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A Comprehensive Guide to Local SEO for Small Businesses

If you’re starting a small business, SEO or search engine optimization can be helpful in letting users know about your brand during their search for information. As traffic to your site increases and you build on a positive experience for visitors, you’ll become more successful at driving more of the right kind of traffic. That said, SEO is really important to increase your online exposure and grow your business, but this is easier said than done.

For one, you could be competing for popular keywords in your industry that are already being dominated by bigger, longer-in-the-SEO-business websites. Businesses of this status have had more time and experience in building and refining their content, which makes it difficult to compete against them 

Your relatively small size can also pose challenges in terms of getting enough media coverage. Since you’re still trying to build a name for yourself, brand recognition may not be strong. As a result, it may take a longer time before third-party sites find your business on the web or begin linking to your website.

You might also find SEO hard to execute for obvious reasons, such as lack of time, budget, tools, or knowledge on your end. Altogether, these obstacles can mean your website doesn’t get the attention it deserves. 

Fortunately, there’s a way for you to also land on top of search results, and that’s through local SEO.  Local SEO is the practice of optimizing your website for audiences in your geographic location. Some of the best practices in local SEO include optimizing for city name, near-me search phrases, or writing relevant content about a local area even if you’re not physically located in the same area (there’s a dedicated section for this later in this post).

In a nutshell, local SEO enables small businesses like yours to compete with heavyweights for SEO rankings as you’re able to harness the added power of geographical relevance.

What Local SEO Brings to the Table

The different facets of managing a small business—making projections, managing staff, or sourcing suppliers— may leave you feeling so overwhelmed that you lose sight of the importance of SEO in general and local SEO in particular. When you’re tempted to put off doing local SEO in favor of other processes that you think are more vital for your business, you might want to keep in mind the various benefits that local SEO brings to the table.

1. More exposure

Here’s a compelling stat straight from the horse’s mouth: 46% of searches on Google have a local intent. 

That being the case, you’d do well to utilize local SEO to make sure that your website gains local but high-level exposure amongst your target demographic. While a standard search enables you to target anyone in the world wide web, local SEO zeroes in on customers or prospects who are in the same area as your business.

2. Better rankings

Search engines are smart enough to know when users are looking for local businesses through the use of location-based keywords or other search signals with a local intent. By applying local SEO, it will be easier for search engines to index your website, so that the next time someone makes a local search, your business will show as a suggestion or recommendation on top of the others.

3. More organic traffic

Research is an important phase of the buyer journey. According to statistics, majority of customers prefer to search online before making a decision or purchase.

  • Among PC owners, 96% conduct local searches. For mobile phone and tablet owners, the numbers are also impressive at 79% and 81 percent, respectively.
  • 87% of smartphone users conduct a search on a search engine at least once every day.

The data above is a clear indication of how local SEO can increase organic traffic to your website as people conduct local searches to find information about products and services, contact a business, or get directions to a local address, among others.

It’s also worthwhile to mention that SEO doesn’t only lead potential customers to your website, it can also improve foot traffic to your brick-and-mortar location as local searches often result in purchases in physical stores. 

4. Better quality traffic

When generating web traffic, it’s not enough that visitors are discovering your site. You’ll want the right kind of people who will benefit from the information, goods, or service that your business or website offers to increase your brand relevance in online search.

Through local SEO, you’ve got a better chance at reaching the top search results listing, which is also called the “snack pack.” In this listing, you’re placed above the organic results so your brand is the first thing that users see.

Getting a top spot in the local listing also means your business belongs to the top 3 businesses with high authority and ranking. Ultimately, dominating local searches can give you more quality leads who are using the search engines to find things around them. These users are easier to convert given that you belong to the same demographic, location, or community.

5. Greater return on investment

Of course, company owners want the highest ROI possible, but knowing where to invest company resources is especially crucial since it can affect how quickly or how big your business will grow. Local SEO is one of those highly profitable investments you could benefit from, as it allows you to be more competitive by helping you build brand awareness, bringing high-quality leads and potential customers to your site. 

Tips for Small Businesses to Improve Local SEO

1. Get listed on Google My Business.

Google My Business is a tool that lets you share your business information with customers who are using Google services, such as Search and Maps. It’s a great way for you to control what Google shows in the search results when users type in your business name in the search box.

