Understanding SEO isn’t something every business owner wants to learn, but who do you trust to do it for your business? This is how to choose the best local SEO company!
When it comes to a local business, local SEO campaigns are vital for online success! It’s especially important for new businesses as it’s much easier to rank for local terms than broad, national keywords.
But, how do you choose the best local SEO company?
First, let’s discuss the differences between SEO and local SEO. Then we can give you some pointers for choosing an agency to help you with ranking locally.
What is SEO?
SEO (search engine optimization) is the process of optimizing each page of a website for highly-targeted keywords.
This process includes utilizing white-hat SEO like:
- Keyword research & mapping to target keywords based on page intent, term intent and in consideration of the website’s capabilities.
- Gaining backlinks to establish trust and authority with Google and other search engines.
- Checking for and utilizing internal and external linking processes.
- Technical audits to ensure the website is performing for indexing, crawling and ranking.
- Content strategy to recommend pages and posts that will increase your keyword universe for relevant terms and topics.
- Competitor analysis, both on- and off-page, to help you determine the SEO strategies your business can use to improve online visibility and conversions.
What is Local SEO?
Just like SEO, local SEO is the process of optimizing pages on a site to improve visibility in local search results.
For local businesses and new websites, it’s much easier to rank for local search terms than for short-tail (broad) keywords based on competitiveness.
Local SEO vs General SEO in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages)
Let’s say you’re a meal delivery service in Jacksonville, FL.
What do you see when you search “meal delivery Jacksonville”?
In my search, my first results are local businesses in the Map Pack.
After this, you’ll now see the actual search results, which includes brands that provide meal delivery services in both Jacksonville and nationwide!
When we change the search parameters for a more broad term like “meal delivery” the SERP is quite different. While Google still picks up on your location, it’s offering up a wide range of meal delivery services and is less focused on local. Notice we don’t have the map pack in our results!
Consistency in Name, Address and Phone Number
Additionally, having a consistent name, address and phone number (NAP) on your website and local directories like Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) plays a big role in how Google will view your business.
Customer Reviews
Finally, reviews are another signal that can help with local SEO efforts.
Local SEO is great for improving the online visibility and trust for all sorts of businesses!!
How to Choose a Good Local SEO Company
So, now that you’re armed with more information about SEO, you’re probably wondering who can help with your SEO.
Most business owners wear so many hats already that learning the ins and outs of digital marketing can be overwhelming.
Well, fortunately there are tons of SEO agencies offering their services. Unfortunately, choosing one to help might still be daunting.
So, here are a few tips for choosing a good local SEO company to help with your SEO.
#1 – They’ll Be Transparent
A good SEO agency will attempt to explain the who, what, when, where, why and how of SEO clearly enough for you to understand.
Of course, we’re all a bit nerdy and likely use words like “keyword gap analysis”, “backlinking” and “domain authority” that might make you scratch your head if you’re new to it all. But, a good SEO agency wants you to understand:
- What you’re investing in
- Why you need to invest in it
- How the work translates to results
A good SEO company will deliver regular reports and try to help you understand the results, even if they’re not always perfect.
But it doesn’t stop there!
They ensure you have access to the same data they have.
#2 – They Want to Partner with You
A good agency isn’t just out to get your business, they genuinely want to see you succeed!
Just like you, we have to conduct our businesses at a price point that makes sense, but we’re also passionate about helping your business get found online and improving your bottom line.
As such, a good SEO agency will act as your partner, listening to your overall business goals, aligning to your existing marketing strategies and continually trying to improve marketing ROI.
#3 – They Ask a Lot of Questions
When we say “a lot” we mean A LOT!
Because a good local SEO company wants to partner with your business and show results, they’ll ask a lot of questions to help them understand the business, its products and services, clientele, goals, future plans and more.
We like to have access to your data (Google Analytics, Search Console, Tag Manager and others) so that we can get a full understanding of the current state of your business and make data-driven decisions about the next steps.
#3 – They Won’t Offer Guarantees
With the ever-changing marketing landscape, there are no guarantees that anything will work 100% of the time.
In all its infinite wisdom, Google rolls out search engine algorithms regularly and SEO strategies must remain fluid. There are new competitors hitting the market every day, buyers have more choices and have short attention spans, and information is over-abundant.
For those reasons, a good SEO company will never guarantee rankings, traffic or conversions.
The best we can do is make timely recommendations and continually test and optimize based on the data we find in our reporting and analysis.
Steer clear of any SEO agency that offers guarantees!
Our Local SEO Services
Although we like consistent strategies, how we go about them is completely based on your business needs.
Our Local SEO services include:
- Keyword research
- Google Business Profile optimizations
- Competitive Analysis
- Technical Audits
- Link building
- Local citations & directory listings
- Content strategy
Even more so, the implementation of these strategies is based on our research and the needs of your business. We do not stick to rinse and repeat methods as we often draw upon general digital marketing knowledge to not only improve SEO results, but to ensure we bring value to your business marketing goals as a whole.
Combining SEO best practices and staying on top of the latest developments in Google’s algorithms, we help to increase your leads, improve lead quality and generate more revenue from organic traffic.
Interested in learning more? Let’s talk!
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