Why Should You Optimize Your Small Business Website For Local SEO?

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Big businesses can spend a lot due to large cash reserves, but small businesses cannot. So, how small businesses spend their money is crucial. Search Engine Optimization is an area of marketing small businesses can leverage. They can do so by spending limited money. 

Yet, many small businesses do not know how to use the power of local SEO. SEO helps increase business visibility and contributes to business growth. Thus, it is important to know what local SEO is and how it can help your business.

What Is Local SEO?

Local SEO helps improve the business visibility in local search results. Geography plays a major role in local SEO. Users looking for businesses online will get many search results. But, the businesses with good local SEO will rank higher than those without good local SEO.

For example, if you have a Delhi tailoring business and spend money on local SEO. Then, users looking for a tailoring business in Delhi and near your locality will find you. Here’s how Google shows them the results:

Local SEO will help your business in the search result. Local SEO will tell them the exact address of your shop and the services you offer. 

10 Tips To Optimize Your Small Business Website For Local SEO.

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1. Google My Business (GMB) Listing 

No small and local business can boom online without Google My Business listing. This is because GMB listing is one of the main factors for ranking on Google.

Businesses can list their products/services on GMB. They need to fill in the profile information. Also, they can specify a primary and secondary business category. It will give their business more context. 

How To Create Google My Business Listing

• Go to Google My Business
• Click on Get on Google 
• Enter your business name, and address 
• Add your business
• Specify name, address, and place 
• Selecting a category is vital as it decides what audience you’re targeting.

• Verify your business 
• A Postcard will arrive at your location 
• Enter the pin you receive in the postcard 

• Click on confirm to start your page 

Read: What are the Benefits of a Google My Business Listing?

2. Use Local Keywords 

Businesses must use local keywords, which are service and location-specific. Long-tail local keywords will help you rank higher instead of short-tail keywords.

Using general keywords will feature your small business in search results. The business will appear to users who can be anywhere. This is why the right optimization of local keywords is necessary. 

For example, if you own a hair salon in London, you must target specific keywords. Like haircuts in London and hair salons in London. Instead of haircut/ haircuts and hair salon/ hair salon. 

Keyword Research Tools For Local Keywords

• Keyword sheeter: It is a free tool that helps find keywords for local SEO.

• Moz: Moz is a great tool for increasing traffic and ranking of local business websites
• Ahrefs: Get keywords based on common phrases, latest searches, and competitive usage. 

3. List on all available directories

Many small and local businesses don’t go further than Google My Business and a couple of directories. They can target users looking for their business by listing on different directories. 

Businesses must upload the NAPW (Name, address, password, and website) data to different directories. Also, they must keep this data consistent on all platforms. 

Directories Businesses Must Target 

• Yelp: Yelp offers pages devoted to individual locations for business listings. It’s a leading directory that people use to research businesses before taking action. 

• Hotfrog: It is a local business directory that helps users find local businesses. 
• Foursquare: It is a leading location technology platform that offers local directories. 

4. Keyword Optimization 

After getting business-specific local keywords, small businesses should place them on the website. They must include the keyword in the URL, homepage, and service pages. By doing this, they can improve their visibility.

Also, they must avoid keyword stuffing and maintain good keyword density. Keyword density is the ratio of the number of times a keyword appears in a particular piece of content. 

Tools To Check Keyword Density And Optimization

• Seoreviewtools:  Check keyword density, backlink integration, domain authority, etc. 
• Smallseotools offers keyword suggestions, density checks, and article rewriting tools.
• Sure Oak: Sure oak is a comprehensive SEO platform. It offers local SEO, keyword checks, and on-page optimization.

5. Practice link Building 

Link building is an essential factor for local and small businesses. It helps them rank higher in online searches. Businesses can generate backlinks on other websites. Businesses can do it through guest posts and authored articles. Thus, it can improve the domain authority. 

Also, businesses can provide links for their pages on influencer pages and customer review platforms. By doing this, they can get more traffic on their site and boost revenue. 

Backlink Building Tools

• Google Alerts: Businesses can check brand mentions and turn that into clickable backlinks. Here’s an example of how you can create alter for a brand mention of “Percy & Reed Salon.”

• HARO: HARO helps journalists find businesses for related articles to create strong backlinks.
• Group high: Group high allows businesses to find content influencers and bloggers with similar interests. 

6. Manage reviews 

Small businesses must always respond to reviews. They are significant in attracting and sending customers away. Businesses can either reply to the positively negatively or report it if it violates policy. 