Here are the most important things to include in your business profile on Google My Business:

  • Business information—This should include your business address, contact numbers, website URL, business category, operating hours, product or service offerings, and basically any information that will describe to users what your business is all about.
  • Photos and videos—You can add images and videos of your products, location, office, or team members to add to your site’s engagement factor.
  • Posts—Whenever you have new blog articles, promotions, or announcements, you should add these to your profile to keep customers informed about what’s happening with your business.

2. Monitor your local citations.

After creating your profile on Google My Business, the next thing to do is to make sure that your name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistent on any site where your business is listed. Also called local citations, your NAP is shown whenever your business is mentioned anywhere in the web. Any inconsistencies might confuse search engines and affect your site’s potential to appear in local searches, so you might want to consider using special tracking software to manage your listings and get rid of inaccurate details.

3. Perform local keyword research.

Your keyword research strategy has to mimic the type of search queries that local audiences are using. Go for long-tail keywords, using “near me” phrases or adding a location keywords. You could also look for variations in the way that people from certain locations look for information, so you could tweak your keywords accordingly.

4. Add schema markup.

Schema markup pertains to the metadata or secondary information that you add to your website’s code to make it more searchable or discoverable on search engines. By using schema markup, you can enrich what users see on the SERPs since there will be snippets that give visitors a preview of your website’s information or content. Then if they find it useful or relevant enough to what they’re looking for, they will head straight to your site, which gives you an extra opportunity to make a conversion.

5. Optimize your content.

Being a growing business presents you with the perfect timing to build your content assets. That said, you might want to come up first with content pieces that provide answers to questions that people may have about your business. Here’s where a frequently asked questions (FAQs) page may be handy, so you can let potential customers know more information about your business before they even call you. Use your FAQs to educate people about your business offerings, policies, common objections, and the like. 

To make it easy for search engines to find your content, you should optimize things like your keywords, page title, meta descriptions, headings and sub-headings, images, and anchor text. Think on-page optimization.

6. Be mobile friendly.

Once your website is up and running, you should ensure that the mobile version is as easy to view on a mobile device as it is on a desktop computer. Check for things like page speed and screen view to prevent people from abandoning your site. To optimize your website for mobile, make sure to compress visual media, remove unnecessary plugins, and minimize formatting issues.

Wrap-Up: Localizing SEO in the Age of Modern Marketing

Local SEO is a lot like organic SEO in that they’re both geared toward driving leads and customers to your website. Both types of SEO also involve knowing who your audience is, what they’re searching for, and where or how they’re searching.

The biggest difference between them is the geographical element that’s attached to local SEO, which allows you to have laser-focused targeting strategies for your business or location. Ranking high in local search brings your business closer to customers, so it’s really important that you build a strong local SEO foundation for your company.

Having a well-organized framework for your website is a good start since web design is one of the factors that can boost your search ranking on Google, Bing, Yelp, or Foursquare, to mention a few. You can also impress search engines by providing users with a positive experience as they navigate around your site. With more and more consumers using mobile devices to find the best businesses around them, your local SEO should cater not only to desktop search but specifically to mobile.

The bottom line is, implementing the best practices in local SEO can help secure your position in the digital marketplace. Even if you’re a small business, you can be on equal footing with other bigger businesses by being listed in the same search results where they’re also listed.

It helps if you have a dedicated team of experts who can study industry trends and implement updated strategies to address constantly evolving algorithms in search. When you regularly improve your business assets for local SEO, you’re maximizing your chances of gaining traffic, visibility, and authority in your niche.

In-House SEO vs. Outsourced SEO: Which Should You Choose?

In this era of growing internet penetration, businesses of all kinds can benefit significantly from having a strong online presence. In particular, search engine marketing—including SEO—has been proven highly advantageous for many companies.

If you’re one of these companies, you may be planning to build your own SEO team, but the question is, should you do it in-house or outsource SEO activities to the experts? 

It can be challenging to choose whether to hire professionals for an SEO team directly or to outsource it to a third-party firm. Both options have their advantages and disadvantages; plus, there are a plethora of other factors to consider. So, let’s weigh up the pros and cons to see which is the better option for you.

In-House SEO Teams

Having an in-house SEO team means directly hiring professionals to do SEO work for your company. This sounds like the ideal way to go, but depending on your SEO goals, nature of your business, budget, and many other factors, you might have to think twice about building an in-house team.  

