A Guide to Local SEO
Customers are searching for the best products and services near them – and they want answers… fast. Will your business show up at the exact time when local customers are looking? Will they pick you out of all the local businesses that offer the same products and services?
Search Engine Journal’s ebook, A Guide to Local SEO, tackles what you need to know about optimizing for local search. Local search engine optimization requires a strategic and targeted approach that is distinct from general SEO.
Brick-and-mortar businesses wanting to win against competitors should make sure all the local signals across Google’s local search landscape are consistent and correct.
We created this comprehensive guide to help local SEO professionals gain a better understanding of today’s local search landscape.
Electronic commerce focuses on the use of Internet to enable the external activities and relationships of the business with individuals, groups and other businesses, while e-business refers to business with help of the internet. The term “e-business” was coined by marketing and Internet team.
Read A Guide to Local SEO to learn:
- The basics of local search engine optimization. Discover what local SEO is now, why it’s important, who benefits from it (and who do not).
- A brief history of local SEO. An evolution of Google local algorithm changes and what’s in store for the future.
- The key components of local SEO. Find out what are the top local search ranking signals and why local backlinks, localized content, consistent NAP, Google My Business, and reviews matter.
- The top local SEO tools around. Get to know essential local SEO tools and listings management tools that you can use.
- How to do local SEO for large organizations. What are the pros and cons of local SEO for large enterprises and essential practices to keep you going.
- Social media tips for local businesses. Why local businesses should invest in social media marketing and how to connect with customers on social.
If you want to have a solid foundation on local search engine optimization, make sure to read SEJ’s A Guide to Local SEO.
Why Your Business Absolutely Needs SEO ?
Many brands and businesses know (or think they know) that they need SEO for their digital properties, and the benefits they will get from that SEO work being implemented on their behalf. SEO will certainly improve a website’s overall searchability and visibility, but what other real value does it offer? Why is SEO so important?
These 12 reasons should offer some clarity, regardless of the industry or business size, as to why businesses need SEO to take their brand to the next level.
Implementing strong, quality SEO on a brand’s website and digital properties is always going to be beneficial to that brand and its marketing efforts.
It’s considered a “new age” marketing technique, but it’s critical to a brand’s web presence in this day and age, especially as available data and rivaling competition continue to increase and grow.
A Guide to Keyword Research
Keyword research is arguably one of the most important elements of SEO. Without it, your entire SEO effort will have no direction — effectively, you’ll be stumbling around in the dark.
So, what is it exactly?
Keyword research is the process of discovering the key terms and phrases related to your business that users type into search engines.
In other words, it’s figuring out how people will find you online.
Starting Your Keyword Research
Keyword research is a process that starts by getting to know your client’s (or your own) business.
You need to understand:
- What makes the business tick.
- Who the customers are.
- What those customers care about.
- How to align everything with the business’ goals.
This is where most in-house marketers fail – and honestly, a fair number of agencies as well.Yep, we know: keyword research is boring.
You probably don’t want to do it. You already know your business, why waste time on boring stuff?
Why not go straight for content creation or link building, you know, cause it’s fun, and has a more obvious tie to ROI? But that short cut can kill your entire SEO strategy.
How SEO Works
Search engine optimization evolves and changes all the time. Every year, certain methods are embraced by the SEO community as “must-have tactics,” while others get pushed to the brink of history thanks to Google’s algorithm updates.
In light of this, SEO is perceived by many as a never-ending battle between search engines and SEO professionals who continue to puzzle out updates to gain more traffic and increase SERP visibility for a short while.
But is that really the case? How exactly does SEO work?
In this article, I will provide my perspective on the SEO landscape today, list several fundamental principles that search engines adhere to, and share my understanding about the inner workings of SEO, and why combining multiple tactics through trial and error is the only way to successfully drive your campaign.
SEO is a never-ending, ever-evolving, multidimensional science. Every SEO would love to find the magic formula that could once and for all explain how SEO works, with specific rules and concrete equations on the table.
Unfortunately, SEO is too complex to fit into a template. Although it does evolve around principles and certain rules, its inner workings are all about analyzing and applying tactics that work and sifting out tactics that do not.
Bear this in mind, and keep a close eye on your competitors, and you will definitely succeed in search results. This is how SEO works, and will continue to work, until the process is completely outsourced to AI.