When people find your company on Google, are those potential customers even in the same state?  If you haven’t focused on your local SEO, you probably get hits to your website all the time from buyers located across the country—or even in different countries. That’s great if you have the ability to serve national and international customers. For a small, local company, those search results end in a quick bounce from your website.

If Google searches find your website, it means you’re doing something right with your SEO. Maybe you just need to look a little more closely at your local SEO efforts.

Provide an Address

You probably have your address on your website somewhere. If not, it’s time to get right on that. You can’t just add your physical address to your contact page, though. If you only serve local customers, you should make sure your address is visible on every page of your website. This not only helps buyers find you in internet searches, but it also helps those from four states away know they need to continue looking.

Blog About Your City

The more information you include about your city or town, the more likely you’ll be to show up in local searches. Take time to write articles about happenings and events, local landmarks, and prominent people in your city. Not only will you show up higher in the search results, but you’ll also look like an expert on local topics.

Add Titles and Alt-Text to Images

Let’s say you want to add an image of people at a Nashville party wearing shirts your company makes. You upload the photo and hit publish, leaving the original file name of 28482735683.jpg. What does that tell users about your photo? Users that don’t allow images for security reasons have no idea what they’re looking at when they see a file name. Not only that, but search engines don’t know what to find when someone searches for images of apparel in Nashville.

Address Your Social Networks

Do your Twitter and Facebook pages include your location information in the Bio or About spaces? If not, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity. In some cases, social media pages will show up in searches even higher than the company website. If someone is looking for a business like yours in your particular city, they’ll want to know right away that they found a winner. If they can’t find your address, they’ll probably move on.

Embrace Review Sites

Whether you provide a review space on your website or not, you should take advantage of third-party review sites. Many people looking for local businesses will start first with Yelp! or Angie’s List. These sites are invaluable to companies hoping to reach a wider local audience. Add your location information and take time to interact with some of the reviewers to keep the content on the pages fresh.

Use Press Releases Often

You may think you need to wait for huge, exciting news before you can write a press release, but this isn’t the case. With sites like PRweb.com and PRlog.com, you can share even the smallest news all the time. These press releases will be searchable, so potential customers can find you on Google. The more you release, the more likely you’ll be found when someone searches online.

If you need help, have no fear. We speak SEO fluently. Give us a call when you need some help getting found.

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