Pros

  • Convenience

Having SEO Specialists in-house means you can easily reach out to them—and in person nonetheless—in case anything needs immediate attention. No need to communicate digitally and waste time waiting for a response. 

  • Knowledge about the business

Your employees should have an intimate understanding of your business even without having to do research, and that comes in handy when your marketers do other tasks related to SEO, like making Social Media or blog posts, bidding keywords, etc. It also helps in making their outputs consistent. 

  • Saves on costs

Cutting out the SEO agency would save your monthly budget, as you won’t have to pay set up costs, monthly retainers, or other hidden charges for hiring an agency. You can always provide an excellent salary package for your SEO specialists and save on your marketing spend as long as your process is efficient.

  • Fosters collaboration

The best SEO strategies involve teamwork, especially since it relies on different tasks to be carried out by different employees. No doubt this can be made seamless by having an in-house SEO. When your search team is close and understands the business as well as its overall direction, you will potentially discover more SEO opportunities.

  • Full control of the processes at all times

An in-house SEO team will give you some level of transparency regarding their techniques, procedures, and other information; but, they can also provide control over what strategies you want to implement and how. A third party may not be so transparent with how they do things, and might not follow the direction and guidance of their clients to the letter, especially if operations and practices aren’t easily movable. 

Cons

  • Knowledge decay

This refers to a lack of new information, updates, or improvements to your team’s knowledge about their tasks, and this often happens when they work on the same goals over and over again, always utilizing the same techniques. In-house SEOs can quickly sink into a systematic pattern of work that never evolves with the times, which could make your strategies stagnant.

  • Possible huge costs

The salary for a full-time, experienced SEO Specialist could easily be more than $3,000 a month, while some agencies offer low-cost packages that start for less than $1,000. You don’t need just one specialist, though, as SEO requires multiple moving parts and it’s impossible to find one who’s an expert in everything. More hires could mean more expenses, therefore further ballooning your payment.

That is why it is essential to look at all the costs and benefits thoroughly if you’re deciding between an in-house or third-party SEO team.

  • There’s little accountability

When something goes wrong or if the strategy fails, you can choose to fire your in-house SEO expert, though that doesn’t help that much to fix your problems and there’s little accountability beyond that. The worst part is, if you do take that person off the team, you’d have to take on the blame and fix things yourself. 

Outsourced SEO Teams

On the contrary, you also have the option to hire a third-party SEO agency. Since digital marketing is now acknowledged as an essential strategy for business growth, firms that offer such services have grown in number. As much as SEO is a quintessential part of any digital marketing strategy, you should first determine if hiring outside help is what’s best for your company.

Pros

  • Lets you focus on core business functions

When you hire an SEO partner that can genuinely help give you high visibility on search engines, you take that load off your shoulders and will have time to focus on other business functions that need your attention, which is especially helpful if you’re an SMB owner who still needs to plan out different strategies for growth. For larger businesses, it saves time spent on possibly going through multiple interviews to find in-house specialists. 

  • Cheaper cost 

For some organizations, hiring an SEO agency may make more sense because it generally costs less than paying for salaries and benefits of multiple professionals. Through an agency, you have access to a whole team of professionals with the right skills set, even those outside of SEO. However, you don’t always have to go for the cheapest one—remember that the cost of service often reflects the quality of work.

  • Offers a unique perspective 

SEO agencies have worked with other clients from different industries, so they are used to going outside of their comfort zone or thinking outside the box. Through this, they get to provide clients with fresh perspectives and avoid the paralysis that can sometimes happen from being too familiar with the brand and its products and services. This experience also gives them a unique outlook to provide insights from their work with other similar companies.

  • Accountability

To assure accountability from an SEO agency, you need to make sure that you reach an agreement that will oblige them to provide feedback based on what they have done each month. Doing this, and having them report to you regularly, will guarantee accountability, whether they’re doing a good job or not.

  • Expertise and resources

Experience also plays a big part when it comes to creating an SEO strategy for your business. An experienced agency that has worked with clients from various industries would have relatively more insights that can help you determine the route to take for your SEO. Aside from expertise, tools resources are also vital in SEO. Any established SEO partner should have a considerable toolset that you can add to your SEO arsenal. 

