What is Local SEO? A Comprehensive Guide to Local Search Marketing

These days, the vast majority of people on the internet are at least moderately tech-savvy. The customers browsing online are searching for the best products, the best services, and the right answers– fast. They are using voice search, typing questions into search engines, using Yelp and social media to determine if a company is reputable, and intuitively using location tags to find the service they want in their area. As a local company, you need to fulfill those desires and ensure your name is the first they see on a search results page. If you want to show up when potential customers do these things, you need to use local SEO. 

What is Local SEO?

Chances are you’ve already heard about search engine optimization (SEO), but we’ll still give you the rundown. Simply put, SEO is composed of specific factors working together to help you rank at the top of a search results page. Better yet, you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to see results using this strategy because it’s all organic. Local SEO is much the same, but instead of targeting a general audience, you can target people in a specific location who are ready to buy.

What companies should use local SEO?

Any company that wants to increase its visibility and get more local customers should implement a local SEO strategy. This is particularly important for local, service area businesses.  Companies that sell a digital product or can easily ship an item can target a broader audience. 

However, if you’re traveling to customers to provide a service you want to make sure you’re targeting people close enough to benefit from it. Defining the locations you will send trucks to is very important to companies that serve customers at those locations. We don’t have to tell you that navigating traffic on the DFW freeways is a nightmare. You don’t want to spend all of your time sitting in traffic as it crawls along at a snail’s pace. Any smart business owner knows you need to get more frequent and easily accessible jobs! That’s the only way you’re going to see a boost in revenue. With local search marketing, it is entirely possible to achieve that goal!

What Do Local Search Marketing Agencies Do?

Local SEO is all about increasing your visibility within a specific geographic area. Here at Rise Local, we offer numerous services to help you do just that. The key services you should invest in are local listings, content writing, and reputation management. 

Local Listings

You need to complete your GMB location data and optimize your website with location information. This will help Google know the extent of your service area and direct relevant traffic to your website. Just to start you’ll need a local address and phone number. Then, it’s time to jump into the details and start adding things like photos. Next, you will need us to set up the data feeds that get you listed in all the local listings. If your business has changed locations, names, or even phone numbers you will need our help to clean up the bad citations, which are mentions of your name, address, and phone number. This is a process of researching and repairing the local listing data that is incorrect by way of a manual claim, submit, and verification process for each site we clean up. The Google My Business results rely heavily on this third-party trusted and verified entity data. 

Content Writing

This will be one of the most crucial ongoing services we can provide for our local SMB. Our writers will research and implement the keywords that will drive traffic to your website.  When it comes to localized content you need the right mix and volume of geo-concatenated keywords. But it goes well beyond your core website pages. There are several content types we can create to help your ideal client find and hire you. This can be anything from geo-landing pages, service-area pages, location pages, or location-optimized blog content. With our help, you’ll show up at the top of the local search results for queries like “ ______ Dallas”, “________ Fort Worth”, “________near me”, and more! This will also allow us to begin a link-building strategy that will help associate you with relevant names in the area.

While focusing on core content we also will push our content team to work with our field producers to capture the raw media you need to support content campaigns. POW! This is very important we also focus on the #1 content type that works to convert searchers into customers: Proof of Work. Building an inventory of page content that displays your work, incorporating location descriptions, titles, and meta data is something a Local SEO company like Rise Local SEO can do for you. We want to set you up for success so your raw video and media content gets published quickly in all the right places. 

 

Local Presence Management

This ties back into local listings to a certain extent, but with this local SEO service, we’ll make sure the reviews you’re getting online are being found by potential customers. After reviewing your reputation we will make strategic online reputation management suggestions and put in processes to help you get the most out of your online reputation. 

Another service that is very helpful is our voice search API feed that gets your business listed in voice searches like Google Home and Assistant, Bixby, Alexa, Cortana, Siri, and GPS devices, and others. Voice search enabled devices are everywhere. Consumer goods like refrigerators, TVs, watches, and even cars now have voice search enabled devices built-in.  Since the early days of telephone search operators, w/ telco listed and updated service orders fed to directory assistance and the old printed yellow pages phone book to the modern internet local search, boy have things evolved! One thing that stays the same here at Rise Local is \”We know local!\” 

Dallas Local Search Marketing Experts

When you’re ready to take a larger slice of the local market, contact the local search team at Rise Local. Rise Local is a full-service SEO agency that specializes in driving traffic to service businesses in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. We will optimize your website, complete your local listings, and generate engaging, and useful content that will capture your ideal client’s attention and dollars.