If you are managing SEO for a local business, you might have noticed how difficult it is to compete for the top spot on the Google search result page. Compared with larger national and international keywords, local SEO are more complicated to manage.
What are the keywords you would use for your business? If you are advertising for a doctor in Tucson, Arizona, your most likely keyword would be “doctor Tucson Arizona.” If you search this same phrase on Google, you will be surprised to know that there might be hundreds of search results, even if there are only a handful of medical practitioners in Tucson. This is because not all of these results are actually located in Tucson. Some of the clinics on the main page of the results are located several miles away from Tucson.
The first step towards outranking your competition for local SEO is to analyze why they are on the top listing of every search engine result. How many years of experience do they have in the industry? What’s their website like? How many top-ranking pages do they have on their site? You have to evaluate the nature of their website and the management of its content. Google puts a premium on the relevance of the content. You must not only have a well-designed website, you must have the content to back it up, too.
Drive a hard content campaign
Some of the older websites on the search engine results might already have old content. This is where you can come in. Make sure that your website has a more relevant content compared to your competitors. More content means more pages for Google to index. Remember, though; you have to ensure that only quality, original, and well-researched content are published on your site.
Publish your links elsewhere
You cannot expect that people would just magically land on your website. You have to publish the link to your website on the proper platform or forum. Maybe there’s a Facebook page for local doctors in Tucson? You can go there and post your site link. People will know that there’s a new website that offers the same services as the other sites.
Use social media
This cannot be emphasized well enough: use social media to your advantage. Don’t simply use Facebook, Instagram, etc. to post your vacation photos or your rants about paying taxes. Instead, make sure to use this platform to advertise your website. Your friends and their friends will be able to see that link and click on it for more information.
Try alternative keywords
The most popular keyword is surely the most successful, but it doesn’t mean it’s the only successful keyword. There are other words and phrases out there that can trigger a top Google search result for your website. Make sure that the keyword is still related to your business and that it still has that locality in it. For example, instead of using “doctor Tucson Arizona,” you can be more specific. What is the specialty of this doctor? You can use “orthopedic Tucson Arizona” or “primary care doctor Tucson Arizona.”