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A little something different for today's blog. It's on a subject we don't normally touch upon, but something that is increasingly impacting on our clients and that's Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO and more specifically, Local SEO.
Whilst not a core service we offer, even as a marketing consultancy, it's something we have to keep abreast of to help our clients navigate the digital marketing landscape.
It won't come as a great surprise to you, but having a strong online presence is crucial for the success of businesses, large or small. That also includes many of our clients including charities, community groups and anyone looking to grow their place in cyberspace.
Local SEO for Small Businesses
Local SEO sounds small, but it's a powerful tool that can help you stand out in local searches, attract more visitors to your website, and / or ultimately, increase foot traffic to your location, assuming you have one.
Whilst SEO is a huge, wide-ranging topic to tackle, it can be broken down into smaller, more manageable subsets depending on what you're trying to achieve. Here we're going to be primarily looking at Local SEO.
At its core, SEO looks at how you optimise your website so that it's more likely to be recommended for those searching for the product, service or information you provide by the search engines, like Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc.
Chances are you won't be the only business that offers the product or service you do, so SEO often boils down to understanding why and working on how your business is offered above others in search results. The higher up the search results you appear, the more clicks (and therefore visits) your website gets. The more visits you get, the more sales you'll make.
If SEO is a subject that's new to you, I've wrote this guide to walk you through the essentials of local SEO, including on-page SEO strategies and some simple actionable steps you can take to improve your rankings with little effort and for no cost?
Understanding Local SEO
Many smaller business and charities aren't positioned, nor are they interested, in taking the world by storm or going toe-to-toe with the largest multinational conglomerates.
They exist in a smaller geographical area and usually only designed to serve customers in that area.
If you own a coffee shop, you probably just want people in your town to come in, have a coffee, eat some cake and hang out with their friends, and are less likely to be competing with chains like Starbucks and their multi-million pound coffee empire. Both can quite easily exist in the same local area.
Local, often independent businesses are not able to take on the global online players when it comes to selling their wares or reaching people around the world. They often don't have the finances or the personnel to compete, and that's OK.
People are searching all sorts of things and, when it's relevant to your business, you want to be found and placed in search results.
Those searches take place predominantly on Google, but other search engines and sites that aren't search engines (i.e. Facebook and YouTube) also play an important role in this.
For example, when someone goes to Google and searches for "charity shop near me” or “best coffee shop in [insert your town here],” local SEO helps ensure your business or charity appears in those search results.
There's no point telling users that's there's a relevant charity shop 4 hours drive away or a coffee shop at the other end of the country because they spend a fortune on their SEO, and that's where local SEO comes into its own.
Local SEO focuses on optimising your online presence to attract more business from relevant local searches, rather than becoming or competing with those offering a global presence.
Why Local SEO Matters
It's easy to get bogged down in technicalities when it comes to SEO and I'm not going to try and teach it all to you here.
Suffice to say local SEO is important because, as a generally small, local business it gives you:
Increased Visibility: Higher rankings in local search results mean more visibility for your business.
Targeted Traffic: Local SEO targets people searching for particular services or products in your area, bringing in more relevant and potential customers. It's worth noting that local and organic (as opposed to paid for) searches collectively make up around 69% of overall digital traffic and 87% of consumers used Google to evaluate local businesses in 2022.
Build Trust and Credibility: Appearing in local search results and having positive reviews builds trust with potential customers.
SEO as a whole can be broken down in many ways, but there are over 200 separate 'ranking factors' (aka ranking signals) that affect how you appear in search results when it comes to Google and others.
These different factors vary and have varying degrees of influence within search algorithms. Some, when changes are optimised, can make a huge difference, whilst others impact very little. That influence can also change over time as search algorithms evolve. What works today, might not work as well next month.
Some of those factors are generally easy for you to influence and control, these are known as 'On-Page SEO' and others aren't harder to harness. These latter ones are collectively called 'Off-Page SEO' and focus on factors you have less control over like reviews, backlinks, forum posts, etc.
In this blog I'm only going to be looking at On-Page SEO here. If you want more details on Off-Page or other aspects of SEO, please leave a comment below and, if there's enough interest, I might cover it a later blog.
On-Page SEO Strategies for Your Local Business
P45 Consultancy is blessed to work with some incredible organisations around the world.
As many of them are charitable or community-focused projects, when it comes to their marketing efforts, it's vital for them to get the most value for the money they do spend, and that's where I come in.
On-page SEO refers to the practice of optimising individual web pages to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic through search engines.
Simply put, On-Page SEO relates to everything you do 'on' your website as a whole, or individual web pages individually, to make them more visible to search engines and attractive to those searching for what you offer.
If you manage your own website then you can easily do these to maximise your chances of being found online, so I've put together some key on-page SEO strategies that you can do today and are free!
1. Optimise Your Website Content
Given the title, it's no surprise that optimising your existing content is an important first step when it comes to improving your local SEO. Here are some simple things you can try:
Use Local Keywords
Incorporate local keywords naturally into your website content.
