The Internet contains a wealth of information. Anyone can type in a search query and in less than a second have results displayed literally from around the world. This is wonderful when one is just looking for information; but it is not so good if you are looking for someone who can do some interior painting or landscaping for your local business or residence. For the small business owner and contractor it is essential to have at least a basic understanding of local SEO strategies. Search Engine Optimization strategies will get a site and business information in the top rankings of search engine result pages; local SEO will make sure it is listed for those looking for the services in their specific region. This is imperative for helping clients find contractors and business specialists through local specific search.
Registering with Local Search Engines
All of the major search engines have listings for local businesses. Use this convenient tool to register your business and increase your site’s rank in the SERPs. It only takes a few minutes to register a business website with Yahoo! Local, Bing Local and Google Places; the results can be well worth the few minutes spent. This will make it more visible to the search engines when an internet user types in a query for a specific type of contractor or business in a certain region.
It is also possible that the business is already on one of the major search engine’s listings. All that is needed is for the business to be claimed and verified. This will also allow an SEO specialist or business owner access to the contact information so it can be kept up to date. Pictures of the business or of the contractor’s work can also be uploaded for reference.
Keyword Choices for local SEO
Keyword choices play a crucial role in local SEO, as they help to determine how easily a business’s website can be found by potential customers searching for products or services in a specific geographic location.
To optimize for local SEO, businesses should include specific keywords that include their location, such as the name of the city, state, or region, in the meta tags, title tags, and content of their website. This will help search engines to understand that the business serves a specific geographical area, and will make it more likely that the website will appear in local search results.
Additionally, businesses should also include keywords related to the products or services they offer, as well as long-tail keywords that are more specific and descriptive, such as marine contractor in Wilmington NC, to help attract more qualified traffic to their website.
For proper keyword choices, you can use artificial intelligence to generate a list of trending words as well. ChatGPT for marketing is a great way to find the best keywords for your specific niche.
Another important aspect is to optimize their Google My Business listing, which is a free tool provided by Google that allows businesses to manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Maps. By including accurate and complete information, including the business name, address, phone number, hours of operation, reviews, photos, and products or services offered, businesses can improve their visibility in local search results.
In summary, keyword choices are critical for local SEO, as they help to determine how easily a business’s website can be found by potential customers searching for products or services in a specific geographic location. By including specific location-based keywords and optimizing their Google My Business listing, businesses can improve their visibility in local search results and attract more qualified traffic to their website.
Provide Contact Information
It can be very easy to skip this very important piece of local SEO information; but site design should always contain the business contact information on every single page of the site. This is visible and important to web crawlers which are indexing the site. It is also important to someone who visits the site. They should easily be able to see where the contractor is located and how to get in touch with them.