When you sit down to watch a TV show like Gilmore Girls, it’s easy to be a little envious of the shop owners. There’s just one town square, and everyone seems to be the best at what they do.
Kim’s Antiques doesn’t worry about some online giant running them out of business. Luke knows he’s got the top diner in town. And no one else entertains like the Town Troubadour.
There’s no competition. Stars Hollow is a quaint town full of everyone who knows each other.
You may be surprised, but the internet can have this same small-town feel. Say someone searches in Google “restaurants near me.” If you scroll down on the first page of results, sure enough, Google shows a map and lists the top three restaurants by you.
This is a result of local SEO.
Local SEO (search engine optimization) is a tool you can use to tell Google that you’re the best at what you do within your own community.
While there’s still competition for local SEO, it’s limited to the businesses located near you.
So, if you did the hard work and filled out your Google Business Profile as we suggested, you could end up in someone’s search results. However, a Google Business Profile is just the first step on the way to becoming a local celebrity and boosting your local SEO.
Local SEO: How to Become the Talk of Your Town
You may be more familiar with straight SEO. This is the process of updating your website and making changes in the wording and design so that you rank higher in Google’s search results. This helps the right customers find your business, scoring you more clients, sales, and authority.
If you think of SEO as the big city, then local SEO is the small town. For local SEO, you want to be the top dog (AKA the #1 spot on Google’s search engine results page) when people search for your type of business in your area.
Local SEO matters most for any businesses that have a brick-and-mortar location.
Say you own a roofing business in Augusta, Maine. You don’t want to spend hundreds on marketing to get eyeballs on your site from people who live in Augusta, Georgia.
Upping your local SEO game ensures that your website is seen by the people that matter most: the ones who live in your community.
Don’t Skip These Local SEO Tips
Local SEO doesn’t happen overnight. Just like with regular SEO, you have to build up your reputation with Google and prove to them your website matches the needs of people in your local area.
Follow these local SEO tips so that your next-door neighbor becomes your next top customer.
1. Be the Go-to Guy: Create Local Blog Content
Take the keywords you use in your SEO strategy and create blog content relevant to your local area. This will require some research and thought on your part, but some great places to start include
- Following local news stories
- Thinking about what local guides people need
- Searching for local events relevant to your business or customers
Write blog content that’s evergreen or time-sensitive.
Evergreen blog content could be a guide on the best international cuisine in the area. So if you own a Japanese restaurant, you could easily include yourself on that list.
But you also need to think about time-sensitive local content. This could be
- A news event from your community relevant to your industry
- An upcoming festival where you’re a vendor
- A sale for a holiday weekend
Time-sensitive blog content gives your reader helpful information about what’s going on in your community. Plus, they’ll keep coming back to your site once they figure out you know the scoop on what’s new in the community.
Make sure all of these blogs use the keywords you’re targeting and include the location of your business to level up your local SEO.
2. Don’t Forget the Tech: Optimize Website Pages for Local Searches
The more technical side of local SEO involves optimizing web pages. This means you need to go through your existing website and update the verbiage of page titles and descriptions to include keyphrases from local SEO.
Say the main keyword for your current home page is “authentic Indian food.” This doesn’t help Google match you with Bob Smith who owns a repair shop a mile away and always craves tandoori chicken for lunch.
To rank higher in local SEO, you need to add a location element. To the title page and descriptions, you’d probably want to add “authentic Indian food in Tallahassee.” This indicates to Google your location and will match local searches for authentic Indian food.
Optimize the title and page of every local blog post that you write as well, creating a consistent flow of content with the local keywords people search. This signals to Google that you offer what members of your community are looking for.
And if the technical side of local SEO overwhelms you, partner with a web design agency. They have experts who can optimize your pages at the fraction of time it would take you, saving you money in the long run.
3. Put Yourself Out There: Participate in Local Events
If you want to become a local hero on the internet and in real life, then consider participating in community events. Become a sponsor for a kid’s soccer league and your logo will appear on their fliers. Volunteer in an event and sport company t-shirts.
The bottom line is that .edu links offer great credibility with local SEO.
So if your business comes up as a sponsor on a local elementary school website, you’re doing a good thing and growing awareness of your business.
Became a Local Celebrity with e9digital
While you might go viral on TikTok with one dance video featuring your cat in your kitchen, you can’t become a local SEO celebrity overnight.
As many famous artists will tell you, success happens with a lot of quiet work behind the scenes to finally reach stardom.
To make your business become the talk of your town, work with the local SEO pros at e9 digital.
🧐 Feeling overwhelmed by the idea of writing local blog posts? No problem, our content marketing services can find the local events and news for you and write compelling blog posts to keep your readers interested.
🧐 Have no idea how to optimize your web pages? Our SEO experts know the ins and outs of regular and local SEO, so they’ll find the perfect keywords to launch your website from a nobody to stardom.
If you’re ready to boost your local SEO and attract customers and clients from your neighborhood, then contact e9digital today!
