A Complete Guide to Ranking Local SEO as a Small Business Owner

Imagine you’re in a new town, and you search in Google for a “coffee shop near me” for what seems like the 500th time. You scroll through the first three organic search results and choose the one that appeals to you the most. This is the power of local SEO, and it’s what can make or break the visibility of your small business.

If you are looking for the best practices to improve your small business’s online presence, the best route to take (and that you have control over) is by optimizing and utilizing your website and GMB profile for local SEO ranking.

Understanding Local SEO for Small Businesses

Local SEO, in plain and simple terms, is when a business shows up when someone searches for services or products related to that particular company. But, contrary to popular belief, it’s not just about keywords. While yes they are important for search engines to understand better what your business is about, it’s not all your audience uses to search for.

Enter search intent. As search engines adapt and evolve, so does the way they rank and index content. With the development of search engines using AI to categorize businesses, the focus progresses more to a user’s search intent, not just the keywords they’re searching.

For example, if someone searches “what to do after a car accident,” a search engine will give results of different services or products based on previous search patterns, location, and what they deem the search intent of the user. To rank in more relevant searches, creating content around relevant keywords and search intent is vital.

Why Ranking in Local SEO Matters

As a small business ourselves, our Highstreet Marketing Inc. team understands the nuances and concerns of running a successful company. We get that your money and budget are tangible commodities, not just words you throw around to maintain your funds. It can be stressful to stretch your resources when you already feel stressed about making it all work in the first place.

Fortunately, local SEO efforts are things you can manage on your end as a one-size-fits-all business owner. Researching and testing out strategies that work best for your business and demographic is a cost-effective way to increase your online presence and visibility.

Optimize your Business GMB Profile

We’ll assume you have the basics of an existing claimed Google Business Profile created for your business. If not, make sure you have one that has NAP consistency between your profile information and the business website. NAP consists of your Business name, address, and phone number. Ensuring these are listed accurately across all platforms is vital to showing consistency to Google, which indexes your business’s legitimacy.

Suppose your business NAP information is consistent across all platforms. In that case, you can start optimizing the content listed on your GMB profile, such as business descriptions, business categories, Google update posts, and frequently uploading up-to-date photos.

A rule of thumb to live by when optimizing content is to keep it recent and relevant to your business and its services or products. People trust authentic businesses. Make sure your efforts go toward reflecting your authenticity as a brand.

Keywords and Where to Find Them

Searching for which keywords to use and how to implement them can feel like a black void or a shot in the dark. But, believe it or not, it doesn’t have to be that way! As digital marketing advances and develops, so do the available tools to make your efforts successful. When it comes to keywords, you can use an array of tools:

- - - Google Keyword Planner
    - Google Metrics
    - Compeitor analysis

Develop a Local SEO Strategy

Using these tools and strategies (depending on your growth goals) can give you the resources to know which keywords and terms you should use. To better understand your target audience and their search patterns, think about what questions someone would ask regarding your services or products. Utilizing keywords in your content and long-phrased terms or questions can help specify how your business addresses specific topics in your industry and business category.

Additionally, if you need help pinpointing which keywords will or are performing well for your content, working with an experienced agency can help you determine which keywords are the best for improving website performance and traffic.

Utilizing Your Secret Weapon – Reviews

When deciding whether to use a business, what is the first thing you look at? Reviews. You look through the reviews. And the reality is, your customers are looking at yours too. Google holds reviews and the response rate to them as a high priority regarding their relevancy and ranking score.

Tips to Optimize Your Reviews

Politely ask customers for them

If a customer has had an openly good experience with your team and business, kindly ask them to share their expertise and feedback on your GMB profile by leaving a review.

Make it Easy

Make leaving a review easy for customers when you ask them for feedback. Have a readily available QR code or send them a link to leave a review with a follow-up email.

Respond as early as possible

We understand things can get busy running a small business, so having a schedule to check and respond to reviews daily can help increase your response rate. Google likes noise and likes it when business owners interact with it.

Create Local Backend Links

Think of local links as a vote or boost of confidence in your website’s relevancy. Local links can entail your website link being published on regional websites that can help increase your relevancy in a targeted map area. Places where your links could be posted could be made with local collaborations, such as the county chamber of commerce, foundations, or organizations you sponsor.

The more your business’s website is linked with local and relevant organizations, the more your visibility will increase both in the public eye and Google’s.

Increase your Local SEO Ranking

As with all things as a new or even seasoned small business owner, it can be daunting to approach another aspect that needs attention. However, improving the ranking of local SEO for your small business will help improve all aspects of your business. Growth in calls, projects, increased online presence and relevance, and the list goes on.

Investing time and resources to improve your local SEO ranking factors will be well worth the future and success of your business. And you don’t have to go alone at it. Any successful small business owner knows that outsourcing in fields out of your expertise will benefit you most in the long run. If you hope to increase your website traffic and search results visibility, working with our local SEO WA agency at Highstreet Marketing Inc. is the way to go.

Our team curates strategies based on your needs as goals- not as a one-size-fits-all template. We’re here for you, however you need us. Take the next step in utilizing your resources and make a free consultation appointment today! We’ll talk with you soon.

Highstreet Marketing

digital Marketing Specialists

Serving The Puget Sound and the Whole World!

Marketing Agency

Please fill out the form below or call us at 253-845-0230.
Share with us your business needs and any questions you might have. We look forward to working with you!