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What is SEO?
SEO is an acronym for organic Search Engine Optimization. It is a discipline that focuses on improving the chances of a website ranking properly on Search Engine Result Pages (SERP). Search Engines like Google and Bing have become very pivotal to the success or otherwise of online businesses, in today’s world.
Why SEO strategies are important for your local business?
Recently, Google move to a mobile-first index, therefore, your local SEO strategy is more important than ever before. However, there are plenty of businesses who are still not aware of
how to optimize their website to get a higher rank in the local search results page.
Your local market is extremely important because they are actually using your services. In addition, local businesses are actually more popular than retail giants. In other words, most people want to shop locally. So what can you do to optimize your website for local SEO? In this blog, I will discuss some simple SEO strategies for local business.
Build your Business Page on Google My Business
- Apart from all, it is the most significant way to boost your business’s ranking in the local SEO results. With a complete Google My Business page, you will highlight in your local area. It will also increase chances so that local searchers walk into your store.
- We recommend filling out your listing as much as possible in My Google Business Page including phone number. Always try to enter a local number when you enter your number. There are also other platforms like local business directories where you can also add your site.
Highlight Customer Reviews
- This one is a crucial part of your overall local SEO strategy. If any customer adds good reviews to your site that means they trust you and appreciate your service as well. It also
attracts new customers. Therefore, make sure that your website and other online listings contain plenty of reviews from your customers. A recent study shows that over 80% of shoppers rely on what other people are saying about a brand online. It also increases your overall reputation online.
Include a Google Map
- Like Google Business Page, it is also important for your local business. When you are creating your contact web page don’t forget to embed a Google Map that points to your business address in Nigeria. It will help your business to show up faster in local search results. It will also make easier for all your the local consumers to find where you’re located exactly. Before starting or talking about any great strategy for any local business SEO, it is mandatory to know a brief about what is SEO? So, let us begin by what is SEO and how it will be helpful in a local business.
Find Location-based Keywords
- However, optimizing your content can boost your SERP ranking but without adding relevant keywords you will not raise your ranking in the right manner. There are plenty of tools available to choose the right keywords for your business. Effective keyword research that leads to creating great content would make a big difference in the success of your SEO. Choose long-tail keyword phrases is a combination of more than one short tail keywords and that reference your company’s city, state etc. Choose the right keywords for online presence may increase the number of visitors. Adding the term “Nigeria” to your most popular keywords can make a huge difference. You can also find keywords from your competitors.
Improve Your Linking Strategy:
- A linking strategy is a preparation you create and implement that helps you organize, track and optimize your links. With the right planning, you can boost your sales and improve your
search engine result as well. - It also impacts your search engine ranking. In other words, the higher your ranking, the better your website’s overall performance.
Implementing the above 5 local search tactics will give you a head start on your competition to the extent that Google ranks high-quality websites higher in their result pages thus potentially leading to more sales.
Bonus Technical SEO Tips
You can improve your web traffic drastically by cleverly making use of the best keywords in the title tag, meta tag when creating content for your blog posts. It also helps to focus on the user experience by ensuring that the website loads quickly. Building links is also invaluable as is using free SEO tools like Google Search Console.
How Domain Name & Domain Extension affects SEO?
The domain name and Domain extension are one of the most basic things to consider while creating your business or a simple website. Choosing the perfect domain name & extension can be the key factors to get success in your online business. Let’s have some basic ideas about how domain name and extension can help you to boost up your website’s search engine visibilities.
What is a Domain Name?
A domain name is a human-readable internet address of a website through which users can access your website. A domain extension or a domain suffix is a Top-Level Domain (TLD) which used at the end of a domain name. For example .com, .net, .org, etc.
There are three parts which made the website.
First is a top-level domain, also called domain extension or domain suffix, for example, .com, .edu, .org, or a country specific domain extensions, etc. Second is a Domain Name, a physical address of your website, and the third one is a sub-domain that is www, which is an optional sub-domain, and the HTTP or https is a protocol. The combination of the domain name and top-level domain is known as a Root Domain.
How to choose Domain Name and extension for SEO purpose?
A domain name is used as an address of your website; this address is unique and should be meaningful.
So, choose the domain name which is most suitable for your business, here are a few simple tips to choose a perfect domain name and domain extension for your business.
- Choose a domain name which is relevant to your business industry, or your products and services. And if possible add your brand name to a domain name.
- Make the domain name short and easy to remember for end-user. The ideal length for a domain name is 6 to 14 characters.
- Use the primary keyword.
- Avoid numbers, special characters like a hyphen, dash, underscore, etc.
- Research about the same business or your competitors.
- Target your area.
- Choose domain extension wisely, be more specific about your target areas, suppose you are running the local business for a specific country, then choose a country-specific domain extension, here is the list of country-specific Top-Level-Domain. And if you are running your website globally then choose .com for commercial purpose.
Below is the list of extensions you can use for different purposes.
- Choose .com extension, if you are running a commercial website and you want to target the worldwide global market.
- Choose .org extension, if you are a non-profit of an organization.
- Choose .info extension, if you are running an informational website.
- Choose .net extension, if you are running a technical website.
- Choose .biz extension, if you are running a business or commercial or an e-commerce website.
- Choose .co extension, if you are commerce, community or a company website.
- Choose .me extension, if you are running a website for personal blogs, personal profile.
As mentioned above make sure you choose your domain name and domain extension wisely, as it affects your website visibility in search queries.
FAQ
What is SEO in Marketing?
SEO means Search Engine Optimisation and is an essential part of digital marketing. It is an aspect of marketing that basically focuses on increasing the chances of a website appearing higher in search engine results, for the purposes of attracting much more clicks to the landing page.
How do you do SEO for a website?
There are easy steps that you can take to improve the chances of ranking higher on a Search Engine result page (SERP). This article already shares some of the basics but for the best results, you would need to make use of 3rd-party tools.
Do SEO by yourself?
Yes, you can. The mileage would, however, vary based on your skills and the amount of time you are willing to invest in this activity. You would also need to master the use of SEO tools, to improve your chance of winning.
Is SEO free?
Yes, SEO is free but for the best results, you often have to invest time. While there are a lot of free SEO tools, you may have to invest in premium 3rd-party SEO tools for the best results.
How can I do SEO in 2019?
SEO has evolved over the years and what worked 10 years ago may not in 2019. With the right strategies, it is still possible to get very good results from SEO in 2019.
Is SEO paid?
No. The basic aspects of SEO do not require payment if you have the skills and time to do it yourself. Making use of professionals or paying for premium tools is however not free.
How can I do SEO for free?
You need to invest in acquiring the right SEO skills and then spend time doing it yourself using the best tools that happen to be free.
Does SEO matter in 2020?
SEO matters and is an important part of a comprehensive marketing strategy in 2019 and beyond.
How can I learn SEO fast?
Youtube is littered with excellent videos. The speed at which you can learn would depend on your existing skillset.
Is SEO or PPC better?
The best strategy is to complement SEO with Pay-Per-Click ads where budget allows it. They don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
Which is the best free SEO tool?
Google Webmaster Tools is one of the excellent free tools. The full list is beyond the scope of this article.