Why It’s Important to keep your Business Website updated for Local SEO
Google’s efforts to improve their local SEO has been met with positive results during the past year, with numerous businesses benefiting from the increased traffic and online presence. In turn, more and more websites have been optimized to keep up with the trend.
With this in mind, optimizing your local SEO effort is crucial for the growth of both your business and your online presence. With e-commerce and social media impacting the online marketplace greatly, businesses have become even more competitive than before. Here are some tips and techniques that can help your business’ local SEO.
Regularly update your website
A study conducted by Blue Fountain recently has shown that customers would think of a brandless when its website has not been updated. Personally, I’ve seen numerous cases of this in the past when looking for brands and products. Going to a website of a brand that you want to inquire or make a purchase and seeing that products and key information is outdated or missing will surely hurt your traffic.
It is best to keep your website content and design updated on a regular basis, as users would be able to see new products and announcements after visiting. Blogs are a great way to reach a wider audience, as you can provide them with beneficial information while promoting your brand at the same time.
Optimize loading speed and mobile-friendliness
Loading speed and mobile compatibility are two other factors that you have to keep in mind, as more and more users make online purchases through their smartphones. It is best to optimize text and image viewability for the best user experience. Slow loading speeds will make you lose customers, who might take a look at your competitors instead. Those crucial few seconds can affect a purchase and making sure everything works smoothly would give you an edge over the competition.
Social Media is key
Social media marketing has been the key to success for a lot of businesses in the past few years, with viral campaigns becoming the driving factor to more sales and revenue. Along with being present in Google Business listings, having a solid following on Facebook and Instagram also brings in more traffic.
Influencer marketing is also another strategy that can positively impact your business, as having someone with a significant social media following talk about your brand is another effective way of bringing in more customers. Social media has become one of the most powerful internet platforms and knowing how to utilize is another ingredient for success.
Take advantage of search queries
Search queries allow you to see how users search for your business, giving you a better idea of your searchability and online presence. This has been one of the best Google My Business features, as having this amount of search information helps you optimize your content, information, and products.
This also adds another layer to your keyword research strategy as well, as you now have search data from actual users who have looked at your business. This allows you to craft better keywords that have good volume and difficulty scores. Comparing GMB search queries with keyword research tools and Ahrefs and KWFinder is also an effective approach that would give you keywords that can rank well.
Enable Messaging
Instant messaging has been one of the most important innovations of the past decade, as it allows a faster and more efficient way of communication. One of the most recent Google My Business updates was the ability for users to directly send a message to you. Being able to quickly respond to customer inquiries and concerns has proven to provide a positive impact on businesses, as it improves customer trust and brand image.
While this feature is still only available on mobile, it is a handy feature to have, as you can respond to messages on the fly, allowing more potential to create sales for your business.
Provide answers to questions
Along with the ability to respond to messages instantly, providing answers to questions asked on Google is another way of boosting your traffic. More and more users are now using long-tail, question-based, and exact keyword searches, and its rise can be attributed to voice search through the use of AI assistants.
Regular keywords are still important and valuable for your SEO strategy, but providing answers using your content would help you tap into more users and bolster your search traffic and presence even more. Search is becoming more varied and versatile these past few years, and this strategy is something that would bode well for your future.
Key Takeaway
Local SEO is on a rise. As more local brands move their services online, it is important to get an edge over the competition. These tips and strategies will surely help boost your business, allowing you to grow your online presence steadily.
If you have questions and inquiries about local SEO and SEO in general, leave a comment below and let’s talk.