SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is all about being first when someone does a search on the Internet. But there’s more than one kind of SEO. There’s Local SEO and there’s Global SEO.
If your business is to sell homemade huckleberry jam and you want people in Alabama and Australia to find you when they search for huckleberry jam – that’s global SEO.
If you’re a new bakery in Hamilton and you want to compete with other bakeries in the Bitterroot Valley to be found first when people search – that’s local SEO. These searches are often accompanied with “near me” or “Hamilton MT” for context.
For the most part, the majority of the web sites that I build and the small businesses I work with here in the Bitterroot Valley are concerned about local customers and local SEO.
There are a number of variables that go into ranking first in a local search including
- your current location
- relevance
- prominence
- how optimized your listing is.
Your listing, referred to as Google My Business, can be optimized with pictures, posts, reviews and more. But the single most important thing that you listing needs to have for success is a link to your website. Studies have shown that Google My Business listings WITHOUT a linked website are clicked and far less than those WITH a website.
Rule No. 01 when it comes to online success and being found when searched locally is to make sure you have a website connected to your Google My Business account. Next? When people click on that button to check out your website, what do they see? What’s their first impression? Does your site have what it takes to hook them and bring them in? If not, we should talk. 😉
