LOCAL SEO, LEADS AND YOUR BUSINESS

local seo expert nj
Is a reliable local SEO (search engine optimization) strategy what is missing when it comes to driving more leads for your business? By optimizing a website, its pages, and various off-website citations you will build a means for targeting those people searching for the very services you offer. The consumers behind those searches are the most highly qualified potential leads on the web, simply because they are already looking for what you offer.

Let’s look at what you need to know about local SEO for your business.

SEO STANDARDS


Generally speaking, a successful SEO strategy must include important consideration for:

  • content or pages that answer the questions a visitor would be searching;
  • in-content optimization or pages that support how a search engine identifies & consumes those answers;
  • off-website optimization or reinforcement of the above from other trusted(?) websites via references, reviews & back-links AND
  • the analysis of what is working, what needs work, and what goals are or are not being achieved.

Visibility from an SEO effort requires work, including the build of the on and off-website signals that search engines value. And respect for a forever moving competitive set of search results is highly recommended! A search engine will re-weight any of the (up to 200) signals it uses at any time to compare one company’s website page to another. They do this in order to protect their search results and to be sure the answers to a search are the very best possible.


LOCAL KEYWORD RESEARCH

 

We cannot recommend good content enough, not to mention active content covering the business and its challenges; however, all of the above also requires keyword research. You must identify the words & phrases that qualified leads search! Then it is necessary to use those keywords well enough to impress search engines to not only rank your business for them but in high positions.

If you know that your business can support a particular area for potential leads then you’ll need to incorporate local geography, towns, counties, and your state in order to minimize who you are compared too. If you are a lawyer licensed to practice in NJ, there is no sense in being compared for (or generating leads from) the state of MI. You must target where you serve or accept that you will increase your competitive set while wasting time, effort, and money. In some cases, a town is all that is necessary. In others, it may be an entire state or a county, or three counties.

And while ‘near me’ searches are all the rage, a search engine must be able to identify how near you are to that search in order to consider you when serving its results. If you run a coffee shop in Austin Texas and target “best dark roast”, then knowing you have structured a web presence that obviously serves Austin matters. Surprisingly to some, search engines actually wish to rank locally relevant businesses over a national brand when possible because in many circumstances the local business is undoubtedly the better result.


LINK STRUCTURE

 

Links are where a lot of people get tripped up. You cannot necessarily control who links to your pages and you should never try to manufacture links either! Only links that a search engine trusts matter; links it does not trust can hurt you! Sure it can be good to accumulate links from directories, social media accounts, and other websites, BUT links only matter if the search engine deems them relevant and from a trustworthy source! Again, search engines protect their search results in order to be sure they are the very best they can possibly be. Is a random site trusted? Maybe, and maybe not. Is a directory listing or an association website trusted? It’s likely, but maybe not relevant!

Linking to different pages on our own website is a good practice so long as it improves the user experience, so far as Google sees it. The effort can help a search engine understand that pages you have linked add value for users. And adding the links in descriptive text matters, but be careful here. If your page is meant to detail authoritative local Mold Inspection experience and knowledge, well then do not link from in the words ‘mold inspection’ out to another page because that could be seen as a vote against the page it comes from.

You should certainly try to link back to your pages from social network account posts. Off-website reactions like sharing or links stemming from other people’s social network accounts may also serve as signals to a search engine that users are having a positive experience. Your Google listings offer a posting option and this is definitely a quality source of back-links! Ensure that all your local citations, search and directory listings are accurate for location, contact, website link, and hours of operation because this is also a signal search engines reference, at least from those directories it trusts. 



REVIEWS

Having positive reviews show up alongside a search for your business is invaluable. For many, you will gain an immediate sense of authority and trust. It can also raise a Google listing in the map pack area of a results page when a search is hyper-local. 

Your plan in place to increase reviews should include the following:

  • identify satisfied clients and ask for their reviews;
  • plan to help them give a review when necessary, possibly with step by step written instructions;
  • be prepared to send follow up requests;
  • setup alerts for all reviews in order to be informed when they occur AND
  • get informed on dealing with any negative reviews!


SEO ANALYSIS: YOU CANNOT GROW WHAT YOU DO NOT MEASURE

Once you begin implementing a Local SEO strategy, you MUST track and analyze your results! In doing so you will be able to see what’s working, what isn’t, and have a basis for what does and does not need work. Results analysis should, at least, include:

  • a reliable keywords ranking solution; 
  • a website traffic analytics solution;
  • an off-website traffic driver analytics solution;
  • a website health tracking solution; 
  • success data, to justify the effort and the cost AND
  • an appraisal of what, if any, needs work. 

 

LOCAL SEO EXPERT | LOCAL SEO AGENCY

At Kinetic Knowledge, we are local NJ SEO experts, a local SEO Marketing Company. We have helped hundreds of local businesses increase traffic, visibility, and leads through our Local SEO Packages and add-ons service solutions. We also offer custom website design packages! If you’re interested in experiencing the benefits of a well-executed local SEO effort contact us today to find out how we can help!