Without a doubt, small businesses throughout the country struggled to survive the pandemic. According to Yelp data, nearly 100,000 U.S. businesses that were forced to temporarily close in 2020 ended up permanently closing their doors. This equates to nearly 60% of American organizations being unable to reopen as a result of this once-in-a-lifetime health crisis.
However, businesses that have emerged from COVID-19 are now able to look beyond the present and into the future. This entails thinking beyond mere survival.
Whether you own a restaurant, a brick-and-mortar store, or offer in-demand services to others in your community, these local SEO tips will help you market your business more effectively and thrive in 2021.
Make GMB For Your Business
Google My Business (GMB) is a free platform for small business owners to share a wealth of information with their customers. You can include information such as your business hours, location, contact information, photos, product and service listings, recent updates, and more.
So, why should you use GMB if you already have all of that information on your website? Because GMB gives you even more chances to appear prominently in search results. When you claim, optimize, and regularly update your Google My Business listing, you will frequently be granted more “prime real estate” in search engine results pages (SERPs). Your company may even appear in the map pack, which can result in an increase in web traffic, phone calls, and sales.
GMB is free and simple to use, making it an essential component of your local marketing strategy. It can help you reach customers looking for solutions in your area when used in conjunction with other online listing directories.
Create Local Landing Pages
Although simple website design can be beneficial, it does not always imply that your site should have as few pages as possible. It makes sense for many local businesses to create separate landing pages for each of their individual locations or the areas they serve.
This can give you more opportunities to optimize for your various target audiences. If your company has three separate locations within the same state, or if you can serve customers in a few nearby towns or cities, creating separate landing pages for those areas may help you appear more prominently in search results.
Instead of attempting to optimize your content for multiple areas on a single page, you can create more targeted content that will appeal to different segments of your audience. And, because Google will index all of those pages individually, your site will be able to rank for a variety of search terms.
Top4 location-based marketing platform has helped many businesses manage successful advertising campaigns. It’s a great platform where we use one dashboard to manage all of your social media strategies with focusing on local content, manage your online reputation and ads for your multi-location businesses and franchises. We’re the team that does it all, so you can focus on your multi-location businesses and franchises. Top4 Marketing Platform integrates and works hand-in-hand with Google, Google Maps, and Social Media Platforms to improve and strengthen your businesses online.
Gain More Customer Reviews
Online reviews are just as valuable as personal recommendations in our digitally driven world. Prospective customers will have a harder time trusting your brand if you don’t have enough reviews.
That is why you should learn how to generate online reviews for your company. In many cases, simply asking your customers to provide feedback is sufficient to kickstart the process. Remind them, either in person or via email, that this is a simple (and completely free) way for them to support your small business. You can also share on social media and include links to these review sites in your email blasts and on your website.
When the reviews start coming in, your work has only just begun. You’ll also need to keep track of the feedback you get. Make sure to respond to all of them, whether they are positive or negative. Thank them for their input, make them feel heard, and resist the urge to become defensive. Take advantage of the opportunity to demonstrate your customer service skills and your company’s values. Even if you do receive some criticism, the majority of people will be more concerned with how you respond than with what one customer initially said.
Optimise For Voice and Mobile
We’ve already talked about the importance of creating local landing pages (and using more specific search terms on those pages). But it’s also crucial that your website be optimized for mobile users.
Mobile traffic now accounts for around half of all web traffic – which means you can’t afford to ignore smartphone users. Customers who search for answers on their mobile devices are generally looking for quick solutions that are close by. What’s more, they’re often more ready to make a purchase than those who are perusing websites on desktops or laptops.
As such, your website’s design must be mobile-friendly. Your site should be responsive (meaning it provides a consistent experience across all devices), secure, and easy to navigate. Take care to remove any annoying pop-ups and any lags in page loading time.
You should also consider optimizing for voice search technology. Since mobile users are more likely to conduct web searches using voice search functionality, you’ll have a better chance of appearing in those voice-powered searches if you account for the way in which we interact with this technology. Make sure your content is written in a conversational way and add an FAQ page to address some of the most common queries that someone might speak into their smartphone.
By making sure that your site appeals to mobile users, you’ll make both prospective customers and search engines happy. Google indexes the mobile version of websites first, so this can potentially improve your ranking while providing a better user experience for just about everyone.
After the difficult year that small business owners have had, you may be looking for ways to grow your organization. By implementing these local SEO strategies, you can reach your goals and the customers in your community.
To find out how we can help you with your Website + Marketing, using our unique location marketing platform called Top4, get in touch today at www.top4marketing.com.au
Looking to build customer loyalty through social media? Don’t forget to add your business to Top4.com.au
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Source: omegaunderground.com