Best and Top Local SEO Strategies for Small and Medium Businesses

A strong local SEO strategy is crucial for small and medium businesses to compete for bigger players in the same field. Irrespective of the industry you are in, you will always find and see at least one competitor who allocated more budget and resources to build online presence and engagement.

It may be tougher for you to compete with them in the area of SEO. But, Local SEO plays a different game with different rules. You don’t need to have huge funding to create an online presence and visibility. You just need to understand some of the unique characteristics of Local SEO and apply them with a few simple strategies to cater to.

I will explore some of the cost-effective and affordable strategies to use to create the best chances of ranking locally.

Claim and Verify your Google Business Listing

Create or claim your Google Business Listing with Google My Business. Google Business Page allows you to update your information across Google Search and Google Maps and ensure your potential customer find you wherever and whenever. You can also claim your listing if your Brand Name or Business Name already exists in Google’s database.

According to studies, Local Searches lead more business than non-local searches. Verifying your Business Page in Google makes it possible to increase your Brand Visibility on the right side of the Search Engine Results Page.

Businesses can take advantage of many features available on Google My Business such as Create Offers, Reviews, Google Posts, Google Site and many more.

Pay Per Click Ads or Google Ads

Every small business can benefit from implementing Google Ads to create an online presence. You just need to identify your target audience, relevant keywords and develop a strategy that will drive target leads and potential customers.

Most people rely on searching on the internet to locate and look for products and services. You need to take advantage of this create a strategy to acquire new customers through different types of ads and sources such as Search Ads, Display Ads, Text Ads, Smart Ads and Social Media Ads.

Understand and learn to combine both Google Ads and Social Media Ads effectively to reach out to the maximum to increase visibility and optimizing costs.

User-Generated Reviews

Google and other search engines see reviews and ratings as a major factor for search and search engine rankings. Reviews on Google Page and Social Media Pages give your potential customers clarity about your products or services.

Search Engine bots like content generated by users that are unique and updated frequently. Most of the eCommerce websites implement this strategy to acquire more shoppers. Reviews combined with the words and phrases by the reviews are similar to the searches which increase the chances of ranking well for search queries relevant to the products or services.

Ask your visitors and customers to leave a review or rating after every purchase. You can also talk directly with your customers through email or phone to leave a review on multiple channels or platforms.

Image Optimization

Make sure your images are Search Engine friendly. Search Engines can’t read images; use appropriate keywords while naming your images and also add alt tags by describing your image using appropriate keywords to pop up on relevant search queries.

In short, don’t use a generic name for an image like imagename.jpg. Use your keyword or your title to describe an image and use the alt tag to explain the image. The more text, the better the chances to get in search results.