If you are running a small business and you have an online presence, chances are that you have at least heard about things like local SEO and local search directories. If this didn’t sound too familiar for you, I will clear things out. First of all, local SEO refers to the onsite and offsite actions that a small business could take to optimize their websites for keywords that contain the city or area where the shop, service provider, manufacturer (etc.) is located.
Why Should You Choose Local SEO?
You increase online exposure by promoting your products and services to those people who are most likely to contact your company. The reason why local SEO should be a small business’ best friend is that it is very cost effective. If your company hasn’t expanded yet, you have little financial resources that must be managed with extreme caution. Casting your net too wide in the SEO world means almost certain failure. But focusing on more geo-targeted keywords means not only will you zero in on customers more likely to be in your area but they’re also more likely to be looking to purchase as well!
How To Get Started
It’s recommended that you start with onsite optimization. This means you need to display consistent and accurate information about your location. Include phone number, physical address, contact emails and other online presences. This should appear above the fold on every single page. Of course, you need to keep it brief and give straight to the point information.
The history and the reasons why people should choose your service will be listed on the ‘About us’ page that must not be neglected. Next, you claim your listing in Google+ Local, Bing Maps and other local search directories. Now you need to rank high for your keywords. An expert is recommended once you get to this step.
Should I Hire an Expert?
Well, that depends – are you in the business of SEO? If the answer is “no” then you might want to consider hiring an expert. If you happen to be a business owner that runs a pet store and you have an electrical problem, do you fix it yourself? Not likely. The same is the case with SEO. In a best case scenario you may only waste some money. In a worst case scenario you could get yourself removed from search engines entirely if you go about it the wrong way. In the end, spending a little money up-front and hiring an expert may end up costing you less in the long run.
- Published: November 1, 2012
- Author: Daniel Ruyter
- Blog: Ducking In Blog
- Category:
- Tags: google, Internet marketing, Search, search engine optimization, SEO, small business, website
- Comments:
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I think that it would also be wise to leave SEO to the experts if you are not confident that you could manage this task personally. Thanks for the informative share!
Sometimes it would really be best to hire an expert to get the job done right and in a timely manner. Most business owners struggle with SEO methods that never work to their advantage simply because they don’t really know what they are getting themselves into. Thanks for sharing!
There are numerous references available online to refer to when it comes to developing SEO strategies, we cannot discount the fact though that consulting companies that specialize in this is also highly recommended for those who are completely clueless 🙂 Thanks!
SEO is best handled if let out to experts because it’s not worth experimenting with so much of competition in this field. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for this article.I’m still in the planning stage of establishing my small make up business online.This one helps a lot so i m thankful for it.
Getting started on SEO is similar to getting closer to your customers and readers .Its pays to make your presence be felt in the web
This article is superb.I’ll be doing a more thorough review and reading on it. This is actually very useful especially for starters.
Getting into SEO with your business, It doesn’t matter if it’s small or large scale is a good idea.You get to have more people who’ll notice your business and your products as well.
Doing SEO is not so easy but right now I have reap the fruits of it by having the best SEO specialist doing for my website.