In today’s digital world, every local business tries to outcompete others in the race for prospects’ attention at the top of Google for their services. Securing higher ranking than your competitors locally on Google will ensure new clients, leading to growth of your income for your business. While SEO can sometimes be complicated, there are a few key tactics that drive drastic improvement when implemented correctly.
Below, we unveil three powerful SEO hacks to ensure that Google recognizes your service-based business as the best and outranks the local competition to attract more customers.
SEO Hack #1: Optimize to Dominant Google Business Profile (GBP) for Local Search
If you want to rank higher in local search results, optimizing your Google Business Profile is arguably one of the best things you can do. Your GBP is that listing that shows up in the “Local Pack” or map. It is the business listings section you see after you do a search related to services in their area. Here is how you can optimize your GBP for maximum visibility.
Make Sure Your GBP Is Fully Complete
Google gives more exposure to a fully completed business profile, so all the information on your GBP must be up-to-date. These should include:
- Business name
- Business address
- Business phone number
- Website URL
- Business hours
- The services you offer
- Good images showing your business or work
Google uses these details to match your business against local searches. The more information you can provide, the higher the chances of ranking in search results.
Choose the Correct Categories
Choose the most relevant business category and subcategories. Choose those that describe your business and services. Example: if you are a plumber, so select categories like “Plumber” and “Emergency Plumbing Service.” Don’t just stop at “Home Services.” It will help Google understand your business and match this to proper queries.
Regularly post updates or offers.
Too many businesses fail to post updates or offers to their GBP. Google wants to see that you’re interacting with your profile, and posting on a regular basis helps ensure that when people are searching for a business like yours in a specific location, your active business is more likely to out-rank a business that’s not posting at all. Examples include promotions, events, or even sharing blog updates.
Encourage Customer Reviews
Reviews are among the major ranking factors in local search. Encourage your happy customers to leave positive reviews in your GBP. Responding to both positive and negative reviews will also help you rank higher. Not only do reviews improve your local SEO, but they also build trust with potential customers who see that others had a positive experience with your business.
Add Geotagged Photos
Geotagging your images can help. Attaching a location to each image-helps Google understand where your business is physically. You add geotagged photos of your work, team, and office to further enhance your local relevance and help you rank higher in your area.
SEO Hack #2: Build Local Citations and Backlinks to Boost Your Authority
The biggest two factors in terms of building authority about your business in the eyes of Google are local citations and backlinks. The more credible and relevant the citations and backlinks are, the bigger your chance to outcompete your competitors.
What Are Local Citations?
Local citations are mentions of a business’s name, address, and phone number in directories and on websites without necessarily linking directly to your website. The idea behind these citations is to let Google know that your business exists and is legitimate. For optimal SEO results, your NAP will be consistently written the same in every place your business will be listed. Some key places to build local citations include:
• Yelp
• Facebook
• Yellow Pages
• Bing Places
• Industry-specific directories
The biggest two factors in terms of building authority about your business in the eyes of Google are local citations and backlinks. The more credible and relevant the citations and backlinks are, the bigger your chance to outcompete your competitors.
How to Get Quality Backlinks
While citations let Google know all about you, backlinks tell the search engine who you are. A backlink is any link from another person’s website to yours, and Google looks at that as a thumbs-up or a vote of confidence for your website. Here’s how to build quality backlinks:
- Local Blogs or Websites Partnership: Contact local bloggers, news websites, or influencers and offer them a guest post in return for a link from the website.
- Sponsor Local Events or Charities: Most of these organizations would mention your business on their websites and create a backlink to the website when you sponsor local events, charities, or community activities.
- Submit to Local Directories: In this regard, submissions to local directories may involve such as Chamber of Commerce websites, business associations, or local business listings that give you high-quality backlinks.
High-quality backlinks coming from trusted sites help raise the authority of your website and tell Google that your business is held in good standing within the community.
Leverage Hyper-Local Listings
In addition to larger directories, seek out hyper-local listing opportunities. This could include neighborhood business directories or even local news websites. Getting listed on these types of sites provides a strong signal to Google that you’re local and will help dominate local searches over the competition.
SEO Hack #3: Develop Localized Content to Catch Geo-Specific Traffic
Perhaps one of the most underutilized yet effective SEO tactics involves content localization. A service-based business that creates content addressing the specific needs of their local audience can make a tremendous increase in their chances of ranking on top of Google’s results.
Use Location-Based Keywords
Target location-based keywords to rank for local searches. Instead of targeting the broad keyword “plumbing services”, you want to target keywords related to your specific location. This could be something like “plumbing services in Fresno.” Having your city or neighborhood in your keyword strategy ensures the relevance of your contents to people searching for services within your location.
Use keyword research through Google Keyword Planner or any other tool such as Ubersuggest to identify the best location-based keywords people would use to find a business like yours. And when you serve more than one city, make sure to have separate pages or blog posts for each location. Sample:
- “Best Plumber in Fresno”
- “Emergency Plumbing in Fresno”
Perhaps one of the most underutilized yet effective SEO tactics involves content localization. A service-based business that creates content addressing the specific needs of their local audience can make a tremendous increase in their chances of ranking on top of Google’s results.
Use Location-Based Keywords
Target location-based keywords to rank for local searches. Instead of targeting the broad keyword “plumbing services”, you want to target keywords related to your specific location. This could be something like “plumbing services in Fresno.” Having your city or neighborhood in your keyword strategy ensures the relevance of your contents to people searching for services within your location.
Use keyword research through Google Keyword Planner or any other tool such as Ubersuggest to identify the best location-based keywords people would use to find a business like yours. And when you serve more than one city, make sure to have separate pages or blog posts for each location. Sample:
- “Best Plumber in Fresno”
- “Emergency Plumbing in Fresno”
- Create Geo-Targeted Landing Pages
If your service area exceeds more than a single city or region, it’s a good idea to have separate landing pages for each area. These landing pages should be optimized with content geared to speak directly to the local audience. An example of this would be a landing page for “Plumbing Services in Selma”; it should include information such as local references and case studies about those areas.
A localized landing page signals to Google that you’re highly relevant for searches in those areas, which actually makes you outrank your competitor who has just a generic service page.
Write About Local Events and News
Another way to engage your local audience along with improving your SEO, is to write about local events, news, or issues related to your services. For instance, if you are a landscaper, you may create content on “landscaping challenges during the Fresno summer drought.” This type of content will help you rank in local search queries and position you as an expert in the community.
Leverage User-Generated Content
Work to get customer testimonials, reviews, and photos of experiences involving your business. Display these reviews on your website. This can help increase your local SEO ranking while also showing real-life experiences in the locale you serve. Google loves new content. Reviews are a great way to add local keywords and phrases organically to your website without sounding forced.
Final Words: Consistency and Local Focus Are Key
Google’s search rankings. It’s about focusing on the proper use of the local SEO hacks that deliver maximum effect. You will actually improve your search rankings significantly and get more local clients by optimizing your Google Business Profile, building local citations and backlinks, and making geo-targeted content.
Remember: consistency is the final variable in yielding SEO success. These tips will pay dividends in a big way when utilized together and will compound over time. Stay engaged with your local community, continually build out valuable content, and watch your service business rise to the top of Google rankings.
