Who Does Local SEO Help?

Local SEO is a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy that helps your business be more visible in local search results on Google. Any business that has a physical location or serves a geographic area can benefit from local SEO. For example, local SEO can significantly benefit local restaurants or retail shops looking to boost their visibility on Google Maps when folks are looking for a new place to visit. It can also benefit local services like plumbing, electricians, lawn care, mechanics, and other blue-collar service industries. Many people specifically look for local services and especially ones with good reviews.

How Does Local SEO Help Your Business?

Reach Your Target Audience & Potential Customers Better

Local SEO uses relevant target keywords for marketing your business on Google and improves the chances of your audience finding you. This means when people are searching for a solution to their problem, they will find your business and be directed to your website.

Find Customers Searching for Your Product or Service

Chances are high that people are already looking for your product or service. Local SEO helps you connect with these relevant customers in the discovery phase. When done right, SEO improves your website's ranking and puts your business in front of the relevant customers, thus bringing in better sales.

Increase Quality Website Traffic

SEO is primarily about getting more traffic physically to your store or virtually to your website. While all the traffic will not convert to sales, it's better to have more traffic than none. More people visiting your site or location means more chances of selling your product or service. More traffic also increases your brand visibility and people to spread the word about your business.

Bypass Your Competition

Suppose two companies are selling the same product locally. However, one has an optimized local SEO presence, and the other relies on traditional marketing efforts alone. Which one do you think customers will flock to in this era of digital connectivity?

Proper SEO efforts allow your business to attain a sustainable competitive advantage that improves your position ahead of others in the field.

Create Overall Brand Awareness

People searching your relevant keywords will find your business at the top of Google. Your brand awareness will increase if you increase the frequency you populate in their results. They are more likely to click on your website or eventually look for your business in the future.

Reduce Your Cost Per Acquisition 

The most attractive advantage of SEO is that it is low-cost compared to other marketing efforts like advertising. It is cost-efficient because you aren't paying for clicks, views, or space in a paper. You could even spend hours and hours learning to do it yourself. However, if you don't have that kind of time like most business owners, your best bet is to hire a small business SEO company to help you. Local SEO experts are a worthwhile investment in building your brand.

Achieve Long-Lasting Rankings

Unlike traditional marketing tactics, SEO results are long-lasting rather than expiring after some time. Once you rank in the SERPs, you will likely hold the position, but you'll need to maintain your SEO by paying attention to algorithm updates, which means regular updates to your details. Nothing is guaranteed, but as long as you keep up to date on the updates and ever-changing landscape of SEO, you will achieve long-lasting rankings.

SEO Results Are Measurable

In the current age, data is king. Reviewing accurate details can provide valuable insights on how to take your business to the next level. Local SEO for small businesses collects essential details about your website's performance and provides a proper understanding of how you can improve.

SEO provides data to inform how you will further improve your bottom line.

Continuous Business Growth

Local SEO is about bringing more relevant traffic while improving your Google rankings, naturally improving sales and marketing leads. Improving sales brings more interested customers; your Local SEO will create a self-sustaining business growth cycle. If you're looking to grow your business, investing in Local SEO with either your time or a professional can be critical to your success.

What is Backlinking?

Backlinks improve your website's authority, and SEO ranking algorithms view them as votes of confidence from other websites. Improving the quality and quantity of your backlinks improves your rankings. 

Therefore, your website can rank higher for search terms if it has more backlinks. You can also boost your rankings for relevant search terms with backlinking. 

Backlinking may also lead to more website visitors through referral traffic. People reading popular websites may click on your backlinks to learn more about a particular topic.

While domain authority is not a ranking factor, many SEO tools use it to help identify ways to improve your strategy by comparing you to the competition. Backlinks can also boost your domain authority, which improves your SERPs and can move you further up on the search results page.

What are Keyword Strategies for Local SEO?

Choosing the right keywords for your business is crucial in driving traffic and improving search engine rankings. The first step is to brainstorm a list of relevant words and phrases that people might use to find your products or services. Consider what sets your business apart from others in your industry, and include those unique selling points in your keyword selection. 

Next, research using tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush to determine the search volume and competition level for each keyword on your list, conducting keyword research to determine which keywords are most likely to result in successful SEO campaigns. Look for keywords with high search volume but low competition because these will be easier to rank for.

It's also important to consider local SEO by including location-specific keywords if you have a physical storefront or serve customers in a specific area. Including your location can help attract more targeted visitors looking specifically for businesses like yours in their area.

Once you've narrowed your list of potential keywords, prioritize them based on relevance, search volume, and competition level. It's better to target a few highly relevant keywords than try to rank for dozens of unrelated ones.

Remember that choosing the right keywords is an ongoing process that requires testing and tweaking over time. Stay up-to-date with current trends and regularly revisit your keyword strategy to ensure it continues to drive results for your business.

 What Results Can You Expect with Local SEO?

Whether you're a business owner, a website administrator, or simply curious about improving your online presence, understanding SEO can greatly benefit you.