Businesses who reply with thanks on positive reviews do well. It shows that the business has gratitude towards its customers. Here’s an example of such a response from a small business. 

They show that they care what customers think. By replying to negative reviews, businesses can give them more context. Also, they can protect their business from baseless reviews. 

How To Respond To Negative Reviews On Google For Local Business

• Log in to your google account
• Click on Google Maps 
• Search your business 
• View business reviews
• Reply to the review if you want to 
• Click three dots on the top right to report 
• Flag the review as inappropriate
• Fill out the form to report a policy violation
• Submit the form 

Read: 10 Tips to Get Local Reviews for Your Business

7. Optimize website across devices 

Small and local businesses must optimize their website and applications for different devices. So, when a user accesses them on a particular device, it is fit for use. 

You can undo all the hard work to get traffic on your website if you do not convert it. Optimized websites and applications generate more leads from incoming traffic. 

Tool To Optimize Business Websites And Mobile Applications

• Hotjar: This platform offers key insights into user interaction for websites. It gives you visuals of how the audience engages with your site and lets you decide the necessary actions to improve their experience. 

• GTmetrix: GTmetrix allows you to check website performance and score for free. 
• TestProject: Businesses can check applications and websites for design, performance, and efficiency. 

8. Create high-quality content 

Local and small businesses must use high-quality content. Only it can ensure that users get proper information. Also, the content should not have any keyword stuffing and must be well aligned. 

Optimized content as per the SEO guidelines ranks higher in search results. Thus, businesses must plan all the content they post online to be high quality. 

Tools To Check Content Quality

• Readable: This tool will check your content's grammar, spelling, and readability. It shows errors and suggestions as in the below screenshot.

• Hemingway Editor: It makes content bold and clear and easy to process for users. 
• Copywritely: It checks content for duplication, grammar, and readability to make it SEO optimized. 

Read: Tools To Create Great Content

9. Excellent image quality 

Small and local businesses must not undermine the role of good image for SEO. Optimized images enhance user experience and make them spend more time on the site. 

For example, in the below image, a website used four different images with higher image sizes, one of which is700kb. This increases the site's page loading speed and spoils the user experience. 

Also, image optimization improves the load time and page speed. Alt text in images links keywords with the image and helps you appear in search results. 

Tools To Optimize Images

• • Bunnynet: It provides image compression, modification, and optimization in real-time. 
  • Image compressor: It allows you to compress an image in different formats like PNG, JPEG, and GIF. 

• Optimole: Businesses can use it as a plugin in the backend of their website to optimize the images.

10. Ensure SEO strength

Many small and local businesses think that SEO only uses the right keywords. This is not it, as SEO covers a range of factors like site security, indexation, sitemaps, log files, etc. Businesses can leverage Google Search Console to scrutinize these things and fix them to enhance their website. 

When a website is technically sound and optimized as per SEO practices, the business can rank higher in search results. Above all, the amount of traffic on the site is high. 

Tools for SEO 

• SEMrush: SEMrush offers a range of SEO tools. They can optimize your business website to rank higher. 
• SEOlyzer: It helps you see how Google will view your business. Also, it improves your SEO score by offering many tools. 
• Moz: A complete SEO platform to perform all the necessary checks to build an SEO -friendly website. 

Small and Local SEO FAQs 

1. Do Small Businesses Need SEO?

SEO is very important for small businesses as they need it to create an online presence. Businesses that do not put in place SEO on their website and other online areas will not get a lot of customers.

2. What Are The Benefits Of Local SEO?

One of the main benefits of local SEO is high business growth. Other benefits include less expenditure on marketing, greater return on investment, etc.

3. What Types Of Businesses Can Get SEO?

Businesses looking to increase their revenue must use SEO best practices. Small businesses which need SEO include hair salons, grocery businesses, and tour and travel operators. Other businesses like local hotels, cab and taxi services, and meat shops can also use SEO. 

4. How Much Will Local SEO Cost?

Local SEO cost depends on the needs and requirements of the small business. A team of experts checks the online presence of your business. Then, they suggest different plans with unique features. Businesses can choose the right strategy at the right cost per their needs.

Key Takeaways

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• Create Google My Business (GMB) Listing 
• Research and use local keywords 
• Find and list directories relevant to your area
• Indulge in keyword best practices like keyword volume and density
• Create internal and external links
• Practice review management 
• Ensure websites and applications are responsive
• Create high-quality content 
• Optimize images as per SEO best practices 
• Check and improve the SEO score of web pages