Hometown hero entrepreneurs are often highly invested in their communities. They identify a gap in the market and offer a unique product or service to fill it.
Local SEO is a crucial tool to help your business rank higher in online searches. Optimizing your website, Google Business profile, and earning reviews on review websites can help you achieve top rankings.
1. Be Unique
It’s important to find a way to set your business apart from others, both online and in person. Creating unique content that is both relevant to your local area and informative can help drive traffic, as well as build quality backlinks, which are also a ranking factor for local SEO.
A great way to get started is by finding your local keywords, which can be done using a free tool like Google AdWords Keyword Planner. You’ll then want to create content that naturally incorporates these keywords, without being obvious or stuffy. This will help you rank higher in organic search results as well as local search engine results.
Another way to be unique is by collecting and sharing positive reviews from customers and clients. Online reviews are not only a ranking factor for local search, but they also show potential customers that your business is trustworthy and legitimate.
Finally, a key to successful local SEO Nashville is by making sure that you are following Google’s guidelines for representing your business. Violations can lead to different levels of penalization, so it’s important to read and understand them thoroughly.
2. Be Local
local seo is a must for businesses that want to attract customers in their geographical area. It involves optimizing a website, Google Business profile, and other online profiles to rank high in local search results when users search for specific products or services in their area.
Having a passion for what you sell or the service you provide is a given, but being a local hero requires more than just great products and services. Local hero ecommerce companies prioritize people over profit and focus on fair trade and green market concepts.
A robust local SEO strategy can help you stand out from the competition and earn the trust of your audience. It also helps to be familiar with Google’s guidelines for representing a business online. The SEO Nashville team has extensive experience with local SEO and can help you optimize your online profiles, manage reviews, and build and monitor citations for better local rankings. To start your local SEO journey, run a free Rank Tracker assessment and find out how your competitors are doing. Then, you can start building a powerful online presence that makes you the neighborhood star.
3. Be Empathetic
Empathy is a powerful trait that makes us better as people and business owners. When you are empathetic, you put yourself in the shoes of another person and try to understand their perspective. It’s a big part of the Golden Rule and can help you be a better friend, family member, or co-worker.
Being empathetic can also make your customers feel better about you and your business. If you are able to identify with their needs, you can offer them solutions that meet or exceed their expectations. This can help you build loyalty with your customer base.
For example, Allbirds has a very simple process for donating shoes to those in need. This shows their customers that they care about a bigger cause than profits.
Brand empathy is a great way to show that you care about your customers and community. It can be done in a variety of ways, but it always boils down to the tried and true Golden Rule: Treat others as you would like to be treated. Then, you can expect to receive the same in return.
4. Focus on the People
Local SEO is important because people search locally online when they want to find a place that will fix their shoes, sell the book they’re reading, or bake them a spaceship-themed cake for their kid’s birthday. In fact, 46% of all Google searches have local intent. So if you’re not taking advantage of local SEO, your competitors are winning all the customers you could be.
If you create content that demonstrates that your business is legitimate, like blogs or videos, and share it widely with email lists, social media followers, and even your mom (hey, they’re all potential customers), it will help you rank better in local search results. Plus, if you use schema markup like business, organization, and product, it proves to search engines that your content is valuable and helps them understand what you’re selling.
Your reviews also matter, as do your citations and NAP consistency across online directories. Keeping up with these tasks can be difficult, but using a tool like Synup will ensure that all your listings are correct and up to date.
5. Be Creative
Local business heroes know that a strong online presence is key, but they don’t stop there. They find creative ways to promote their businesses and get involved in their communities – both online and offline.
They focus on using longtail keywords, which are three or more words that are more specific to what they’re selling. This helps them rank higher on Google and improve their organic search traffic.
In addition, they focus on promoting their products through social media and creating a dedicated website for each of their core neighborhoods. They also promote their Facebook page to their local audience, which allows them to respond to reviews quickly and easily.
They follow Google’s guidelines for representing their business online, and they make sure to regularly update their Google Business Profile and citations. These updates help ensure that their business information is accurate and up-to-date, which is critical for local SEO success.