The Basics of Local SEO

Local SEO Rankings

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an online marketing technique that helps to rank your website contents on the top positions in search engines. This means that when clients search for something related to your brand, product or service, your information appears first on the search results. SEO improves your business visibility, and it becomes easy for potential clients to find you. It doesn’t matter whether your business is big or small or the type of profession you are in because SEO work for everyone. While not everyone understands how SEO works, there are reliable digital marketing agents around you whom you should rely on because they know the art behind successful SEO. You can also learn some basics about SEO from the information below. 

• Local SEO

Local SEO is the art of optimizing your online contents including your website so as to appear first on search results when local audiences search for you and your business. A website serves an important tool that sells your business to the entire world. However, you can use local SEO to reach out to local people when you are targeting local customers. Some of the things you will need to optimize when using local SEO include your office or shop location, your address details and the name of your brand. For instance, if you are a plastic surgeon in Tampa, optimize the name Tampa, your address and business name. Every local in Tampa who is looking for plastic surgery will locate you easily, and this is why it is important to optimize your search engine details with relevant information concerning your business. 

• The Art of Local Rankings and Keywords

Search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo among others use the art of algorithms to rank contents on search results. Google is the main search engine that many consumers tend to use and trust, and it is therefore important that you optimize your details on this search engine. Some of the things they evaluate in the ranking include distance, prominence, and relevance of the content you publish. Google uses both place-related and organic algorithms and sometimes as a business owner, it may be hard to understand all the signals that they will use in ranking. However, these three algorithmic areas have been used by Google for quite some time, and it is good to write your content while focusing on fulfilling them all. 

The keyword is one of the major SEO tools, and you have to be very creative when developing a keyword that will improve your visibility to customers. For instance, Dr. Farrior is a plastic surgeon in Tampa, and his business will pop-up in searches such as ‘plastic surgeon,’ ‘Tampa Clinics,’ ‘working hours for plastic surgeons in Tampa’ and ‘Farrior’ among others. While Google does not always consider keywords in rankings, they will at least place such information on Search Engine Results Page (SERPs). 

• Your Website

When customers find you through a search engine, they will be directed to your website, and this is a good thing because you are constantly increasing traffic toward it. However, you have to make your website friendly for every visitor for them to be interested in your products or services. In this case, as a plastic surgeon in Tampa, you need to ensure that your website is fast, easy to navigate, contains up-to-date information and is compatible with mobile phones. A website that is slow and takes time to load will be boring to navigate, and customers will leave as soon as they open your site. This makes it hard for SEO tools to work effectively for your business. 

• Google My Business

Google my business is a Google directory that every business should register in to ensure that their business is known by Google and gets a chance to be ranked on search results. You only need to visit google.com/business and claim your page on the site. Once you do this, Google will send you a PIN to your physical location as part of the verification process, and you can use this PIN to log in and verify your business. The reason for this process is to confirm that the business is legitimate and you are its owner. After verification, you can now optimize your page by adding important information such as your business location, business hours, contact details, types of payments and at least three photos. Bing also has such a page where you can also list and optimize your business through the same process. 

SEO has been used for years, and it is here to stay. Many entrepreneurs have used SEO in their businesses, and they can attest to the ways it has helped be easily found on the internet. The Internet has become the first place that people visit when they want to buy something, and this is the reason why you need to make your business easily traceable.