The Most Important Local Search Engine Optimization Tips for Small Businesses

Optimizing web presences locally is a common desire for most small businesses but there is such thing as over optimizing and a few other pitfalls local marketers commonly fall into. By using the correct keywords properly, providing customers with what they need right away and being more social, a small business can improve its local search engine optimization efforts.

Incorrectly Choosing and Using Keywords Although you may want to show up for as many search results as possible, it is not always a good idea to choose a keyword which is just closely related to your business. For instance, you may be a dentist but choosing “family dentistry” as a keyword may not be a great idea if you do not cater to families. Another common problem with keywords is overusing them. Basically businesses are padding the website with the keywords as much as possible which creates a bad customer experience and bad SEO. Placing a keyword on the website once is good enough and often times if a part of the phrase is on your website already you should avoid that part. An example would be the keywords, “dentist”, “cosmetic dentist” and “family dentist”. You may offer all three services but it would be best to use the words correctly in your content. Simply stating “So and so is a family and cosmetic dentist…” would suffice for all 3 keywords.

Not Enough Info for Customers Often times a website is created for a small business that may look very nice but lacks the information their customer’s desire. Some important things that should be easily seen quickly on your website are business hours, directions and a phone number at the very least. Usually with local searches, customers are not looking to browse your beautiful website, instead they need info and they need it quickly. Many times a customer searching locally is on a mobile phone as well, and making them search your site for what they need could cause them to find another place.

Businesses are Lacking Socially Online Many small businesses will create a web presence out of sheer need however they do not desire a full web presence or have not tried to optimize it. Social media optimization is a key piece of local search engine optimization. By utilizing social media you can keep customers connected to your business quickly and easily. Since most people have Twitter, Facebook, Yelp and other apps installed on their smartphones, it is important to provide them with a way to interact with your company. Solely creating your social media is not enough to help your local SEO thrive. Utilizing Twitter, Facebook and other networks to syndicate deals, specials and sales are great ways to create a bigger web presence and return customers.

You may not have known that these local search engine optimization tips could help you rank better locally, but that does not mean you cannot implement them right away. This will not only improve your customer’s experience online but will have a great effect on your search engine rankings.