Building website traffic is either time-consuming or expensive. You can use search engine optimization (SEO) to drive organic traffic to your site. Or you can use paid advertising to buy traffic.
But 60 percent of adults search for local product and service information on mobile devices. So why not focus on local traffic and serve your community first?
SEO Tactics to Increase Organic Traffic
If you want to drive more local organic traffic to your website, read on to learn some of our best SEO strategies!
Build Backlinks
Link building has been a crucial part of SEO for years. But you don’t want to build just any old backlinks. Links from high-quality domains will help boost your own domain authority.
Consider sponsoring a local event to get your website linked from local news websites. Or contribute content to your local community blog or website.
You could even write guest blog content for high-quality blogs in your niche. Make sure they let you drop a link to your site in the bio on the post.
Optimize Your Site for Mobile
When you start growing a small business, certain things get left behind. Like updating your website or design.
Bad news – if your website isn’t optimized for mobile, Google will push you down the search engine results. (Hint: use their free Mobile-Friendly tool if you’re not sure if it is).
Work with a designer to get a mobile-optimized website up and running. It’ll improve the mobile browsing experience for users, increasing your local traffic.
Get (and Handle) Reviews
It’s not easy to get feedback online. But asking for feedback on review sites is a great way to generate local traffic. That’s because people reading review sites are already looking to buy a product or service near them.
More than 80 percent of people trust online reviews more than they trust your web copy. So make sure you promote good reviews on both social media and your website.
And in the event someone leaves a bad review, don’t take it down. Respond positively and show the person you want to improve. This shows other people that you care about your customers.
Optimize for Local Keywords
You may not be able to optimize for popular keywords. But local variations are more attainable because there is less competition.
Try and sprinkle your location throughout the copy on your website. The search engines will pick up that you provide the product or service in your keywords in that particular location.
Remember, search engines want to send users to the most relevant websites possible. If someone wants a restaurant, a search engine is more likely to send them to one nearby than one three states over!
Optimize Keywords for Voice Search
As we’re well into the 2nd quarter of 2019, more and more searches are not only being done on mobile devices, but thru voice assistants.
Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, Cortana, and others — voice digital assistants are changing the SEO landscape and are bringing the user experience to a whole new level.
Consumers are using voice search to get directions, make reservations, shop, check the local weather, and answer the questions that are top of mind.
The way we search the internet is changing, and it’s only the beginning.
What further complicates the issue, is that many voice assistants don’t even have screens, and therefore search results for voice queries are narrowed down to one selection.
What determines which single answer is best? One major factor is how well you optimize your content for voice search.
As these digital voice assistants and the search engines that fuel them evolve and improve, conversational content is what will drive your ranking ability.
This means you need to optimize your keyword phrases to reflect natural, conversational language.
For example – Most voice searches are made in the form of a question, using natural conversational language.
Creating content that asks and answers these questions – like Q&A pages for your products or services – will have a better chance of helping you be the one answer source.
Get out There and Drive More Local Organic Traffic
Now you have a better idea of how to get more local online traffic. It’s less competitive than wider SEO because you’re only up against other local businesses.
But because you’re local, people are more likely to choose you when they need your services.
Start your journey with local traffic by using our free SEO audit tools. Or give us a call 1-855-970-GURU or 216-202-3386 and book your free consultation!
We’re looking forward to meeting you.
