5 Ways to Crush Local Rank Competition
Every business needs the upper hand to crush local rank competition, to attract new customers, and generate more sales. How do you increase your leads if you do not have a large ad budget like your competitors? You start by taking advantage of Google local ranking which levels the playing field for small businesses. This article provides 5 ways to crush your competition in local ranking using Google Business Profile, Local SEO, and website SEO.
Why Improve Your Google Local Ranking
First, you need it to build brand authenticity, attract new customers, and grow your revenue. Second, you need it to keep the business competitive by performing better than your competition in search results. Finally, you need it in order for your business to remain relevant.
About half of the searches online are people searching for services and products offered by local businesses in their search area. The cost of customers, sales, and revenue loss due to no local SEO in place is high. A Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy needs to also factor in website design, hosting provider, performance, and social media channels.
Tip 1 - How to Crush Local Rank Competition
Over 50% of businesses don't have a Google Business Profile listing set up. If your competitors are not taking advantage of this tool, by setting up a listing, you will be on your way to crush the competition in Google local ranking. If they have a listing but it is not optimized, you can still outrank them using these tips.
Claim your business name on Google Business Profile (GBP) and get verified is the first step. If your business does not have a GBP listing, you will need to set one up. Click here to read more about GBP listing using Google's free tool. This is the first step to increase visibility online and it goes hand in hand with local SEO.
Google uses the 3-Pack to present the top 3 businesses near the search user's location. This is why it is important to successfully fill out all the company information in the Google Business Profile listing. The Google 3-Pack uses the Local Pack (business name, address, and phone number) to present the user with the most relevant businesses in the area. Local rank also uses reviews and posting as part of the method to list businesses.
If you already have a GBP listing set up, the next tip will help you find your current rank position for keywords.
Tip 2 - Check Your Google Local Rank
Knowing where your business ranks in Google search results will help you measure against your competition. Click here to check your live Google local ranking for your keyword in the surrounding areas your business serves. Specify your keyword term and domain name to check for both local and website SEO ranking.
It is important to establish an accurate baseline when using a live rank checker. This can be easily done by using incognito mode in your Chrome browser. Once you have established a working baseline, you will want to monitor ranking for your keywords.
Tip 3 - Set Up Your Local SEO
Local SEO begins with your value proposition of how your business distinguishes itself from the competition, and what you want your business to accomplish. Below are targets that your SEO strategy needs to help your business achieve. Your local SEO tactics should fuel your local marketing strategy to achieve these objectives:
1. Build and increase brand awareness
2. Attract new customers
3. Increase leads and revenue
4. Customer engagement
5. Grow your business
To accomplish this marketing strategy, you will need to make it easy for search engines such as Google to find you, and present your company in search results.
Why Content Is Key
By implementing a local and website SEO with content optimized for SEO, all of this works together to provide the best possible situation to crush your competition in local ranking. Some of the benefits of local and website SEO is that it is based on organic ranking for keywords. The alternative is to run an ad campaign and pay for keywords. This involves ranking for best ad position for most impressions, lowest Cost-Per-Click (CPC), and higher conversions.
Your website content is where you tell your story. It's the place where you describe your company's value proposition, and what qualifies your products and services over your competition. This is ground level for writing your story optimized for SEO. A popular SEO plugin that will help you write SEO-focused content is Yoast SEO Premium. The Yoast SEO Premium subscription provides all the information needed to set up SEO.
Your Blog
To ensure that your company stays relevant in today's economy, your website needs a current blog page. Your blog is an opportunity to write content with information that is helpful to new customers. The value of the blog is its relevant content and how it helps your target audience. Use keywords and long tail keywords (more specific keywords) to crush your competitors in search results.
Tip 4 - Social Media
According to HubSpot, social media is the #1 marketing channel when it comes to increasing brand awareness and engagement. Social media ranks at 80% over all other marketing channels. As videos continue to play an important part in SEO ranking, Youtube needs to be on the top 5 list of channels in your marketing strategy. Click here for more information on YouTube Shorts if you are looking for content ideas.
The other three social media channels that provide the best ROI are Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. When creating your social media accounts, check all of the channels to see if the same handle is available across all platforms. You will want to make sure there is consistency of contact information across your website, Google Business Profile, and all the social media channels.
Tip 5 - Website Hosting and Design
The performance of your website plays an important role in overall SEO ranking. The provider you host with and the environment your website operates in matters. Your business can not afford to operate its website in a shared environment with a shared Internet Protocol (IP) address. This is most likely what your competition is using especially if it's a small or medium-sized company. A dedicated IP address is preferred to ensure consistent performance and reputation.
Website Performance
A website in a shared environment is affected by the resource demands of hundreds or thousands of websites. A shared IP address shares the same reputation of all the websites in the hosted environment. The risk to consider is this: A shared IP may be blacklisted due to someone or a program misbehaving on another website. Although some hosting providers have put measures in place to prevent this, there is still a risk.
Your website performance at best will fluctuate; as a result, a slow website will negatively affect SEO rank. It's simple: If two websites are equal in SEO strategy, the faster performing website will rank higher. A slow performing website will not rank as well.
If your competition is using a shared hosting environment, you will outperform them by hosting your website in a virtual private server (VPS) environment, with website caching, and cloud integration.
Website Design
The web design you choose for your website needs to be optimized for mobile users. A slow website and poor web design affects the Bounce Rate (BR) of your site. The BR is how quickly new visitors leave your website page. The higher the BR the less likelihood it will be the customer will return. Your customers are leaving too soon and not returning because your site is either too slow or difficult to use.
The BR will also affect your ad campaign dollars and ability to scale your overall marketing strategy. You want a website design that is fast and optimized for phone, tablets, laptops, and desktops. We recommend going with a powerful Content Management System (CMS) such as WordPress over another CMS. Click here to learn more about WordPress facts.
About Us
Everything IT Pros provides complete digital marketing services to maximize your Google results. We also provide managed IT services and website hosting to optimize your bottom line. We have the experience to tackle any size job.
To find out more about strategies on how to crush your competition in local ranking, give us a call. We take a tailored approach to SEO that is designed around your business needs.