For years, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has simply been the gold standard for business who want to gain targeted traffic for their website online. But like all things marketing, even SEO evolves. Years ago, SEO managers simply wanted to gain a leg up on any competition in the space. It was like running in a marathon where there’s one winner and one winner only.
Today, search has evolved to deliver results for local searches when that matters to the searcher most. For instance, when people in Chicago search for a pizza delivery solution, they don’t want one in Los Angeles. Before that search would have looked something like, “Pizza+Delivery+in+Chicago” or “Chicago+Pizza+Delivery.” Today, it’s simply, “Pizza+Delivery+Near+Me” or perhaps “Pizza+Delivery.” Search engines have thusly evolved to incorporate location preference so that someone searching in Manhattan for a super market will find super markets nearer to the Manhattan zip code in their search results. Why? It simply makes sense.
So, how does a business respond? Local businesses that stand to benefit from local search will get a preference in search when those nearest them look for products and services they provide. So while engaging a broader SEO strategy for the overall market, it’s also important for those local brick-and-mortar business to enact strategies that target local search. They include:
- Ensuring Your Google My Business Profile is Always Up to Date
- Establishing Your Business Address Consistently Online
- Promoting Your Business Profile in Other Local Search Directories
But this is just the beginning. Local SEO (and SEO in general, for that matter) are both nascent marketing strategies when compared to traditional marketing, and their evolution is ongoing and swift. It’s important to manage your strategies with the perspective that they must always be informed by current changes in search and local search. It’s important to ensure your strategies are not static. You may look up one day and find your website has dropped in local search rankings considerably because your strategies are simply archaic.
It’s also very important to consider what your competitors are doing: both those that are ahead of you and those behind you. You are running a race. You want customers and clients to select your business above others in the space. That being the case, you have to incorporate strategies that counter what those competitors are doing. Don’t run your strategies in a vacuum. If you do, you’ll lose. It’s simple as that.
Just remember that search is evolving, so search strategies must evolve along with it. When you play close attention to the strategies that are working to bring customers to your business online, you’ll be in a better position to leverage all of the tools that Google, Google My Business and search ranking in general offer, and they are many!
If you’d like to learn more about how local search can bring targeted traffic into your business, call the team at Proctor Digital at 773.664.5819. We love helping local businesses get high above the fray.