A Good SEO Plan for Local Businesses
If you’re trying to run a local business, then you already know that is harder than ever before to get as much business as you may have gotten just a few years ago. This is because more and more people are shopping online, and fewer people are coming into local stores, regardless of where you may be located. Having a good SEO plan is now crucial for local businesses to survive both now and in the coming years.
What Is SEO For Local Businesses?
If you’ve ever tried to find something on a search engine such as Google, what you saw below your search are known as search engine results or SERPs. SEO is getting the website for your local business higher on these search engine results.
This allows your business to attract more people who are searching online for services or products that you may be offering. It’s not hard to imagine how many more people you could get into your business if you are at the top of the page rather than the bottom of the page.
How SEO Can Help Local Business
Regardless of if you’re trying to sell a product or you are providing a service to your local community, having a more substantial presence on search engines can help you to bring in more clients than you are currently serving.
In the past, businesses have typically relied on advertisements placed on radio or television to get people into their business and sell them products or services. Fewer people are watching television advertisements due to the ability to skip commercials, and very few people are still listening to radio advertisements as they are now listening to podcasts, music on their cell phones, and satellite radio.
For businesses, one key way to get in front of more people interested in their services is to have a quality local SEO plan. Imagine how many people you could serve if you are running a hardware store for example, and you are ranking at the top of the search engines when people search for “hardware store.”
For search terms such as “hardware store,” “bakery,” or “restaurant,” results of businesses that are closest to the person searching for them are typically shown at the top of the results. However, if your business doesn’t have a good SEO plan in effect, then you may not show up when potential customers are looking for services you offer.
As you can easily imagine, if people are looking online for services you offer, and your business is not showing up on the search engine results, you are missing out on a lot of money.
How can I generate leads Fast
As a new business, it is important to establish your footprint early by seeking qualified leads interested in the products and services you offer. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, approximately 50 percent of new businesses survive more than five years while only one-third make it beyond the tenth year. There are many reasons why businesses fail but one thing that separates those that survive and those that strive is the ability to acquire leads and keep positive forward progress quickly.
Why Lead Generation is Important
Finding leads and converting them into customers gives you the fuel to keep your business going. Data suggests that, depending on your industry, leads provide you with a great opportunity to create customer relationships. Customers also provide you with a means to make additional sales and obtain referrals to other qualified leads. Repeating this cycle means a business pipeline full of customers and potential customers.
Generating Leads Fast
To generate leads, you must understand the types of media outlets available to your business. This includes earned, paid, owned, and shared media. Earned media includes blogs and relationships developed through media and influencer relationships, while paid media comprises advertising. Your owned media includes any outlet you own and control such as your website and self-generated blog content. Finally, shared media is influenced by your social media activity. You can influence the activity that is driven to your website for generating leads through what is known as search engine optimization or SEO. SEO activities however are a small part of your overall strategy for lead generation. It would be best if you also considered the importance of customer referrals, publishing content through your SEO efforts that is meaningful and meets the needs of your targeted audience and actively engaging your audience through every online interaction. ( This blog is a great example!)
Tools Available for Your Lead Generation Needs
You need to go beyond simply setting up a Facebook profile for your business or establishing other social media connections and work with an established partner that can provide you with a complete web-based package. This includes working with a results-driven provider that makes available different business packages for your business that are affordable and make sense for your situation. At Salterra, we have carefully thought out our web packages to include the website and promotional material a new business needs to start with and a lead-generating to jump-start your business ( or reinvigorate it!) Making it a value for our clients!
The tools you should also consider, which we offer, optimizations for your site for top search engine results, publish authoritative blogs, and content marketing that informs and drives the right type of traffic to your website. Salterra Tempe SEO Services allows you to establish your presence and, more importantly, generate leads fast for your business. Call us today to schedule a free evaluation at 480-273-2273.
What SEO In The Future May Look Like
Perhaps the only thing that is constant with running an online business is that it constantly changes. This is especially true regarding Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO changes rapidly and often changes in a big way when it does. By paying attention to current trends, however, you can begin to understand what SEO in the future may look like.
Keywords Are Gone
Since its first release in 2013, the Google Hummingbird update has received multiple revisions. If you’re unfamiliar with it it allows the search engine to understand synonyms and overall context rather than exact match keywords.
This has allowed many content creators to rank for numerous keywords when they are only targeting one specifically. It has also allowed websites to rank for multiple keywords that may have previously only ranked for just a few.
In the future, Google will most likely continue developing its Hummingbird algorithm so that more and more context is understood rather than having to be clearly explained. For example, in the past, writing content for a keyword such as “keychain” may not have brought in traffic for keywords such as “keyring,” or “key organizer.”
You often find content written for keywords such as these, ranking for multiple keywords with the same meanings. In the future, it is very possible that instead of doing keyword research, you may be having to do context research instead.
So, instead of trying to find a keyword that is easier to rank for, you will instead be creating content for overall categories that do not have that much information on them on the Internet.
Stronger Security
It seems like every day, you hear a horror story about someone having their identity stolen online. For this reason, security is now more important than ever, and having a secure website is becoming more important every day in the eyes of search engines.
Internet browsers such as Google Chrome show alerts when websites are not completely secure, especially if they contain forms in which you must provide sensitive data such as credit card numbers or email addresses.
Since everyone is becoming more concerned with their security, it is only natural that search engines will be placing more emphasis on security settings and security certificates when delivering search engine results. It’s probably just a matter of time before unsecured websites will be pushed to the bottom of the search results rather than displayed proudly where they currently are.
Going Mobile
People are busier than ever before, and because of this, they are no longer viewing websites on desktop computers, but instead on mobile devices such as cell phones and tablets. As more and more people continue this trend, SEO will likely take a stronger push on properly mobile-optimized website experiences.
Currently, you can receive rewards from search engines such as Google by having mobile-optimized content on site, and most likely, it will be mandatory to provide such content in the future as more people continue using search engines on mobile devices.
Final Thoughts
As you can see above, the changes occurring in the SEO world are happening faster than ever before. With changes such as mobile optimization, new security settings, and less emphasis on keywords, SEO is certainly something that is evolving all the time and should be part of your internet marketing plan..
If you’re trying to get more traffic to your websites by using SEO, it is more important than ever to stay up-to-date with the changes frequently coming out of search engines.
About Salterra SEO Company
About Salterra Digital Services
Salterra was started in 2011 by Terry and Elisabeth Samuels; nothing fancy and nothing pretentious. Quality work at a fair price. Starting with a web design focus, they both quickly learned that while having an amazing website to highlight your business is a great start, marketing is intrinsically foundational for our clients. When several clients were not seeing results through the search efforts of other companies, Terry took it to the next level. While digging into SEO and marketing, he found something he was very passionate about. His inner geek pushed him to focus solely on the data and analytics side of the business while Elisabeth built on her creative and visual strength and expanded the design side. In the industry, it is not always common to have both designers and digital marketing so closely connected, but to them it made perfect sense. Salterra’s World Headquarters is in Tempe Arizona
Terry and Elisabeth are the Hosts of Roundtable SEO Mastermind Series and SEO Spring Training Conference.
