Local SEO is a powerful tool for businesses looking to grow and expand beyond their wildest dreams – and this may be putting it mildly. There are numerous businesses out there that have received an entirely new jolt of life simply by moving online and leveraging the power of local SEO.
So yes, local SEO can change your life. But as with all powerful tools for growth, the hardest part is knowing how and where to begin. If you’ve ever found yourself in a situation where you crave the life altering promises of local SEO but just can’t figure out how to pull it off or even how to begin, you’ve come to the right place.
Below is a detailed guide on everything you need to know about finding your first client with local SEO. We hope that by the time you’re done, you’ll be on your way to being a local SEO expert yourself.
Tap into the Potential of Business Listings
The very step in local SEO for anyone who knows what they’re doing is making sure your business is listed in as many directories as possible. The benefits of doing this are almost endless.
For example, listing your business here on BusinessDirectory.com exposes you to all kinds of new, sustainable customers that have a high predisposition towards brand loyalty.
Along with this, you get to give your customers a better way to find you, improve your online reputation, give a better customer service experience, all the while boosting your search engine ranking positions in the process!
Claim and Optimize your Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile is your access into having and maintaining your own Google Business Page on Google Maps. Of course, it should go without saying that having a page that ranks high on Google Maps can literally put your business on the map and increase your sales by a hundred folds.
Think of Google Business Profile as a business listing, but one of the most popular and effective ones out there.
Thankfully, creating a page is easy. All you have to do is go to the page, create an account, follow through on the verification steps and you’re good to go.
Consistency in All Areas
By consistency in all areas, we mean that the best way to have an effective local SEO campaign is to make sure that all of your information is the same throughout. Why is this important, you ask? Well, it is simply a question of trust.
As a business owner, you already know the importance of trust when it comes to running a successful business. Sometimes customers don’t buy the product, they buy the name. This is why consistent branding, with accurate and consistent information might be your best bet at landing your first local SEO client.
This may seem like an overly simple step, but you have to believe us when we say that just a little dose of consistency goes a really long way in this industry.
More Customer Reviews
Getting customer reviews is one of the best ways to ensure a successful local SEO campaign. Of course, since this article is more about how to land your first local SEO customer, you might be wondering why it’s on the list in the first place.
It’s on the list, you see, because it is simply too important to ignore. Sure, this may not be relevant to getting the first client, but it becomes more relevant than ever once that first sale is complete.
Your foundation to getting more and more sales and running a long-term business begins from your first customer review. In fact, customer reviews are so important to your business that you can’t just leave them to chance.
You have to ensure that you do all it takes to respectfully and comfortably nudge your clients to leave a favorable review on online platforms, starting from the very first.
Social Media
Social media isn’t just for showing off. It can play a huge role in business growth, too. But you already know that. What you may not already know, however, is the fact that social media can also play a significant role in SEO ranking and reputation management.
It is erroneously believed that the role social media plays for business growth is limited to getting sales alone. This couldn’t be more wrong. In fact, you don’t necessarily have to get sales directly through social media to make it an incredible tool in your arsenal.
By merely using it to send social signals to your listing pages and websites, using it to interact with customers, and relaying important product news and schedules with it, you can reap even higher benefits than what comes from making a single direct sale.
Get Involved with Your Community
It is called local SEO for a reason, and most of this is due to the fact that your entire business is targeted towards a particular localized community. What better way to earn trust than by becoming an active part of that community and letting the people get to know you and your business?
Whether it is by sponsoring local events, volunteering for a cause, helping a local charity or just being a part of something bigger than you, becoming an active part of a community can help boost your business and get that first sale as much as anything else can.
Summary & Conclusion
For those who have been struggling to get their businesses off the ground, both in the physical world and online, local SEO can be the key that finally unlocks the huge potential of your business plan.
To see this dream come into fruition, however, you have to brush up on some local SEO skills. Above we have listed the most important ones. These include getting listed on reputable listing platforms like BusinessDirectory.com, optimizing your Google Business Profile, getting customer reviews, cultivating consistency in all areas, leveraging the power of social signals, and being an active part of a community.
Do all of this as diligently as possible, and you should start boasting of not one, not two, but thousands of new customers very soon.