Local SEO for Small Businesses

What is Local SEO and Why it’s Important

Local SEO is a strategy that focuses on optimizing your business’s website so that it ranks higher on local search engines and directories. For example, if you owned an Architecture Firm in Johnson City, TN, and wanted to drive more traffic to the site, a good first thing to consider would be prospects in the area searching for terms like “architecture in Johnson City’ or ‘best architecture firm near me.’ 

Local SEO would assist with ensuring the architecture firm ranks on page 1, which is great exposure for your business, especially considering 75% of users don’t scroll past page 1 when researching topics. 

Local SEO benefits any business serious about establishing prominence in its local area and expanding its current customer base. Ranking for local searches is far easier than ranking globally, and it also brings in more qualified traffic, which is why it’s important to implement local SEO.

How to Optimize for Local SEO

In the next seven steps, we will look at how you can optimize your business in Johnson City, TN, through basic Local SEO tactics. 

Claim your Google Business’s Profile Listing

The first step to optimizing your online presence is to claim your Google Business Profile. A Google Business Profile is a free listing that appears within search engines and is meant to serve potential customers by showing them some of your company's basic contact information, directions to your shop, customer reviews, latest company updates, and more. 

When setting up your Google Business Profile, you should include your business name, address, and phone number exactly as you would on any other directory or social media profile on the web. This ensures NAP consistency. 

You’ll also want to consider choosing 3-5 categories that demonstrate your services and a brief 100-200-word description of your business. If you have photos or recent blog posts, these are also great additions to your profile. 

Setting up your Google Business Profile properly is a great way to add an additional touchpoint for potential leads. Over time, you will begin to establish greater legitimacy for your business in the local area online.

Verify Accuracy of NAP Citations

NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) citations are crucial for any business online when it comes to optimizing for local SEO. To get started with NAP citations, you’ll want to check your social media profiles and local online directories to ensure that the business name, address, and phone number align. 

When NAP citations are incorrect or have different information across directories, this can hurt your local SEO strategy, resulting in lower search results and confusion among prospects. 

It’s a good idea to routinely review your profiles across the web and catch any issues as soon as possible. Whether you add this as a quarterly or yearly to-do, taking the time to check for NAP consistency will help maintain a strong presence of your business online. 

Prioritize Obtaining Customer Reviews

Prioritizing obtaining customer reviews is an excellent strategy for optimizing your local SEO efforts. Reviews help establish your business's legitimacy online and build more trust amongst your growing customers. 

There are a few creative ways you can ask for new reviews. 

• Place a sign on your front counter or reception desk in your store or shop
• Include a small Thank You card that you give to each customer upon checkout
• Request a review through a follow-up email if you’ve been working on gathering that information (which I recommend you do!).

When asking for reviews, you’ll want to provide a direct link to where your customers can leave a review. I would recommend directing your customers to Google, as it’s the largest search engine and accounts for the majority of local (& global!) searches. 

A Note on Neutral or Negative Reviews: While all businesses should strive for good reviews, there are times when you may stumble upon a neutral or negative review. When this happens, don’t let it go unanswered. There are ways to respond that demonstrate your business cares and wants to work to resolve the challenges your customer may have experienced. Try keeping the conversation to a minimum on review threads and directing the reviewer to a contact at your company to discuss any issues offline. The best-case scenario is that they remove their negative review!

Claim Social Media Profiles

As you're optimizing your business’s online presence, you should also consider setting up and claiming your social media profiles. Social media is a great way to connect with your existing customer base and to engage with potential new clients. When using social media from a local SEO standpoint, the platforms you utilize and the content you share are two things to consider.

The key here is not to go crazy on every platform that is available. Choose 2-3 platforms where the majority of your customer base may be. If you own a bakery or restaurant, you may want to focus on a more visual platform like Instagram and TikTok, where you can share some dishes. On the other hand, if you own a financial or law firm, LinkedIn may be a more suitable platform.

