your business.
9. The SEO 80/20 Rule
The 80/20 Rule is important to consider when building a website for your locality. This is that 20% of your efforts drive 80% of the results. In short, you should steer your SEO investments towards the opportunities that will result in the highest level of organic-based traffic generation and revenue.
10. The Golden Rule of SEO
The golden rule of SEO is very important when building and creating websites for your local area. It is that you should create high-quality content that provides a high and real level of value to your target audience. Your readers should get useful content that includes relevant information and backlinks. This is when Google will take notice. When Google notices, your website’s rank will go higher in their search engine.
11. The Minimum Requirement
When creating a website, there are three minimum pages that you should include. These are the Home Page, the “About” page, and the page that outlines your products and/or services. If it is possible, you may also want to integrate a blog and include SEO content in that blog that includes backlinks.
12. Domain and Hosting
When building a website for your locality, it is important that you choose a memorable domain that will be easy for your target audience to remember and get hosting that is reliable and offers good support.
13. Structure
When organizing the content on your local website, be certain to use descriptive URLS that describe the product and/or service being offered.
14. Content Type
When creating content for your locality, you should ensure it is highly valuable information that is specific to your location. You could compose guides, news, current events, stories about your customers and other types of content that are similar in nature. In short, all of the content that you include in your local business website should be relevant and high in quality.
15. Schema Markup
When building your local website, you should integrate structured data that is location based so that the search engines are capable of understanding the information associated with your website.
16. Audience Engagement
You should engage with your target audience. The best way to do this is to connect with them on social media platforms. Examples include Facebook, LinkedIn, X, and Instagram.
17. Get Professional Help
Building a website can prove to be challenging – this is especially true if you have never done it before. If you need help, get it. There are businesses out there that specialize in website design and construction. We here at Brick Road Media specialize in this. In addition to this, we also offer SEO articles, guides, and other types of content if you want it. For more information, just get in touch with us today.
18. Get a Local SEO Reporting Tool
To track the local SEO efforts of your site, you will need more than trackers that watch your keyword rankings. You must obtain insight that is deep and resourceful. Examples of important elements include the search performance, the activity of your competitors, and the sentiment of your customers. These tools will help you monitor rankings across the different online platforms and search engine. You will be able to analyze the performance of your Google Business Profile. You can also use these tools to manage reviews and their sentiment in order to enhance online reputation.
Contact Us Today
We here at Brick Road Media are standing by to assist you with the creation of your local website. We can assist you with branding, rebranding, recovering from a broken website, a hacked website, and other issues. In addition to this, we can build an ecommerce website for you. We specialize in custom website development. We also provide blog, articles, guides, and more – if you so desire. Some of our clients include Vandor Plastics, Pinecone Recycling, Wayne County Foundation, Reel Options, United Way, and Hardcore Electric.
If you would like us to transform your business into one with on-target SEO, help you in maximizing your return on investments, and achieve the highest level of success possible you may contact us today on our website or you may call us directly at: 765-439-4029