Use tools like Google Keyword Planner to find relevant local keywords. For example, if you run a bakery in Sheffield, use keywords like “Sheffield bakery,” or “best pastries in Sheffield,”, etc.
Create High-Quality Content
As I've said many times in my blogs, content is king. People will want to come to your site for high quality, unique content so write blog posts, articles and other content that is valuable to your audience on your site. For instance, a charity could write about local community events or success stories. Wedding photographers could blog about the most picturesque local beauty spots to have photos taken in.
Update Content Regularly
Fresh content is favoured by search engines, so keep your website updated with new posts, news and updates regularly (which is another reason why a blog is great). Bear in mind that it's better to not have a blog at all, than to have one you never update, so avoid having one for the sake of it.
2. Optimise Meta Tags
Meta tags are HTML 'code' that provide search engines information about a webpage’s content to them, and therefore their users.
As with many other aspects of SEO, meta tags play a crucial role in influencing how a website appears in search results and can also really impact click-through rates (CTR).
They include:
Title Tags: Include local keywords in your title tags. Keep them concise and informative.
Meta Descriptions: Write compelling meta descriptions that include local keywords. These should be 150-160 characters and encourage users to click through to your site so get creative! Here's one of ours - the description underneath is a meta tag.
3. Optimise Images
If you have photos and illustrations on your site, they also need optimising. Whilst Google is very clever, it doesn't actually know what a photo contains unless you tell it, and that's where these come in.
Alt Text: Use descriptive 'alt text' for images, incorporating local keywords when relevant.
File Names: Name your image files with descriptive, keyword-rich titles before uploading them to your website.
Size: Size, when it comes to SEO, IS important. Larger more detailed images tend to have larger file sizes. These can be reduced without compromising quality through different picture formats. Leading me on to.....
4. Improve Website Speed
How quickly your website loads is a key metric when it comes to SEO. The longer your site takes to load, then more likely users will give up and go somewhere else. Load speeds are measured in milliseconds, so speed really is of the essence.
Website speed can be affected by a number of things, including broadband speed, cellular connection and the size and quality of any images on the site, how many videos you have and the amount of text on a page.
Fast Loading Times: Ensure your website loads quickly on both desktop and mobile devices. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to check and improve your site’s speed.
5. Mobile Optimisation
More people surf the internet on a mobile device now than on a desktop machine so your sites mobile version needs to be optimised too.
You can do this through:
Responsive Design: Make sure your website is mobile-friendly. A responsive design adjusts to different screen sizes of phones and tablets and provides a good user experience on all devices.
Local Search Features: Ensure features like click-to-call are easy to use on mobile devices.
Off-Page SEO Strategies
As I touched upon earlier, Off-Page SEO are those things you have less direct control of, but that doesn't mean you can't influence them at all when it comes to your local SEO efforts.
Off-page SEO involves actions taken outside your own website to impact your rankings within Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
Here are some effective off-page strategies you can do that don't cost anything:
1. Google Business Profile (GBP)
Claim and Verify Your GBP Listing: Previously known as Google My Business, this is crucial for appearing in local search results and Google Maps.
If you don't already have one, fill out your profile completely, including business name, address, phone number and category.
Update Regularly: Keep your GBP listing updated with the latest information, posts, and photos.
Encourage Reviews: Ask satisfied customers to leave positive reviews on your GMB listing. Respond to reviews to show you value customer feedback.
2. Local Citations
Consistent NAP: NAP in the context of SEO, stands for Name, Address and Phone Number. It's might obvious, but please ensure your NAP are consistent across all online directories and citations. In other words, make sure you always use the same business name, email address and contact number in all your profiles to keep them consistent.
List in Local Directories: SEO doesn't start and end with Google. It helps to utilise a number of local directories. If you haven't already, submit your business information to relevant directories like Yelp, MyLocalServices, Bizify, CheckATrade, Trip Advisor, Yell, (aka Yellow Pages), 118, Thomson Local, etc and there are even some industry-specific directories.
3. Social Media Engagement
If you have any sort of online presence, chances are you also have an account on at least one social media platform. Social media is another ranking factor and whilst 'off-page' is something you can easily utilise.
Have an Active Presence: Maintain active profiles on major social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter (or X) and Instagram. If you've got one, use it! As with blogs, it's better not to have one, than to have one and not use it fully.
Share Local Content: Whilst social media can be felt around the world, share content that is relevant to your local audience. Follow your local MP, local newspaper, local influencers, other local businesses, etc. You. can also promote local events, news and stories related to your business or charity to help become more noticable and influential with those around you.
Engage with Followers: A big part of social media is something called 'social listening'. In other words, understanding what's going on and what those connected to you are talking about. Do this by responding to any comments, messages and reviews on social media. Engaging with your audience (i.e. followers) can boost your online reputation and visibility.
4. Local Backlinks
Backlinks are a huge part of any SEO efforts, but they're harder to get, at least those that carry weight.