So, what exactly is SEO? In simple terms, SEO is the process of optimizing your website to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). When users search for specific keywords or phrases related to your business or industry, you want your website to appear prominently on those search engine results. SEO helps achieve that goal.

Here’s what you can expect from SEO:

1. Increased Organic Traffic: One of the primary benefits of SEO is an increase in organic traffic to your website. By optimizing your site's content, structure, and technical aspects, you make it easier for search engines to understand and index your pages. As a result, your website becomes more visible to users searching for relevant keywords, leading to a higher volume of targeted organic traffic.
2. Improved Search Engine Rankings: SEO aims to improve your website's search engine rankings. While achieving top rankings can take time and effort, implementing effective SEO strategies helps your website climb the search engine ladder. As you optimize your site and build quality backlinks, search engines recognize your website as authoritative and relevant, resulting in higher rankings.
3. Enhanced User Experience: SEO involves optimizing your website for both search engines and users. By focusing on factors like site speed, mobile responsiveness, user-friendly navigation, and quality content, you enhance the overall user experience. A well-optimized website not only attracts search engine attention but also keeps visitors engaged, leading to longer sessions, lower bounce rates, and increased conversions.
4. Targeted Audience Reach: SEO allows you to target specific keywords and phrases relevant to your business. This helps you reach a highly targeted audience actively searching for the products, services, or information you offer. By aligning your website content with user intent and search queries, you increase the chances of attracting users who are more likely to convert into customers or take the desired action.
5. Long-Term Results: SEO is a long-term strategy that provides sustainable results. While it requires consistent effort and continuous optimization, the benefits of SEO can be long-lasting. Unlike paid advertising, which stops generating traffic once the budget runs out, organic traffic from SEO can continue to flow even if you reduce your marketing spend.
6. Competitive Edge: In today's digital landscape, SEO has become an essential aspect of online success. By investing in SEO, you gain a competitive edge over businesses that neglect it. As you climb the search engine rankings and attract more organic traffic, you establish your brand's authority, credibility, and visibility, surpassing competitors who don't prioritize SEO.

Remember, SEO is an ever-evolving field. Search engines continually update their algorithms to deliver better results to users, and SEO best practices change over time. It's crucial to stay informed about the latest trends and adapt your SEO strategies accordingly.

At Third Marble Marketing, we specialize in SEO and can help you navigate this dynamic landscape. Our team of experts is dedicated to optimizing your website, driving organic traffic, and achieving higher search engine rankings. Contact us today to take your online presence to new heights with effective SEO strategies.

The Google Algorithm is Always Changing

Google's algorithm is a complex system that's constantly evolving, making it difficult to determine how it works. However, some basic principles can be deduced from how Google ranks websites. The most critical factor in Google's algorithm is the quality of the content on a website, including the relevance of the keywords used and the overall quality of the writing. Google also takes into account the number of links pointing to a website, as well as the quality of those links. 

Google is constantly changing its algorithm to improve the quality of search results for its users. The company does not release detailed information about these changes, but they can significantly impact the ranking of websites in Google's search results.

Some of the latest updates to Google's algorithm include:

•  A change to how the "freshness" of content is considered when determining rankings. This update means that newer content will be given more weight than older content, even if it is less relevant overall.
• An update to how Google deals with "spammy" or low-quality websites. This includes websites created purely for advertising or containing a large amount of low-quality content. These websites will now be penalized more heavily, which could result in them being completely removed from Google's search results.
• A change to how backlinks are taken into account when determining rankings. This update means that links from websites considered to be high-quality will carry more weight than those from low-quality websites.

These are just a few of the latest updates to Google's algorithm. As always, keeping your website up-to-date and relevant is vital to ensure good rankings in Google's search results.

How Long Does Local SEO Take?

One of the most common questions we get as experts is “when can I expect to see results.” The shortest answer is that Local SEO is a long game tactic. Meaning that it takes longer to get going but it pays off in dividends long after the work is done. (Barring any massive algorithm updates from Google - which is why we highly recommend keeping an SEO team working on your account even after initial work is completed.)

Google’s Maile Ohye says that in most cases, SEO professionals need four months to a year to help you implement improvements and then see potential benefits.

If you are working with a new domain is a key factor influencing the time it takes to see SEO results. 

A new domain usually takes longer to move the needle than an established one because it has yet to build up authority or earn any backlinks. Compared to an established domain will have typically earned some authority and backlinks.

With a new domain, you can expect results within 9 to 12 months vs 6 to 12.

Having an established domain doesn't mean you'll automatically see quicker results. If your domain has previously been dinged by a penalty, a core algorithm update, or had SEO work done that goes against Google's webmaster guidelines. (One of the benefits of going with a professional company that will avoid such things.) When we begin working on a new SEO project, we review your site's performance by looking at impressions on Google Search Console. 

Suppose the site has lost a significant amount of organic visibility. In that case, it suggests a problem that needs fixing or a quality issue that needs to be resolved. In that case, it will likely take longer than 12 months to see results.