One of the most important ways to grow your customer base is to invest in local SEO, ensuring that customers in your community can find you when they need you.

Local SEO is incredibly important, and increasingly competitive. Simply put, if you’re not close to the top of the local search rankings, it means your competitors are. And that means you’re losing valuable market share.

The good news is, there are a number of simple and straightforward ways you can step up your local SEO endeavors, improving visibility and bolstering your customer outreach.

5 Ways to Improve Local Search Visibility

1) Make use of title tags and meta descriptions.

Title tags and meta descriptions, collectively known as metadata, remain important yet oft-overlooked opportunities for search optimization.

Basically, these fields allow you to tell the search engines a little bit about what your website is all about. And because these pieces of information actually show up on the search engine results page (SERP), they also serve as mini-ads, telling potential readers more about what the website is about.

Simply put, metadata provides you with one of your best opportunities to communicate with the search algorithms, and to entice search engine users to click through in order to access your content. So, make sure you take full advantage:

• Remember that you have 50 to 60 characters for your title tags, and 150 to 160 for your meta descriptions.
• Try to incorporate target keywords whenever you can do so naturally.
• Remember to communicate something specific about your value proposition; generic copy won’t get clicks!

Bottom line: Exploiting metadata is a crucial way to improve your local SEO success.

2) Claim your Google Business Profile.

Google offers business profiles for every verified business. You can claim one for free, and when you do so, you earn another important way to inform the search algorithms about what your business is all about.

Again, these profiles are about the algorithms but also about search engine users. The info you provide is public facing, meaning this is another important way to alert consumers about your hours, your location, your contact information, your products and services, and beyond.

Take the time to claim your profile, but don’t stop there. Also take some time to optimize it, completing all relevant fields of your profile. Again, use keywords when you can, and try to convey your value proposition as specifically as possible.

3) Cultivate online reviews.

Google reviews are an important signal to the search algorithms, indicating that your business is relevant to consumers. And of course, positive reviews can help you build trust and foster great consumer sentiment.

As such, it’s smart to be proactive in gathering reviews. Some suggestions:

• Include a CTA, asking for reviews on your website and digital receipts/invoices.
• Showcase your reviews with a widget on your home page.
• Take the time to respond to your reviews, providing meaningful customer service.
• Talk with your marketing vendor about software that can automate review aggregation. This is something we can help with here at enCOMPASS.

4) Create separate service pages.

For service-based businesses, it’s advisable to create a separate page for each service that you offer, as opposed to having just one page that lists all your services in one place.

Creating multiple pages provides you with more opportunities to gain search engine traction. Each page can be targeted to a specific set of keywords, as well as a location or community.

Plus, you’ll have more room to explain to your customers what you do, and how you make their lives better.

5) Get listings in online directories and citations.

SEO isn’t just about your own website, reviews, and other assets. It’s equally important to invest in off-page SEO, which entails all the signals that come from elsewhere on the Web, communicating to the search algorithms that your site offers value.

There are plenty of ways to bolster your site’s reputation through off-page SEO. For instance, getting mentioned in local or industry-specific directories can go a long way.

Getting your business name, address, and phone number (commonly called NAP data) listed in high-quality directories is important, but also difficult. To manage directory listings and citations, ask your digital marketing partner for their help. At enCOMPASS, we are pleased to provide citation services to our clients.

Make an Investment in Local SEO

Local SEO is critical to the ongoing success of your business. And there are a number of ways in which you can make it central to your digital marketing efforts.

At enCOMPASS Agency, we provide several resources for clients looking to increase their online visibility. If you’re ready to learn more, reach out to us directly. We’re here to discuss local SEO strategies whenever you’re ready to chat.