Cons

  • Finding the right one

SEO companies have popped out left and right over the last few years, making it harder to decipher which one really offers the best services for the buck. Merely looking at their websites won’t tell you if the agency is going to meet your needs or if the people working there are truly knowledgeable in the field.

There’s no denying that there’s a chance you might get “scammed” by some agencies, and this underscores the importance of doing your due diligence when looking for an SEO partner to trust. You can always read testimonials, reviews, and any information regarding your preferred company’s performance. Try to meet with them first personally before picking an agency. 

  • Cultural boundaries 

SEO is a global industry, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise if you end up setting your heart on an agency based offshore. Cultural differences should not be a turn-off, as long as you understand that there may be dissimilarities between you and the agency in some matters due to cultural boundaries. In some instances, it has led to issues, but it generally does more good than harm.

  • Additional expense

When it comes to price, quality should always be a factor to consider. Cheap agencies can be good or bad for your business, and so can the expensive ones. And although hiring a SEO agency involves additional monthly costs associated with service fees and retainers, a focused partner will likely have a highly-efficient operational system in place, which means getting more out of each dollar spent.

  • Less control of the processes

Outsourcing companies have the responsibility to regularly report the work they did for you to keep you in the loop. However, when it comes to SEO agencies, the business owner usually doesn’t have a hand in every aspect and process. A reliable SEO partner will ask for your recommendations and guidance, but ultimately, they may end up using strategies that they themselves deem is fit for your business, even if you don’t necessarily think that it’s the right one.

Outsourcing and Its Implications to Scalability 

Every business aims for growth, but that will always be a challenge to do so, especially with the ever-changing market conditions. A thriving business means that clients and their demands will also increase, and if you’re still working with the outdated systems that you started with, you’ll likely fail to keep up with those demands.

No patchwork solution will be enough; instead, you have to prepare by regularly improving your solutions and processes for the future, so that you can also stay competitive. In this case, scaling your business means building a model and putting systems in place that can be grown or shrunk, depending on your needs at the time. 

The importance of scalability

When you have solutions in place to handle increases, you maintain your business’ efficiency and the quality of products and services you offer. These, in turn, can reinforce good customer relations business reputation. From a financial perspective, scalability can lower what you’re paying out, and you get more for what you pay. 

Small businesses need scalability even more, as they have the biggest potential for growth. Scalability on one or more levels allows them to hold onto and build market share. However, they have to be more careful with their limited resources, as they may fail to foresee what they might need or where the market might go in the future.

How outsourcing SEO can help scalability

One of the solutions you can look at to improve scalability is outsourcing, as this option would allow you to ramp up production without having to go over your budget for recruitment and retention. You’re also assured that personnel adequately trained on what they need to do for you.

It’s also easier to shrink the size of your team with outsourcing, as you don’t have to get into the nitty-gritty of terminating employees, and because you’re only scaling up on an as-needed basis. For example, outsourcing would allow you to scale up during peak seasons or when you’re starting a new project, until such time that you’ve achieved the goal of your project and you can reduce the size of operations. 

It goes without saying that you only pay for what you use when it comes to outsourcing SEO. This means that you can retain a significant amount of budget that would otherwise be spent on overhead costs, and still get the expertise you require full time, albeit only temporarily.

Other organizations may also opt to outsource non-strategic tasks in order to optimize their core competencies while bringing in more value to their businesses. These tasks are ideal to contract out because it won’t require you to hand over access to sensitive information, and you can cut down costs and time. 

Outsource If You Must

In reality, no single option works for every company. Outsourcing or doing in-house SEO would each work best in specific situations. For instance, a start-up or SMB that has limited budget may find it more beneficial to hire an outsourced agency that offers low-cost packages, but an established enterprise that has more on the line in terms of reputation would want (and afford) in-house specialists.

Keep in mind, building a SEO team isn’t always black and white. For example, some companies may choose to hire small core SEO team in-house to focus on strategic decisions while an outsourced SEO partner handles the bulk of the execution.

Situations can differ depending on many factors; that is why it’s vital to have a deep understanding of your business’ nature, goals, and resources before choosing between in-house and outsourced. But, just in case you opt to hire a partner for your SEO needs, SEO Company will work with you to find the agency that matches your needs!