The functionality of a website often determines how successful it is on various search engines. Therefore, SEO is continuing to play a major role in website development and marketing. It’s a tool used to help improve a websites visibility on search engines like Google. In this blog we will cover the basic ideas that many people tend to forget about with local and traditional SEO.
Local SEO
When you search for something on Google, you’ll often find the results based on your current location or a location you input. Local SEO is the process of making a business visible in local location-based searches on Google and other search engines. So how can you improve your local SEO? Easy, Google My Business allows you to share the physical location of your business and gives you access to analytics for analyzing searches and views.
There are multiple other ways to get your business noticed by search engines and audiences. Here are local SEO things you may be forgetting to do.
Claim a business listing on directories
Claiming your business on directories such as Yelp, Yellow Pages and Bing are great ways to improve your local SEO. Many local listings are free, while others require a monthly or yearly fee. Claiming your business on local listings is an effective way to be viewed as more credible and make it easier for potential customers to find out basic information about your business. Not only does listing your business help drive traffic to your site, it also serves as a way for visitors to directly contact you through call to action buttons.
Creating social media accounts for your business
These days most businesses have a website, with few exceptions. Even the few that don’t still thrive on their local SEO, why? The answer, social media. For local SEO, social media accounts do well to represent the business like a website would. It’s an excellent platform for sharing information, updates, and other content. There have been recent studies have shown that social media engagement could be one of Google’s ranking factors. Having social media accounts for your business encourages interaction with potential customers and helps you rank higher with Google’s algorithm.
Local landing pages
This is one of the more important aspects of local SEO, and tends to make a huge difference on local searches. Your business can have 2 locations for 20, creating a landing page for each location improves ranking and attracts more customers. For brick-and-mortar stores, having a local landing page for multiple locations should include specific keywords to that location for better optimization. Potential customers in those locations will be able to find your store quicker and improve traffic/ sales.
Traditional SEO
While local SEO focuses on business visibility and traffic on search engines. Traditional SEO centers around improving website and content features to be ranked higher. In other words, it drives into specific aspects like website performance and keyword optimization on business websites and content.
Here are a few things people often forget to do that will drastically improve their overall SEO.
Adding alt tags to all images
An alternative text or “alt tag” is the text that appears in the place of image on web pages to improve search engine optimization. Google looks at all the words on a page to understand it, using keywords in alt tags helps Google to identify the relevance of the image. Any type of ranking is good for SEO, website and content images that have specific alt tags tend to rank better than those without.
Using SEO keywords in your website and content
By now you probably have already guessed that keywords are a must for improving SEO. Using relevant keywords to target audiences is an effective tool for driving more traffic to your website. So how do you figure out what keywords to use and how to use them?
Research is the best way of finding keywords that are the most relevant to your business. Doing a simple search like “pediatrician near me” will show you all the results of nearby pediatricians that have used that keyword in their website and content. There are multiple tools for finding the right keywords for SEO. Google Keyword Planner for example, will show you how certain keywords are ranked and how many clicks they get. Once you have your list of keywords, you can start incorporating them into your website and content.
Where to incorporate SEO keywords
Target keywords are best used in a website, you can use them for existing content and new content.
Page titles should always include some type of keywords, it’s the first things users will see when they search up a topic and Google notices it too.
You can also incorporate keywords in meta descriptions, this encourages higher click through rates. A well-crafted meta description gives users a better understanding of what to expect before clicking on a link. If a keyword they searched up is visible in the meta description, they are more likely to click and view the link.
Lastly, including keywords in your content is a great way to make it more visible. The best way to use keywords in blogs, articles and website pages is by adding them in the first 200 words. Most readers won’t go past the first paragraph if none of the keywords they searched are visible, therefore, using them in the first couple of words will encourage them to read on. In addition to the first 200 words, you can use them naturally throughout the content and linking them back to your website.
Conclusion
Website developers and marketers are seeing massive improvements in their website traffic and sales with SEO and local SEO. Hopefully, these tips were helpful for your search engine optimization marketing strategy, they are often forgotten and can make a huge difference for your business. Popped is a web design, development and digital marketing agency that help businesses improve their SEO, click here to contact us for more information.