By Georgie Gallagher
I work with a lot of local Perth and Western Australia based businesses. Great local companies that compete with larger national and international brands. The challenge for these businesses is to be found online despite having leaner marketing budgets and resources.
There are a few key areas you need to focus on to improve your local rankings. Last year's annual local search report by David Mihm from MOZ shows just how important these strategies are. See a summary from Duct Tape Marketing here.
So let's look at a hypothetical local example, a business located in Perth, Western Australia. What does this business need to do to be found online. I'm going to assume we have an optimised site for local keywords and location.
1. Local Content - Start getting local with your content. Highlight local events. Showcase other local businesses. Support local causes. The idea is to link to local content often. Ensure this is part of your content strategy.
2. Get Rated - There are local review sites and it's important to start building your reviews from your customers so people searching on line can see how great you are. This is easier said than done - you need to make it part of your routine with your clients. Wildmoon has just launched an excellent new tool that helps achieve this - if you're interested to learn more, email me here.
3. Local Directories - Make sure you get listed in local directories. The challenge is to keep this information consistent and updated. One of the most important things to get right is your NAP - geek speak for Name Address and Phone. Match your Google + business entry across all listings so Google knows you're the same business.
4. Local Links - One the hardest jobs for building your online presence is to build links back to your website from other websites. Google loves these links as they show that you're a popular business - so you must be good right?! Look for local listings from business networks and other channels. Actively ask people for links. However the links need to make sense. Google doesn't like cheating.
All this takes work, time and know-how. Wildmoon can help streamline this vital SEO work so you stand out online and use your localness as a huge advantage.
But be warned, this journey is about being in business for the long haul. You should start seeing results in 3 months but the real benefits will come in the longer term as part of a consistent content marketing approach.
Happy Marketing,
Georgie
Georgie Gallagher is the founder of Wildmoon, a specialist marketing agency for manufacturing and B2B businesses based in Perth and Western Australia. Wildmoon helps with brand development, marketing strategy, marketing communications and strategic content marketing.