If you've ever had messages from people wanting to write for your blog or for you to advertise their wares because you've vaguely touched upon a similar aspect, all they're looking for are backlinks, e.g. hyperlinks from your website back to theirs.
Backlinks help SEO and are considered an important ranking factor because they tell Google that other sites consider your content valuable enough to link to it, enhancing your online reputation. The more links you can get, the more reputable you must be.
To get them, you can:
Partner with Local Businesses: Establish partnerships with other local businesses and charities. This can lead to backlink opportunities from their websites to yours.
Sponsor Local Events: Sponsoring local events or participating in community activities can result in mentions and links from local news sites and blogs.
Guest Blogging: Write guest posts for local blogs and websites. Include a link back to your site in your author bio.
Local SEO Tips
If you're looking to help improve your local SEO, then here are some simple steps you can take yourself to give your business a boost!
1. Conduct a Local SEO Audit
As a first step, it's important to understand where your website is right now in terms of local SEO.
There are a number of ways to do this:
Check Your Website: Whilst you can review EVERY page of your website yourself, it's time-consuming and you might not know what you're looking for. As such there are a number of tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs or Moz that can perform an SEO audit of your website for you. These audits will quickly identify any issues that may be negatively affecting your SEO and fix them (or at least tell you how to).
Analyse Competitors: You may have done this already when you started your business, but look at your local competitors’ websites and see what they are doing well. Try to implement similar strategies. Go to Google and search for relevant, common terms and see where they rank compared to you.
2. Create Local Content
As I touched upon earlier, creating locally-focussed content is a great way to optimise your site.
You can:
Blog about Local Events: Write blog posts about local events, news or topics of interest to your community, but still relevant to your business.
Local Case Studies: Share success stories or case studies of how your business or charity has helped local customers or the community already.
3. Optimise for Voice Search
As we increasingly utilise smart assistants on our phones and in our homes, devices like Siri, Alexa or the anonymous 'Google Assistant', are becoming intrinsically linked to local SEO, so websites need to be optimised for those voice searches.
You can do this through:
Natural Language: Optimise your content for natural language and long-tail keywords. Voice search queries are often more conversational than those typed out on a website.
FAQ Sections: Include FAQ sections on your website to address common questions your audience might ask via voice search. If you're interested, here's ours!
4. Monitor and Respond to Reviews
Online reviews are now ubiquitous now and whilst these reviews are more aligned with 'Off-Page SEO' many businesses embed them into their own sites. As such, they need:
Regular Monitoring: Keep an eye on reviews across all platforms, including Google My Business, Yelp, Facebook and social media.
Respond Promptly: Respond to both positive AND negative reviews. Address any issues raised in negative reviews and thank customers for positive feedback. People will see them, but if negative ones are handled well, they will forgive you more easily should things go wrong.
5. Utilise Schema Markup
Without getting into the weeds too much, Schema Markup, also known as structured data, is basically the language search engines use to read and understand the content on your web pages.
It doesn't read the content in the same way you or I do so by 'language', I mean a semantic vocabulary (or code) that helps search engines characterise and categorise the content of your site.
If Google can understand more accurately what your content is, the more likely it is to recommend it to other searching.
Optimising these may depend on how technically skilled you are, but they include:
Local Business Schema: Use schema markup to help search engines understand your business better. They include basic information (and their schema) like location (address), location (geo.latitude & geo.longitude), opening hours (openingHoursSpecification.opens), etc. These can improve your chances of appearing in local search results.
Event Schema: If you host events, like customer meet-ups, product launches, book clubs, use event schema markup to make these more visible in search results. Whilst people not be looking for your business, they may be looking for the events you put on.
Conclusion
"It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens at His discretion" - Jeremiah 10:12
Improving your local SEO is an ongoing process that requires time and effort, but the rewards are well worth it. Whilst it can get technical and requires some specialist help, I hope these simple steps can help you make a start.
Just by following the simple strategies outlined in this blog (and there are plenty more), small charities and local businesses alike can boost their online visibility, attract more local customers and build a stronger community presence.
Remember, consistency is key - keep your information updated, engage with your audience, and continually optimise your website for the best results.
After any Google Core Updates, you may notice that your rankings are affected - they may improve, they may worsen, so please revisit this blog and these tips again.
Remember SEO never ends, so plan it into your ongoing sales and marketing strategies. If you need any help with those, please get in touch.
Whilst SEO can seem daunting or confusing at first, with dedication and the right approach, you can achieve significant improvements in your local search rankings. I look forward to seeing your results when I next fire up Google! #BelieveInSuccess
I appreciate it can be a difficult subject to tackle, but I hope you found this blog useful. If you run your own business, I'd love to know how you optimise your website on limited resources in terms of local SEO. Are there any tips you can share? Any tools that are useful for you? What improvements have you seen after optimisation? Let me know in the comments below.
If you have found some value in this blog, then please consider showing your appreciation by buying me a coffee through my own SEO - Send Espresso Only. Just click the button below and this will optimise my day no end, so thank you in advance.
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