If you have a business with a strong local component and the audience you want to target is within a specific geographical area, you must follow an obvious online positioning strategy.
This is called local SEO, a set of actions whose objective is to optimize your company’s website for any search in that geographical area. Throughout this article, we’ll tell you how to position your business locally effectively.
Local positioning allows you to target a specific audience in your area, increasing your visibility and attracting potential customers who are more likely to convert.
By implementing effective local positioning strategies, you can dominate your local competition and establish your business as a trusted authority in your community.
Why position your business locally?
Positioning your business locally enables you to build stronger connections with your target audience, foster loyalty and trust, and capitalize on the unique advantages of your local market.
This approach can lead to long-term success and sustainability for your business.
You’re probably wondering why you need to work on local SEO instead of global SEO if you want to position your business in the online environment. Let us give you a very clear example.
If you have an online clothing business, you are interested in positioning your website globally, because each order is sent to a different location.
Instead, imagine you have a dog grooming salon. In that case, which customer are you interested in your company knowing: neighbors who have pets within your city, or those who are 600 kilometers away and will not be able to go even if they want to?
In this example, local SEO is a technique that helps you raise awareness of your business among users searching in that same territory.
5 Ways to Position Your Business with Local SEO
The main concern for many people is how to achieve a good local positioning of the business.
The first thing we need to to have a clear understanding of the local competition landscape. Start by conducting thorough research on your competitors in the area.
Identify their strengths, weaknesses, and unique selling points. This analysis will provide valuable insights into the market you are operating in and help you identify gaps that you can capitalize on.
By understanding your competition, you can develop strategies that differentiate your business and position it as the go-to choice for local customers. Then, follow these 5 tips below:
Update your Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile is what used to be known as Google My Business.
This is a listing of your business that you can create for free where users browsing Google can see where your business is located, including the location on Google Maps.
In addition, you can add the contact telephone number, the website, and other information of interest such as your opening hours. The more complete your profile is, the better it will rank.
Clarify your location on all digital platforms
The direction of your business should be very clear on all the digital channels in which you are present, from the website itself to your social media profiles or any other local directory in which you appear.
It is advisable to insert, on your website, the Google map where you can easily see where your company is located. This is what is known as the NAP (Name, Address, Phone) trio, which should be the same on any platform.
Sign up for local directories
Nowadays, users consult numerous local directories regularly, such as Yellow Pages, Yelp, or Informa.
Choose the most interesting ones for you and sign up. In this way, the links on these pages will enhance the visibility of yours.
Optimize Local SEO on the page
Include the name of the city or municipality where you want to rank in all the important SEO elements: keywords, titles and subtitles, meta titles, meta descriptions, ALT tags, images, etc.
You can even use a different URL for each location, although this can be a bit more complex for a local business.
On the other hand, don’t forget to insert the name of the city in the content of your website.
And, also, insert different links that lead to the websites of other local businesses, to make the search engine understand that your page is linked to that location.
Take advantage of local keywords
Write content based on keywords that are important in your localization, and for which users can reach your page through Google.
One trick is to use Google Trends to check which keywords users are searching for the most or use Google’s autocomplete feature.
Enter your city’s name and see your suggested searches, and if you can leverage any to create content.
Do you want to boost the local positioning of your business and make yourself known among your neighbors? Contact us and we will advise you in a personalized way to help you achieve your goals.
