Most local brands are spending thousands of dollars on marketing campaigns and paid ads. Yet, they’re still not getting the results they deserve.
To make matters worse…
It takes them a continuous stream of income and countless efforts to keep new leads coming.
SEO, on the other hand, is the exact opposite. It requires little financial investments and effort while ensuring astonishing results for long years to come.
So in this guide, you’ll learn what SEO is and what makes it so effective for local brands.
Let’s dive right in.
What is SEO?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing a website around specific ranking factors to improve its visibility in the search. Those factors include ensuring the best experience to the user, serving high-quality content, optimizing for keywords, and more.
Why is SEO the Best Growth Strategy for Local Brands?
There’s no such thing as overnight success with SEO. But if you’re willing to take the hard road and implement everything you learn in this guide, your local brand will outcompete everyone.
How?
Through the magic of organic traffic…
First of all:
Businesses with the strongest SEO strategies can generate hundreds of organic leads each month for free. That, in turn, helps you keep your marketing costs down and put you above your competition.
Also:
Unlike most other marketing strategies, SEO doesn’t force you to put all your eggs in one basket.
Focusing on organic traffic provides your small business with long-term stability and continuous growth opportunities. You’ll have hundreds of pages ranking high on Google. And that will attract thousands of visitors to your brand each month.
Even if you lose some of your highest ranking spots, you’ll still have an insane amount of leads coming to your site each month.
Moreover:
Local SEO remains the best growth strategy in terms of local targeted traffic. It allows you to capitalize on the low hanging fruits by honing in on underserved local audiences.
So, that opens doors for your business to convert highly-targeted, local leads who are ready to do business with you.
Most importantly…
SEO is the most popular marketing strategy for brands of all sizes, which means that your competitors are already doing it. Therefore, it’s essential for your company to join the race and not leave all the potential for your competitors.
6 Essential Factors for a Successful SEO Strategy in 2021
1- User Experience
Everything on your website matters and can affect the way users interact with your brand in the future. Thus, affecting your rankings in the search engine results pages.
For example:
A slow website or a non-mobile-friendly page can leave a negative first impression on your prospects. Which makes them leave your site and never come back.
That is a negative sign in the eyes of Google.
Your web copy and design will also help paint a clear picture of your company inside the visitor’s mind. A professionally designed web page will reflect authority, while well-written copy shows clarity and expertise.
2- Keyword Optimization
Proper keyword research maximizes your chances of ranking at the top and helping your audience find you faster.
Consequently…
A winning SEO strategy must focus on finding lucrative keywords and using them to optimize the content. You must look for high-volume, low-competition key phrases that your prospects use when searching on Google.
Once you have your targeted keywords, you’ll use them whenever publishing new content. That helps search spiders understand your pages and serve them to relevant audiences.
3- Quality Content
Search engines have always considered content quality an essential ranking factor. That explains why you’ll never come across mediocre content on the first page of Google today.
Publishing quality articles regularly keeps your site on search engines’ radars. It helps Google crawl and index your pages much faster, which is key to boosting your rankings on the SERPs.
On top of that:
Better content results in a more positive user experience, leading to longer dwell time and better time-on-site results. Those are both essential metrics that search engines consider when deciding which pages to rank higher.
And not to forget…
A better content quality makes it easier for you to build links to your site and get expert recognition. It’s a great way to improve your backlink profile and attract links from authoritative websites in your industry.
4- Link Building
Link building is the process of generating high-quality external links that lead to your website. They serve as signals from authoritative sites in your industry that tell Google that your content deserves more attention.
Backlinking also helps search engines understand your content better so it can be served to relevant audiences.
But be careful…
There are lots of black hat backlinking techniques that can affect your site negatively. In fact, many businesses have lost all their top rankings and hard work overnight after getting penalized by Google.
5- Local SEO
Getting your brand in front of highly-targeted local audiences might be the missing piece to your business growth puzzle.
While global SEO aims to attract worldwide visitors, local SEO is more focused on nearby audiences. That makes it the best solution for local brands and businesses to break out of the competition and find smaller markets to serve.
Each month, billions of users are typing local search queries and using Google Maps to find local companies that could serve their needs.
Now…
To transform your brand through Local SEO, you need to:
- Optimize for Google My Business
- Encourage positive reviews from satisfied clients
- Target local keywords in your content
- Ensure NAP information consistency
- Optimize online directories and citations
- Build local links in targeted locations
6- On-Page SEO
On-page SEO consists of optimizing individual web pages on your website for SEO.
It extends beyond content writing into:
- Crafting keyword-rich title tags and meta descriptions
- Breaking down your posts with headlines and subheadings
- Optimizing URLs, images, and according to best SEO practices
- Building an effective internal linking structure
Wrapping It Up
SEO is an excellent marketing strategy that can yield outstanding results for your local business. It’s a cost-effective way to attract targeted leads and convert them into loyal customers.
But in order for you to find success with it…
It takes lots of expertise and knowledge about the latest trends and strategies. And unfortunately, having to learn that on your own can slow your growth and put your competitors at an advantage.
That’s why you need to hire a local SEO company with hands-on experience around the latest tools and trends to facilitate your growth. Outsourcing your marketing efforts to the right SEO agency also helps you save time and money while you edge out the competition.