5 Great Tactics for Growing Your Local SEO Authority
Let’s be honest: local SEO is hard.
It’s hard because local businesses are competing with each other, and they all want to rank on Google Maps. This means that you’re not only competing against big brands like Starbucks or McDonalds, but also against small mom-and-pop shops in your area. With the holiday season fast approaching, many businesses are looking to expand their local SEO authority with the help of Impressive Digital – SEO Austin TX. In fact, Google has already started rolling out local search algorithm updates designed to help users find businesses in their area. Many business owners wonder how they can grow their local SEO authority.
The good news is that if you have a brick-and-mortar business, there are ways to get ahead of the competition by growing your local SEO authority. Start by doing these 5 things:
- Build a Strong Website Presence
In the world of search, you can’t escape it: websites are still the best way to get found in Google. If you want to get noticed by local users and businesses alike, you need to make sure your website is optimized for SEO and provides plenty of value to its visitors.
- Create Great Content
Your website is your home base — it’s where you should be sharing all of your best content. From blog posts to videos and infographics, creating compelling content that solves problems for both visitors and search engines is one of the most important things you can do online. As long as this content provides value, it will help boost your local SEO authority over time.
- Build High-Quality Links
Links from other websites are like votes of confidence from other businesses in your area — they tell Google that a particular site is worth checking out for whatever reason (and those reasons often include things like “local SEO”). One way to build high-quality links is by guest blogging on related sites; another option is reaching out directly. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly. Google wants its users to have a good experience on their phones, so they’re going to penalize sites that aren’t mobile friendly. Make sure you have a responsive design so that people can access your site on all devices, including smartphones and tablets.
- Local citation
Create local citations for yourself online by adding your business name, address and phone number (NAP) to online directories like Yelp and Yellow Pages (YP). You should also add these details to directories that aren’t directly related—for example if there’s a listing for “flower shops” on Yelp or YP, then add yours as well!
- Publish Local Content
What’s better than ranking on Google? Ranking on Google and getting tons of traffic to your site. And what’s better than ranking on Google? Ranking on Google and getting tons of traffic to your site AND having a bunch of links pointing to it. Putting together local content is one of the best ways to do both.
Creating content that answers questions about your local area is an excellent way to build authority, get links and attract visitors from search engines like Google and Bing. It’s also helpful for establishing yourself as an expert in your industry, which will help with branding efforts down the road if you decide to expand into other areas such as online marketing or copywriting services for businesses in other cities or states.
