Your competitors are already building and optimising their websites. Are you? Traditional ways of marketing like word of mouth and physical signage might’ve worked well for you if you’re a builder—but you’re probably feeling left behind. That’s mainly because, in today’s digital world, people have started relying on search engines to find local builders in the area. This means that without an optimised website or any digital marketing campaigns, potential clients in your area might not be able to find you.
But if you’re here, then you’re already taking that first step in actively looking for ways to grow your business through SEO and digital marketing. Standing out against the competition by driving more traffic to your website is possible—but you need to rank higher on local organic search results.
Ranking Higher with Search Engine Optimisation
Understanding local SEO is important before getting excited about having new leads or clients online. The best way to boost your local SEO rankings is by reviewing your website’s content and refining it, as well as reviewing your meta tags and citations. If done properly, you could expect local SEO to boost your ranking higher in Google’s local organic search results.
But How Can This be Achieved?
The first step in optimising your local SEO is by setting up your Google My Business (GMB) profile. If this is the first time you’ve heard about it, GMB is a free tool by Google that allows you to showcase important details about your business, allowing potential customers to find you and get to know your business quickly. Here’s a simple step-by-step guide to optimising your GMB listing:
- Step 1: Optimise Your Profile – See to it that you have accurate information about your business name, address, contact information, website link, and operating hours listed on your GMB.
- Step 2: Visualisation – The best way to entice potential clients is by adding visualisations. Include photos or videos of your past projects to invite more inquiries.
- Step 3: Leverage Online Reviews – Improve your local ranking by encouraging past clients to provide feedback about your work on your GMB listing. This is also a great way to catch up with them and see if there is anything you can help them out with.
Let’s Talk About Keywords
If you want potential local clients to easily find you, then you need to have location-specific keywords in your website content.
One way you can do this is to set location-based pages. You must have pages that are dedicated to showcasing the services that you offer in the location that you serve. These landing pages should include relevant keywords in the titles, meta descriptions, headers, and the copy itself.
Another way for you to use targeted keywords is through writing blog content. Writing valuable and informative content that aims to address common issues and pain points related to your services is a great way for you to utilise keywords that will help increase your online traffic.
Of course, we can’t forget about having service-specific pages. In these pages, you must outline the services that you offer with localised keywords to let the algorithm know that you’re relevant to the niche and the users in your target audience.
As you’ve probably noticed, not only do you boost your ranking in local search engines, but you also have the opportunity to build your reputation as an expert in the field simply by just optimising your keywords.
But What About Mentions of Your Business on Other Websites?
This is called local citations and backlinks. You can start by setting up your business information on popular sites like Yelp, Houzz, Oneflare, and other local commerce sites. It’s vital to strengthen your online presence, and the good news is, there are ways for you to effectively build citations and backlinks.
See to it that all your business information across different commerce sites is consistent. Some of the important details to check off on your list are your name, address, and phone number (NAP) information. Spreading out your information on different commerce sites while making sure that everything is consistent is the key to having good local citations.
Another good way is by utilising backlinks from local businesses through industry associations and community sites. What’s good about this strategy is that it allows you to boost your SEO ranking, and at the same time, it helps build your credibility among local communities.
While we’re on the topic of building your credibility, another good way of boosting your local SEO is by leveraging online reviews and testimonials.
Word of Mouth—but Online
Your potential clients are meticulous. They only want to work with people who are guaranteed to give them the best results. This is why they’re always on the lookout for online reviews and testimonials to gauge the builders that they’re interested in working with. So how exactly do you make the most out of this unique opportunity?
It’s simple: Encourage past clients to leave a review. Having a list of positive reviews on platforms like GMB, Yelp, Oneflare, and Houzz can help create a buzz around your business and establish your credibility. But the job doesn’t stop there. Make sure that you don’t overlook responding to reviews online to demonstrate your active commitment to client satisfaction.
By maintaining your reviews, you establish yourself as a trusted builder in the niche, which would ultimately encourage more potential clients to reach out to you.
Becoming Search Engine-Friendly
One important step in improving your search engine ranking is implementing the structured data markup, more commonly known as the markup schema. This step is often overlooked by businesses, so consider this as a huge heads-up to you.
You have to let the algorithm understand the context of your content and why it is relevant to local SEO keywords and topics. When the search engine has a better grasp of the context of your content, it can lead to your pages ranking higher in more relevant search queries. It means more eyeballs to your website, which results in more traffic.
Monitoring and Measuring Results
Of course, in any marketing campaigns that you do, the progress and results should always be monitored. This ensures that our SEO efforts are working, and we can strategise any changes that may arise. Here are the numbers you should look out for:
- Website Traffic and Rankings: Keep an eye on your Google Analytics to understand the effectiveness of your SEO efforts. The platform provides you with important insights about your website visitors. For supplementary information, you may also track your Google Search Console. By keeping track of your numbers, you’ll be able to recognise which areas you should focus on and it will give you clarity on whether your content aligns with search queries.
- Local SEO Performance: This will tell you whether or not your local SEO efforts are bringing in more eyeballs and traffic to your website from local search results. You may use local SEO software to measure the effectiveness of your local SEO strategies and identify areas of improvement.
To Catch Up…
Local SEO is an important asset for builders who are looking to build their online presence, enhance their credibility, and connect with nearby customers to drive their business growth. Directing your focus on optimising your Google My Business (GMB) listing can help your customers understand your business better. You must also create content that resonates with your local audience, addressing their concerns and pain points to help you establish trust with your target market. You can also create buzz around your business by utilising customer reviews and building backlinks. All these efforts will allow you to attract more qualified leads., which will allow your local business to thrive in the digital marketplace.
If you want to stay ahead of your competition but don’t know where to start, perhaps Accentuate can help you out. From strategising to implementation, we’re absolutely certain that we can help you out. You may fill up this form or call us at 0457 444 589.
We’re excited to have you on board!
