New Jersey - SEO Services
How Can Local SEO Strengthen Your Business?
Your target market can be national, multi-state, international, or–in your case–entirely local. It doesn’t matter. You need to find a way to reach those potential customers, no matter where they live.
It’s a time-tested business adage. When you find ways in front of the eyes of consumers who’d be interested in what you’re selling, the odds shift significantly in your favor.
Local businesses share another commonality with their multi-state, national, and international counterparts. The solution lies within the internet.
Yet, as a local organization, much of what your company does is based on person-to-person relationships and face-to-face interactions. Where does this virtual, remote space fit beyond providing contact and address info on a no-frills website?
Sure, digital marketing makes it possible to reach and tap into an international audience–even as a smaller company with a modest budget. However, online growth strategies also allow for hyper-specificity. It helps organizations like yours maximize every square inch of local geography with your branding.
Therein lies the value of our local NJ SEO services at LBMS. We’re here to help you tap into the digital goldmine that is your surrounding geography. We’ll put your company in front of the eyes of people ready, willing, and able to pay money for your products and services.
What’s Our Secret Digital Sauce for Local Business Marketing?
Local SEO is the answer to many of your online local business marketing needs.
Unsure about what SEO is to begin with? Don’t worry–we’ve got you covered.
In short, it involves a list of best practices that make your website appeal to search engine crawlers and algorithms. The more you appease the Googles and Bings of the world with the various on-page and off-page SEO elements, the higher your company’s search result rankings for relevant queries involving your business.
The most appealing part of SEO for business owners is that it’s entirely organic, unlike Google’s pay-per-click ads. It’s possible to create SEO campaigns without spending a dime (although there is a matter of time).
Furthermore, nearly 94% of search engine traffic arrives through organic results instead of pay-per-click. People trust unpaid query results more than their paid counterparts.
It’s worth mentioning that the above statistic only speaks to generic SEO. It’s not even delving into when you make things more specific with your location.
Our SEO company in NJ offers NJ SEO services that go beyond generic. Instead, with LBMS, our search engine optimization strategy is centered around your local geography.
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO works differently than your standard SEO strategy.
Google realized a while back that many consumers looking for specific types of products or services sought results from their surrounding geography.
In response to this growing trend, Google added a proximity factor to its local search algorithm. When users type certain keywords that typically apply to locally-based needs, their location plays into the results.
Although still widely used, there doesn’t need to be “near me” or the city name in the query anymore. Nowadays, there are specific terms that trigger a locally-formulated response from Google.
For instance, typing in “Italian restaurants” into Google while you’re at work and looking for a lunch spot will generate different results than what you’d get at home. Even if you live relatively close by.
While these local searches have been widely available for some time, they’ve grown more prominent now that mobile searches have eclipsed desktop. The result? Local businesses like yours have begun reaping the rewards of this massive shift in the digital marketing space.
Why Are NJ SEO Services So Crucial For Your Local Business?
Per year, there are 2 trillion Google searches. Of that enormous search query quantity, 46% have local intent.
On top of that, users visit 1.5 billion locations connected with their search queries. Additionally, 28% of all local searches end up in a purchase.
We’ll then point out that while search algorithms go beyond “near me” searches, that query type is still a dominant force in the space. In fact, it appears to be growing in usage, with the number of searchers using “buy now” or “near me” for local businesses or products increasing by 500% over the past few years.
Another consideration is how 71% of clicks on Google’s search results happen on the first page. That number’s even gone as high as 92% recently.
When searches have local intent, businesses like yours are prioritized for the search results.
That algorithmic shift drastically increases the chances that your company ends up in front of the right eyes for relevant searches. You’re no longer competing with global, national, or multi-state competition. The playing field shrinks, so there are fewer obstacles in front of optimal search engine results.
There is a kicker: you can’t wish your local SEO strategies into reality. It’s a discipline requiring a keen understanding and dedication to learning the best practices.
Here’s where our NJ SEO services make the most impact. We offer expertise in developing a profitable local business marketing strategy with search engine optimization that makes your company the talk of the town.
In fact, contact us now to learn more about our local business marketing and NJ SEO services and how they can specifically apply to your brand.
Provided you wish to do more reading on the topic, check out our local SEO tips below:
Local Business Marketing SEO Tip 1: Claim Your Business Profile Listing
Google needs to first know your business exists as a local entity to work in your favor. So, right out the gate, you must claim your Google Business Profile.
This profile shows your business’s information for locally-based searches (e.g., “near me” or “in (city)” queries). Searchers see it at the top of the results page in a box called the local SEO 3-pack.
Once your profile page is claimed, it’s time to fill out your profile, which requires your business address, company name, phone number, etc.
Upon verifying the above info, hours of operation, a website link, menus (for restaurants), location photos, services, products, staff, and business descriptions can be added.
Here are a couple of extra pro insights you can take to the bank:
There’s a 42% higher rate of requests for directions on Google My Business listings with photos and 35% more clicks to websites.
Local Business Marketing SEO Tip 2: Optimize Your Google MyBusiness Profile
The previous section offered some tips on optimizing your Google My Business profile. Still, there are a few more necessary tactics to enhance your local SEO.