When sharing posts on social media, consider a few aspects like:

• Partnering with other local businesses
• Using a location tag when sharing new content on Instagram or Facebook
• Utilizing keywords - which we’ll discuss in the following section - that can help describe your business's services and the local area you serve

Have fun with your social media profiles, and get ready to connect with the customers! 

Conduct Local Keyword Research

Let’s now begin to gear towards some strategies you can implement when designing and optimizing your website. 

The first thing you will want to do is conduct local keyword research. A keyword is a specific word or phrase that users may search for when looking for products or services online. For example, someone may search for ‘interior designers in East Tennessee.’

As a business owner writing copy for your website, you’ll want to incorporate these search terms into your content. This will give search bots that crawl your site a better idea of what your company is all about. 

To start creating a keyword list that you can use throughout your website, you’ll first want to do a brain dump of anything someone may search for regarding your business’s niche. For example, if you own an interior design studio, you may consider search terms like ‘room makeover, ‘ ‘design company,’ ‘interior design consultant,’ etc. 

Helpful tools like Answer the Public and SEMrush’s Keyword Magic Tool allow you to search and build a list of keywords. Once you have done your local keyword research, it’s time to assemble your list and start creating content. Learn more about how to master keyword research in our six-step process for conducting keyword research as a small business owner. 

Create Locally Targeted Content

Now that you have established your keyword list, it’s time to start creating content to help you develop local authority online in your geographic area and drive traffic to your website with high-converting leads. To do this, there are a few local SEO tactics you can implement:

Create Location-Specific Content with your Targeted Keywords: The content you create can be anything from blogs to YouTube videos and podcasts. Try to create content that is relevant to your region as well. If you are a home builder in an area like Johnson City, TN, consider writing a blog with tips for preparing your home for the winter closer to that season. With each form of content, you’ll want to organically incorporate the keywords you brainstormed as well. 

Create Content People Will Enjoy: Don’t just stuff your content with keywords to try to rank higher on search engines. This won’t work - it will only hurt your local SEO efforts. Focus on creating valuable, educational content that is helpful to your customer base. 

Add Internal and External Links to Blog Posts: If you choose to write blog posts, linking relevant content within your post shows search engines that your site and, ultimately, your brand can be trusted. To do this, link articles to relevant anchor text instead of jargon like ‘click here.’ 

Share your Content on your Social Media Profile: Once you have created your content, share your media on your social profiles. Stay consistent with this, and don’t get bogged down if you are not getting immediate traction initially. These efforts can take time, but by creating a schedule and sharing your media consistently, you will be bound to attract your ideal client in no time.

Ensure your Website is Responsive & Accessible 

The last point to consider for maximizing your local SEO efforts in Johnson City, TN—or from wherever you may be chiming in—is ensuring that your website is responsive and accessible. If you have spent time creating great content and gaining more traffic to your site, the last thing you want is for potential customers to have a bad experience on your website. 

To ensure your website is responsive, you should test it on a desktop, tablet, and mobile device to see how others may be viewing it. A couple of tools to consider are BrowserStack or Sauce Labs, which allow you to test on a variety of devices and screen sizes. BrowserStack works as a simulator and is great for diagnosing potential responsive issues. 

You’ll also want to ensure that your website is accessible to people with disabilities. Our last blog posts provide more information on how to design an accessible and inclusive website. 

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How to Assess your Local SEO Efforts

Monitoring the performance of your Local SEO efforts is a great way to actively see where you have grown and where other possible improvements could be made. While using some of the data analytical tools at first can be intimidating, it will help your marketing strategy in the long run. 

To get started, you can use some free tools, including Google Analytics and Google Search Console. These powerful tools offer clear insights into your online performance. You’ll be able to see how your keywords are ranking, which blog posts and pages are performing the best, how much traffic is visiting your website, and much more. 

In Summary

Optimizing your business's online presence through Local SEO strategies will help you establish authority in your geographic location, expand your customer base with new leads online & in person, and increase your revenue. By tracking the results from the beginning, you’ll also see your business's increased visibility and growth. 

Do you have Questions? Leave a comment below and let us know how GTD Designs can help your Johnson City business grow its online presence!