Your ?Small Businesses Can Compete! If You Use Local SEO To Compete With Big Box Stores

Long ago local businesses mostly only advertised locally in newspapers, magazines and radio stations while larger companies made use of more popular media outlets that could gain them exposure on a national level. But in modern times, potential customers are making use of search engines more often to find the businesses that cater to their needs. This notion can be very beneficial to small to medium sized businesses, as search engine algorithms are developing so that content is listed by relevance instead of the amount of content on a site or the time a site has been active.

How Can Search Engines Benefit Smaller Businesses?

By making use of an efficient marketing plan that involves search engine optimization, small to medium sized businesses can easily dust out their larger counterparts. This can be achieved by implementing tactics that will help your business's website rank higher than the competition. There are many tactics for helping your local business website rank higher, but one that's proven to be very effective has been making use of local SEO.

Local SEO focuses on getting visitors to your site that are looking for what you offer in your area. It makes complete sense to target potential customers like this because your small business won't benefit much from a search engine ranking if the potential customer who saw your website is in Los Angeles and you are a small shop in Ohio. It's safe to say that very few people will be willing to travel that far to make use of what you're offering.

In reality, targeting local search results is simply a way of getting your target market to see you. If you're a local clothing store in Nashville that caters to men who like to keep up with the latest trends, it's safe to say that you're not only targeting young and middle aged men who like fashion, you're targeting those men specifically in Nashville.

The same principle holds true for anything from a dental practice to a restaurant – if you don't have a strong online brand people may not know what you're offering, you need to target your audience locally so the people who see you will potentially make use of what you can offer them and help you grow a strong local base. 

Why Local SEO Can Help You Reach The Top

Because small to medium businesses don't usually operate nationally, they can make use of local SEO to gain a huge tactical advantage on mega-sized corporations.

Large companies tend to work across many cities, states and even countries. So while a one-of-a-kind boutique might not be able to compete with designer brands if their search engine strategy isn't localized, they can easily gain more search engine rankings for local searches by focusing their efforts where it matters most.

Larger companies, on the other hand, have to do their best to rank for general search terms that aren't necessarily very specialized. Which can give them a tactical advantage if no location is specified in a search, but the exposure they gain this way wouldn't be of much benefit to a business that can't cater to customers on the opposite side of the country.

What Local SEO Techniques Can Businesses Implement?

Search engine algorithms are constantly evolving, so it's never safe to assume that what works currently will still be good practice ten years from now, but there are a couple of tactics that are currently effective for small businesses to help their rankings for local searches go up.

Choose A Narrower Niche

Many businesses feel tempted to rank for as many local searches as possible and so they create content on anything that's even slightly relevant to their industry. But instead, it's better to create content that only focuses on what you do specifically.

A business that repairs appliances wouldn't benefit from creating content that reviews new appliances, not only will most of their search engine traffic be people who are looking to buy something new instead of fixing a used item, they might even be convincing potential clients that they should rather buy something new than having it fixed. So instead of focusing content on anything that's relevant to appliances, such a business should try to focus their content only on what they do, which is fix appliances. This is more likely to get the right eyes viewing their website.

Make Use Of Review Websites

Many review sites offer your customers the option the give local reviews about the experience they had with your business. This is useful to improve your visibility as a local business because search engines rank websites with good review rather than those with bad ones and these reviews could even show up in internet searches higher than your actual website.

The great thing about making use of this strategy is that there's no need for you to create content. Just deliver your product and service to the best of your ability (which you probably do already) and ask your customers for positive feedback.

 If you find it hard to track down, or feel awkward asking for reviews we have a great product at Serious SEM that can help with that! Our Reputation Amplifier automates the process! It's a great tool for any business who needs or desires more online reviews (let's face it that's all of us!). You add your email into our system and then we contact your customer for you and follow up with them over the next 105 days if they don't respond or opt out right away. We have seen a 35% increase in reviews for business who worked with us in the Beta stage of this product so far. If you want to know more about this product and how it can help your business gain more reviews feel free to message me or reach out to use through our website at ReputationAmplifer.com

Be More Personal On Social Media

Please don't take this the wrong way, being more personal on social media isn't about treating potential customers like they're your therapist. You really shouldn't be broadcasting your personal life on your business's social media profiles.\, and don't overload them with cat videos! 

 This is about making your brand more personal by showing that you're part of the local community and by giving customers more personal feedback. If a customer posts a picture of something they bought after you recommended it to them and uses your hashtag, compliment them on their good taste and tell them that you recommended it because you really thought they'd like it.

Get Professional Marketers To Help

Lastly, it's always great to work with professionals. You can greatly improve your search engine ranking by hiring an SEO company that specializes in local SEO. Because properly targeted searches will bring the right people to your website, the expense is likely to be the best investment you can make for marketing your business.