Feed the algorithm by publishing Google posts on your brand’s Google Knowledge Panel.
The Knowledge Panels are the information boxes that appear on Google when entities are searched for in the Knowledge Graph. These provide a quick look into relevant topical information based on Google’s grasp of the available web content for search queries.
You’ll aid your local business marketing and SEO efforts by encouraging your customers to leave Google reviews. This tactic is known to increase your Google ranking while providing a helpful boost to your business’s credibility.
Additionally, you need to actively respond to your reviews, using them as an opportunity to converse with your client base. In fact, even if someone happens to leave less-than-favorable feedback, you can respond empathetically and turn the situation around.
Most crucially, mention your business’s geography to score the necessary local SEO points in your review responses.
Use language such as: “Thanks for your feedback on our products in (state or city). Your input means the world to our business, and we eagerly await partnering with your again. Sincerest regards from the (full company name) family.”
Local Business Marketing SEO Tip 3: Incorporate Social Media Into Your Local SEO Strategy
When social media is weaved into your local business marketing tapestry, it can directly impact your local SEO.
Optimize your social media platform pages and profiles to send followers to your website or Google My Business page. Doing so appeases crawlers and enhances your SEO.
Beyond that, social mentions of your brand signal Google’s algorithms, further bolstering your local business marketing SEO.
Undoubtedly, having multiple social media accounts on various platforms can prove fruitful.
However, you’re often better off utilizing one platform to its fullest extent instead of spreading your efforts too thin. In which case, Facebook deserves the bulk of your focus since–to this day–it has the most users.
Optimize your Facebook account by filling in as much information as you can in your profile’s “About” section. This allows you to highlight your products, services, and expertise while presenting opportunities to incorporate keywords relevant to your industry.
Again, entering your geography and location is integral to Facebook driving your local SEO.
Nearly 90% of people look up local businesses on Google Maps. Thus, displaying your Google map on your Facebook page removes one more boundary between prospects and conversions.
Your “Services” tabs in your Facebook profile present a chance to use relevant keywords to kick your local SEO up another notch. It’s possible to feature specific services in these tabs that Google searchers might be seeking. As a result, those Facebook descriptions can turn up in those Google queries.
Local Business Marketing SEO Tip 4: Keep Your Information Consistent Across All Platforms
So much of your local business marketing and SEO tactics comes down to due diligence.
For certain, there are various high-level deep-dive strategies and methods you must learn along the way. Yet, something as simple as ensuring your business name, phone number (including area code), and address are consistent across all online mediums. Also, this information should be incorporated as your website’s crawlable HTML text.
One misstep to avoid is including this info within an image and not within the HTML text. The most common location for business names, phone numbers, and addresses is in the header or footer on your website.
It’ll be far easier for people to find your business, and Google will reward you with a superior search engine results ranking.
Then, note that these four map aggregators provide most of your Geographical data to Google:
- Factual
- Foursquare
- Express Update
- Neustar Localeze
So, your citations must be consistent across these aggregators, or else harm could be done to your local SEO standing.
For instance, problems and conflicting information found in abbreviations, spellings, phone numbers, or addresses/suite numbers can do some SEO-related damage. Google can’t figure out what’s the correct information and could, in turn, end up not showing your business in relevant search results. Duplicate listings must also be removed.
A bonus pro tip is to highlight your Chamber of Commerce membership (if that exists). It’ll provide you with an external inbound link.
Local Business Marketing SEO Tip 5: Develop An Internal Linking Strategy and Structure
Your internal linking structure will make a positive impact on your SEO rankings and local business marketing because it:
- Helps with website hierarchy and information architecture
- Streamlines website navigation
- Distributes ranking power and page authority throughout your pages
Local Business Marketing SEO Tip 5: Focus on Title Tags, Meta Description, Headers, URL, and Content Optimization
By creating a blog post, you’re publishing fresh content and a new page to be indexed from your website. Most importantly, it’s another page for geographically-based search phrases and one more chance to get discovered through Google search results.
Each piece of new content must be optimized for search engines with high-volume keywords in the URL, title, meta description, header, and body.
Write out customer success stories and case studies if you’re having trouble brainstorming other geo-targeted content.
Local Business Marketing SEO Tip 6: Publish Location Pages On Your Business Website
Do you have more than one location or multiple areas of service? If yes, then create different location pages, each possessing:
- Phone number
- Address
- Store hours
- Specific store description
- Transit or parking information
- Promotions
- Testimonials
Don’t duplicate any content across your location pages–everything must be unique.
Provided you’re a one-location organization, your “About Us” page should be locally descriptive. If possible, add a Google Map to your website on each location page.
We’re Only Scratching the Surface with These Tips…
There’s much more to learn about local business marketing and SEO–and it’s not easy to do it all on your own.
Fortunately, LBMS is the SEO company in NJ that will put your company first and use our local expertise to maximize your exposure throughout the area. Contact us today to learn more. We’d love to hear about your organization and discuss potential ways to strengthen your local business marketing.
