How to Reach Your Nearby Customers with Local SEO
If you are a brick-and-mortar local business, the world of internet marketing may seem like a distant concern compared to storefront appeal and a local reputation for excellence. After all, if you’ve got one or two repair shops in Dallas, what good is internet traffic to you if the online views come from Canada or even San Antonio? The fact of the matter is that people use the internet for everything, and companies with SEO optimized websites will be at the top of regional Google searches and recommended by online GPS programs. In the ‘information age’, even if you live down the road from someone, without an internet presence, you don’t exist according to their trusty smartphone.
SEO Explained
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. When a search engine, like Google, is deciding which sites to list on a given search, it crawls the internet looking for keywords and concepts that match what the user typed in. This means that in order to show up in search engine results, your website needs to contain certain words and phrases that your potential customers might type to find your services. A repair shop, for example, might want to include the SEO words like ‘car repair’, ‘oil-change’, ‘body shop’, and other service related terms on their home page to catch users searching for things like ‘where to get my oil changed’.
SEO for Local Customers
Unless they have recently broken their phone or are very old-fashioned, most people don’t rely on curb appeal to choose a service; they rely on a search engine. They will ask Google, or the search engine in a GPS program, about services nearby and the search engine offers them a list. They then select from that list and the GPS routes them to the location. While this process may seem streamlined, it can unfortunately exclude businesses that are not SEO optimized, causing both the business and potential customers to miss out on a great service opportunity. In order to make the most of this mechanic, local businesses should include not only their list of services in SEO, but also a collection of ways to reference their local area. A dog training school in Round Rock, for instance, would want to include the phrases ‘Dog Training in Round Rock”, “Dog Training in North Austin” and “Dog Training near Bastrop” to maximize their local SEO reach.
SEO for Visiting Tourists
Everyone wants a slice of the local tourism economy, and some companies can put themselves in exactly the right spot to attract tourist business. Tourists are hyper aware of their area and are often seeking involvement in the local culture in order to best enjoy their vacation. By optimizing your SEO to be found locally, you are also opening yourself up to be found by tourists. This can be especially beneficial if tourists can look up your website from home and plan to include your services in their itinerary. Whether you offer wine tastings or go-kart races, when writing your SEO content, try to think like a tourist and include phrases curious travelers might use to locate your business.
Hiring SEO Experts
If you don’t have time to work on your website, or have read the entire post and still don’t know where to start, it may be time to call in the professionals. SEO is a well-known practice and there are already many experts in the field offering their services, often in package deals with marketing and web development agencies. Whether you’ve recently opened your facility and need to get the word out or are just looking to optimize your existing website for local searches, our experts at Seredan can help.