Business owners running a store-front service or offer a service for a specific geographic area will want to focus their marketing efforts in staying on top of local web traffic.
Majority of marketing efforts are designed to be more global in nature and may not help your local business at all. There are a few techniques that you can utilize to remain visible and top in local traffic and people you want to attract to your business.
Local search optimization will ensure that your business appears in searches when people are looking for a business like yours in Ottawa. The following techniques will ensure that your business has improved local rankings.
List All Local Areas That You Would Want To Rank For
The list should start with your city, the major metropolitan area, county, province, and state. From there, start to include neighboring towns where your business is in a position to service.
Create long tail keywords for all of these areas. For example: rather than optimizing for “auto repairs”, go for phrases such as: “Ottawa auto repairs” “Yourmetroregionhere auto repairs”, “YourCountyhere auto repairs”, “Yourregionhere auto repairs” etc.
Include Your Business Address At The Footer Of The Website In Text
This will help Google identify you as a local business and it will help visitors to your website know that you are in the right place. Indicating your location and all areas served by your business on the website is critical for localized businesses. Embedding a dynamic Google Map will help customers find your business address.
Add a Link to Your Business on Google Maps
First, check if your business is showing up in Google Maps. If your business doesn’t appear on Google Maps, submit a link to have it included. Inclusion of the link will act as a marker for Google to identify your location and will help customers with directions to your business address.
Write Blog Posts/Webpages For All Your Local Keyword Phrases
Make use of keywords and geographical locations in your website to ensure that search engines rank your website for your keywords in search results. Have a local keyword phrase-based webpage or blog post for the services that you offer to receive a ranking boost. Do not include these pages on the primary navigation but ensure that they link back to the homepage so that they are indexed.
Optimize Each Webpage To Rank For The Targeted Keyword
Your keyword phrases should be placed in several spots in the coding and wording of your website pages.
- Meta keyword and description tags
- Filename or URL of the page. For example best-home-staging-Abbotsford.HTML
- The header of the page within an H1 tag
- Subheaders of the page within H2 and H3 tags
- File names of graphics used on the page
- Hyperlinked text containing the keyword phrase, ideally located in the first and last paragraph of the page
- Header tag using the keyword phrase at the end of the page
Regularly Write and Publish Local Content
All websites require new content in the form of blog posts from time to time. The new content will be more valuable for your business if it includes your keyword phrases and is location-based. New content may include blog posts, press releases about activities in the local community, and reviews of new products/services.
Back Link On Other Local Business Websites
Get to request other local businesses to trade backlinks with your business. Backlinking or posting a recommendation will improve the ranking of your website.
Share Local Photos/Pictures
Ensure that you take pictures of your business undertaking various activities in your locality. The photos should be named appropriately and make sure that you include your local keyword phrases.
Use Alt Tags
Ensure that all images used on the website have local keyword phrases in their file names and alt tags.
Have an XML Map or Site Map
Having either an XML Map or Site Map on your website will make it easier for Google to index all your web pages.
Reference Local Landmarks
Reference any major landmarks near your location on your website so that your business appears in Google searches for a business near that landmark.
Manually Submit your Website to Local Directories
A good way to get your business found is by submitting to local directories or major directories with local listings. Complete a full profile and make use of many images on directories such as Foursquare and Yelp.
Salient Marketing works with local business in Ottawa to ensure their websites are optimized for local search results and will even recommend off-site methods to boost local search results. We will help to review your website and recommend the best SEO techniques to improve local rankings.