Durham SEO

Just a few decades ago, local businesses had to rely on the distribution of posters and flyers, along with newspaper advertisements and word-of-mouth marketing. Today, the internet has allowed businesses to gain access to new audiences and expand their marketing efforts. With mobile technology becoming more advanced than ever before, millions of people open up Google Assistant or Siri to find a coffee shop near them. This makes local SEO a crucial part of any company’s marketing strategy – especially when it comes to promoting a local business on the internet.

A recent survey showed that half of all individuals who do a local search on a mobile device tend to visit a store they found in the results within 24 hours. The same study found that around 18% of local searches conducted today will lead to a sale within the same period. Furthermore, around 60% of people in the United States will search for a local service or product every day using their mobile device. Another important statistic provided by the study is that as much as 78% of people who conduct a local search on their mobile phone will make a purchase for either a product or a service offline – by visiting the address provided to them on the search results.

Over to the side of local businesses – one study found that more than half of all businesses haven’t made a claim on their Google My Business Listing. Companies who haven’t claimed their listing are also less likely to be implementing appropriate search engine optimization strategies to help their business rank in local results. This means lost opportunity.

In this guide, we take a look at how you can get your business to show up on the right spots for people who are searching for a company like yours in the local area.

Getting Ready For Local SEO

Before you start to invest time into local SEO, you need to ensure that your website is ready to serve everyone who lands on it. A recent report states that an estimated 91% of websites that belong to small businesses are not properly optimized for mobile devices. As of 2017, more than half of all internet users are browsing the internet from their mobile phone. In fact, in China, 98% of people are using the internet on a smartphone instead of a desktop computer.

The internet has evolved into a mobile-first world. Even Google has recently announced that websites should cater toward mobile users first – and the search engine has started to give priority in search results for websites that take a mobile-first approach to on-page optimization.

With this in mind, the first step would be to make sure your website is mobile ready. Once optimized for mobile devices, be sure to use the Google Mobile-Friendly Test tool to see if there are any issues with your website when loaded on a smartphone.

Create Your Search Engine Business Listings

Once your website is optimized for both mobile and desktop devices, then you are ready to start implementing appropriate steps that start ranking for local searches. The first step that you should take when it comes to optimizing your local SEO campaign would be to create your business listings on major search engines.

Sure, Google holds the majority of the market share when it comes to search engines, but you should not overlook other search engines like Bing. The Apple Maps system is also an important platform where your business should be listed. About one-third of the American population owns an Apple iOS device – and the Apple Map system is the default search engine used to display local search results when using Siri, Safari, and related apps on these mobile devices.

Google My Business Listing

Start with Google My Business, as this is the platform that will ensure your business can show up when someone searches for a business like yours on Google. Simply head over to the Google My Business landing page and click on “Create."

Follow these steps to get your brand listed on Google My Business:

1. Enter the name of your business (If your business name is already listed, you can continue to claim your listing instead).

2. Provide your address. Be sure to write down the exact way that you enter your address – consistency with the way your address is provided is a key element when it comes to local SEO.

3. A map will show up – make sure the address is 100% correct. If you find that the red marker is not placed on the correct location, then use your mouse pointer to move the marker to the right location where your business is located.

4. Choose an appropriate category for your business. There are quite a lot of categories available that you can choose from. Start typing something and Google will make a few suggestions. Be sure to select a category that closely matches your business.

5. Add a phone number so that customers can easily get in touch with you.

6. Add your website’s URL. This ensures customers can easily visit your website to find out more about your company. This can also help with ranking your website and increasing traffic.

Once these steps have been completed, you will need to verify the listing. Google will usually send you a postcard to the address provided. The card will contain a code – you will need to enter this code on your Google My Business listing in order to verify the listing.

After you have successfully verified the listing of your business, be sure to do some additional optimization. You can upload a few photos, add your business hours, provide a list of services and products that you offer, and add additional categories that may apply to your company.

Bing Places Listing

Even though Bing is not as popular as a search engine as Google, there are still a lot of people who use Bing to help them find local businesses. It is also quite easy to get your business listed on Bing and will only take you a few minutes. Start by visiting Bing Places.

Start by searching for your own business on Bing Places. See if you already have a listing. If you do, then you will have to claim the business. If not, then you can create a new listing for your business.

Follow these steps to create your listing:

1. Choose the type of business that you have. This may include small business, chain business, or online business.

2. You can choose to import data from your Google My Business listing at this point, or rather enter all details manually.

3. Add your business name, as well as additional information like your website and your address. Remember to enter the address exactly as you did before in Google My Business.

4. Select the right category for your business.

5. You can now link to your social media profiles. If your business has a Facebook page, Twitter account, then be sure to add the appropriate links here.

6. The last step is to add a couple of photos to represent your business.

Apple Maps Listing

The last business listing would be on Apple Maps. Apple holds a large market share and is definitely another platform you need to get your business listed on.

The process is relatively straightforward with Apple Maps. Simply visit the official page and then follow the steps provided to add your business.

Keyword Research

The next step as part of your local SEO strategy would be to conduct some keyword research. This will help you understand the specific keywords that you should be targeting in your search engine optimization strategy. These would be the terms that people are commonly searching – the keywords you want your business to show up for in the local area.

There are various tools that you can use to help you find the right keywords to target with your strategy. It would, however, be a good idea to start out with a basic SiL strategy. SiL is a term that refers to “service in location." This is a formula that you can use to construct a few keywords.

Think about the services that you offer, then add them to your location.

Let’s look at an example. You have a smartphone repair center in Durham. To conduct Durham SEO, you would consider the specific services you offer, then add “in Durham” to the end of the phrase. Here are a few examples of what you could use:

· Screen replacement in Durham

· Battery replacement in Durham

· iPhone repairs in Durham

· Samsung repairs in Durham

Of course, these are only a few. You should consider all the services you have to offer and then create such keywords. IMforSMB.com has a great bulk keyword generator tool that could help you generate bulk keywords for your local SEO campaign as well.

Once you have a list of keywords, use a tool to check the search volume for the keywords. The keyword explorer by Ahrefs is a great tool to use. There are other options as well.

Narrow down the keywords to ones that have a higher search volume in your local region.

Creating Local Citations For Your Business

Now that you have your business listings and a few keywords to target, you need to start creating a few local citations. These are references to your business, which should ideally include the following information:

· Business name

· Business address

· Contact number

· Email address

· Website URL

Make sure that you enter the address and other details of your business in the same way on each citation that you create. You can also use some of the keywords that you found earlier in the descriptions here.

In addition to citations, you should also focus on creating guest posts and articles on third-party websites. Add the keywords that you are targeting and then use them as anchors – link back to your business website through these keywords. This will help to increase your ranking for the local keywords and get your business to show up to people searching in your area.

Conclusion

If you have a local business, then your search engine optimization strategy should be focused on getting your business in front of people when they search for a company that offers the services and products you have from the local region. When you need to perform Durham SEO or optimization for any other location – with the right strategy, you can get more feet inside of your business. Studies have shown that local listings for businesses to turn into an increased number of visitors and sales at a local store. Follow the steps we provided here if you need to perform Raleigh SEO or SEO for your store in another area, to get your website listed for local search results.