sherbrooke_7535_westmountmag

Promoting your local business online

If you own a local business, you definitely want to dominate the local search results in your niche

ADVERTORIAL

Local SEO is for local businesses

Websites focusing on a local audience are different from those focusing on national or global audiences. In most cases, when visitors are interested in your services or products after seeing your profile online, you will interact with them, either in person or on the phone.

But how do you make your profile stand out in those local search results, and what aspects should you focus on? Here’s how to maximize your conversion rate and sales. The goal is for your brand to rank for local search results: We want people in a specific neighbourhood to see it and visit your profile, or order your services. In most cases, this is not to sell directly through the website. Instead, your profile invites people to come to your store, to your practice or to hire you for your skills.

Keyword research can be hard, but since you, as a local entrepreneur, regularly meet with your audience, you have a big advantage. Ask them about their search behaviour and what they were searching for when they first visited your website. Or what words or terms they would be using if they were looking for your type of business. That is valuable information.

Don’t stop there. Think about other search terms as well, as you might be missing out on an audience. Which queries does your local audience use when searching for your type of business? You should get inside the heads of your audience and figure out what they’re searching for.

For most local search queries, people will use the name of the city, town or village when searching for something. For instance, they’ll type in hairdresser Westmount or therapist downtown Montreal. But even if people do not use a local term in their search query, Google will probably recognize it as local search intent and will give search results based on your area.

Write ‘local’ headlines

Whether it’s in the wording of your profile or your online promotion, advertorial or native advertising, we at WestmountMag.ca make sure that the content is optimized for local SEO. This is because we’re focusing on a local audience, and we also want to make sure that our audience recognizes your brand as a local business.

Users are searching for that hairdresser nearby, the bakery around the corner, or that carpenter who will come to their house. They’ll click on those results that indicate that they are situated in their proximity. That’s important for local search. We make sure your snippet is clear about where your business is, and that the title of your posts and pages is clear about that.

Make an awesome first impression

Once we’ve convinced people to click on your profile in the search results, we convince them to visit your website and to not click away. A high bounce rate will eventually result in lower rankings, so we want to make an awesome first impression. Whether you’re a therapist, a doctor, a hairdresser or a carpenter, you have to sell yourself.

People want to know who they are dealing with. A good picture is key to making a strong first impression. Your profile, as well as your website, should reflect your business. If you have a practice or a physical shop, make sure to publish some high-quality optimized photos of your business and perhaps your employee. Videos are also a great way to present your business to the audience.

Write about your business

To rank in the local search results, we publish content related to your local business. An advertorial is a great content strategy that applies also to local SEO. Write about what your clients ask you when they’re shopping for the service you offer. If you’re a carpenter, your content should be about your past projects. If you’re a dentist, it should talk about the most common problems concerning teeth. This includes comments about your customers too! If people are exceptionally satisfied, they can leave a review on your profile or website.

Writing about local events is also a great content strategy for local SEO. In any local SEO content strategy, we make sure that your blog posts relate to our local community. And of course, we optimize your post for the keywords you came up with in your keyword research.

Social Media presence

Facebook should be part of your local content strategy. People connect with others from all over the world but are most prone to connect with people nearby. If you have a local business, you can benefit from social media channels by multiplying exposure to your advertorials with our Social Media Blitz campaigns that keep your local audience informed on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram and Pinterest. If you can write about your customers, it increases the chances your audience will share and engage with your posts.


READ ALSO:
Reasons to advertise in WestmountMag.ca

Real estate in WestmountMag.ca

View our Media Kit



There are no comments

Add yours