Want to improve your local search engine optimization (SEO)? Check out these tips from columnist Pratik Dholakiya, which are especially helpful for six types of businesses that serve a local market.
Small businesses are now turning to local SEO instead of national or global SEO due to its high cost and competitiveness. A successful white label local SEO service involves several components, starting with creating a Google My Business listing and filling it out with relevant information and keywords. Customer reviews and a well-optimized website with fresh and informative content also contribute to local search results. Local SEO can benefit any business with a local target market, but certain types of businesses can see significant success. Here are six business types that can benefit greatly from local SEO.
Medical services
Local SEO is crucial for businesses that offer medical services, such as doctor’s offices, dental practices, and urgent care clinics. Along with building a great website, there are several things medical professionals can do to improve their rankings.
One of the most effective ways to boost your visibility is by publishing high-value, informative content on your website. This can include blog posts or how-to guides that provide insight and value to your target audience while improving your search rankings.
For example, when searching for dental practices in New York City, the website for New York Dental Office appears in the second position. In addition to using relevant keywords, the navigation bar on their website is packed with valuable content that caters to visitors looking for a reputable provider. Their “Smile Gallery” showcases before-and-after photos of their work, and they also have a blog and FAQ section that likely contributed to their high search rankings.
Medical professionals can also improve their local SEO efforts by verifying and leveraging their name, address, and contact information on local business directories, such as Yelp and ZocDoc. By taking these steps, medical services providers can increase their online visibility and attract more potential patients to their practice.
Law Firms
For law firms, appearing in local search results is critical as people often seek legal counsel from experts nearby. There are several strategies that law practices can employ to improve their local search rankings. First and foremost, they should create a Google My Business page and ensure that their website is optimized around relevant keywords. For example, if someone is searching for a divorce lawyer in Los Angeles, Charles M. Green APLC’s website appears in the top three options and its homepage is optimized for relevant keywords in the area.
In addition to website optimization, online reviews are also crucial for boosting local search visibility and building brand reputation. As there is often a negative stigma attached to lawyers, third-party validation is essential for potential clients. Law firms should strive to generate client reviews on popular platforms such as Google and Yelp to improve their local search rankings.
Hotel and Restaurants
The hospitality industry experiences the highest turnover rate compared to any other industry, with over 1 million new restaurant locations opening in the United States within the last year alone. For restaurants to become a community staple, they must attract returning customers, and local SEO is key to achieving this.
Bars and restaurants operate on a local level, catering to a geographically targeted market. When users search for “restaurant” on their mobile devices, a suggested “near me” result typically follows.
Customer reviews are crucial in a bar or restaurant’s local SEO strategy. As seen in the screenshot, reviews are prominently displayed in the listings. In fact, in a recent BrightLocal survey, 60% of respondents reported reading online reviews for restaurants, the highest of any business category.
While a good content strategy is important in other industries, reviews are the primary driver of effective SEO for bars and restaurants. Positive reviews can elevate their local search rankings, while negative reviews can hinder their visibility.
Plumbers
When faced with an urgent plumbing issue, where do you turn? Most likely, you’ll turn to Google. In such cases, it’s not only about who can help you, but also about how quickly they can arrive and fix the problem. This is where local SEO becomes an invaluable tool for plumbers and other service providers who offer quick problem-solving solutions.
Plumbers can significantly improve their visibility through local SEO. Since their businesses depend on local markets, they are in a unique position to leverage educational content that addresses everyday issues and can be published on their websites to boost their rankings. For instance, Bill Howe, a San Diego-based plumber, has become famous on Google by providing informative content that helps his business appear on the first page for various local keywords.
Reviews can also be instrumental in boosting local rankings. Since plumbing services are in high demand, customers are looking for reliable experts who can produce trusted results. However, getting clients to provide online reviews can be a challenge. Therefore, it’s essential to go the extra mile and encourage feedback to put plumbers ahead of their competitors in local rankings.
With dedication and effort, experts in these fields can achieve quick results by implementing a local SEO strategy.
Pet Services
Pet services are a highly specialized industry that caters primarily to local customers. Pet owners often search for specific services such as grooming, pet sitting, walking, training, supplies, and veterinarians, making these keywords critical for local SEO success.
One of the key advantages of the pet industry is that it offers a wealth of opportunities for creating valuable content, and customer reviews are also critical. For instance, suppose you’re searching for a grooming service for your furry friend Bruno. In that case, you might encounter the first website that shows up in the local pack with the most reviews in the area, which provides trending content.
Pet owners expect nothing but the best for their animal companions, and pet service providers must go the extra mile to produce top-notch content while also encouraging reviews to improve their local search rankings.
Real Estate and Local SEO
With the emergence of platforms like Zillow and Trulia, smaller local real estate agents must have a hyper-local strategy to gain search exposure. While the bigger platforms do broad keyword searches well, agents targeting specific local markets can appear for long-tail keyword searches around home buying.
The key to success lies in creating pages that are as granular as possible, even down to the names of the smallest neighborhoods in the area. However, the real value lies in the content. Skilled agents can go above and beyond to provide value for the user by providing detailed and informative listings for neighborhoods in the area.
Localized content like this showcases a level of expertise and defines a niche that bigger platforms cannot compete with. For example, a southern California realtor provides content that goes in-depth with things like the history of the area, landmarks, community events, and the local school system. The copy also utilizes relevant keywords such as “luxury real estate” and “exclusive communities” to rank for long-tail search queries.