How to Optimize Your Local Business’ Website

You likely already have a website for your business, but have you considered ways you can optimize it to bring in more traffic? Truthfully, the more tweaking you do, the better you will do with attracting new customers and traffic. You don’t want to go overboard, but at the same time, you want to make sure your website is the best it can be.

However, there are a number of simple ways that you can change your site so it offers a better experience for users. We’ll go over the most useful ways to optimize your site, so you have a great starting point to build off of. Many are simple tweaks that you can implement when you have a few extra moments, although some are more time consuming.

Quality Backlinks

Something that can improve your ranking is having links from high-quality websites. The sites you want links from are going to be authoritative domains that people trust. Being linked to from them adds positive reputation to your own site. If you can acquire backlinks from large companies, this is an added positive.

Local Links

If you want to focus on local businesses, that can help as well, but remember to cast your net to the most quality of them available. Having links from local newspapers and media sites is great for your business. Ensuring your website is posted on local directories is another excellent idea.

Social Media

Posting on social media can lead to people visiting your website. If you post quality content, you’re going to gain users. Those users will then share your content. Those who may not know about your company may end up clicking, giving you a chance to make new fans.

Local Reviewers

Reviews are very important for a local business looking to gain page views and traffic. A large number of local directories will feature ratings from some local businesses. The more positive reviews you have, the better. For one, you could be featured on a directory. In addition, the more ratings you have, the more likely someone new will find you and check out your business.

One of the ways that you can entice people to leave an honest review is by offering a discount or promotion. This offers a situation where both you and your users benefit.

Location Information

Local SEO benefits from using location information, especially when regarding keywords. Many local companies choose to include their city and state in their title or description. If you have your location listed on major pages, you may be featured on a web search looking for businesses in the area. People in the area are more likely to check out a website that is located nearby.

Avoid Stuffing

Keywords can be helpful, but the overuse of them can actually get more negative attention than positive. While there are arguments about the keyword density you should use, many people suggest anywhere from 0.1% to 2% of your main website copy. You should also not use the same keyword over and over. It can actually turn people off of reading your copy as it comes off as nothing other than advertisement.

Content Is King

Of course, some webpages are going to benefit from being concise. However, in most case, pages with a reasonable amount of text rank higher on the search engines. So, take your time to craft stories and content that people will appreciate. It can help gain the attention of your audience and at the same time give you a better rank on Google and Bing.

Image File Names

You may or may not know this already, but search engines can read image file names. This can be an effective use of SEO, simply by properly naming an image and using keywords that you want to rank for. It takes very little time to do so and can give you an edge over the competition.

Alt Tags

If you aren’t familiar with alt tags, these are the tags used to describe an image. These tags are read by bots who search your site for ranking purposes. While they cannot see an image, they can understand what it is about if you implement alt tags. You will typically want to use a tag that contains a keyword that you are looking to rank for.

Headers as Keywords

While you may know that titles are great for keyword inclusion, so are headers. These are used to break up long pages of content and can offer the perfect option for inserting some lesser-used keywords that you want to rank for. If you have a handful of headings, use a different keyword in each one to make the most of their usage.

Title Keywords

The titles of your pages and posts are a good place to add in your main keyword. Search engines take titles seriously and they will value whatever is there. Add in a main keyword, or post your location, in order to have that accessible to search engine bots. It’s just one more way you can implement keywords without it being overboard for users, but still offering extra access for search engines.

URL

The URL of your site may be the most important thing about it. Every time someone types in your domain name, they’re going to think about your business and brand. It’s an excellent idea to keep your domain name short, so it’s simple to type in. Subpages should also not be overly lengthy. Keeping the word count to 10 or 15 words per URL is the best plan.

Using these 12 tips and tricks, you will be well on your way to having a website that is optimized for local SEO. You can implement these all at once or take it one at a time. Most of these tricks will gain you positive ranking and additional users, but it can take some time to do so. Be patient and enjoy the ride!