The future is digital, and so it is with the ever-evolving marketing landscape. The modern tools and technologies available today have given businesses more opportunities to increase their target audience, as well as boost their brand image, conversion rates and sales. At the center of this growth is search engine optimization (SEO), which refers to practices that are done to improve the visibility and ranking of a website on the results pages of search engines like Google.
From small businesses to huge enterprises, professional SEO services in the Philippines are the key to further reinforce brands and gain foot and website traffic from both local and abroad. Whereas SEO generally helps businesses stay visible amidst a global market, local SEO for small and start-up businesses helps them target audiences that are closer to home.
What Is Local SEO?
Local SEO is the practice of improving the visibility of a business in local search results. It helps businesses target potential customers within a specific geographical location. What local SEO means for your small business is that with it, you are given opportunities to better compete with more popular and established enterprises. Currently, affordable SEO packages for small businesses are available to help those who are considering adopting local SEO as a strategy in their digital marketing.
Why Do Local Businesses Need It?
Done right, local SEO offers a multitude of benefits for small and medium businesses. For one thing, it helps increase your online presence, which means that individuals in your area who are looking for a product or service that you are offering will be led straight to you. A higher visibility online, regardless if it’s on a local, regional, national or global level, can significantly drive relevant traffic to your site (or physical store) and increase your revenue.
The best local SEO company in the Philippines not only achieves these, but also provide you additional benefits, including strengthening your brand, improving your overall website, establishing and maintaining trust and loyalty with your customers, opening opportunities with other local businesses for cross-promotions, competing with national and global brands, and reducing advertising costs. Here are more reasons why your business needs SEO, including local SEO.
Organic Search Results and Google’s Snack Pack
Google’s Local Snack Pack, also known as Google 3 Pack, is a boxed section that appears at the top of the organic search results page, displaying the top three local business listings that Google considers as the most relevant to the searcher’s query. Meanwhile, organic search results refer to unpaid listings that appear on search engine results pages (SERPs), which are arranged based on the listing’s relevance to the searched query or keyword, as well as other ranking factors like domain authority and backlinks.
Between the two, you should always strive to be included in the Local Snack Pack, as this area proves to get the most clicks and traffic from searchers, given the top position. As searcher behavior goes, they tend to only stay on the first page of the SERPs and click on the top three sites because they appear to have the highest credibility and authority. The best SEO agency in the Philippines can help you optimize your website so that it will rank high on the organic SERPs and make its way to Google’s Snack Pack.
Tips to Boost Your Local SEO
Here are some best practices you can do to improve your local SEO:
Claim Your Google My Business (GMB) Listing
–One of the most important things you can do to improve your search visibility is to claim and optimize your GMB listing. Your GMB listing appears prominently on SERPs if a searcher looks up your business name or any keyword or product related to it. It will also contain important information, including your location and contact details, which will help potential customers reach you faster. You can ask previous customers to leave reviews or share photos on your GMB listing as well.
Focus on Local Keyword Research
–Keyword research involves brainstorming about the possible keywords that people search for and that will bring them to your business. With the help of an SEO expert in the Philippines, you can find out these specific keywords that are relevant to both you and your potential customers. With these keywords, you can optimize your site in such a way that it will rank high when searchers use them. It’s also helpful to target keywords based on your location. For example, if you want to focus on improving local SEO in Manila, you can always add ‘Manila’ in your keywords.
Follow Up with Optimized Landing Pages
–Based on the keywords you’ve gathered, make sure to create dedicated landing pages for them. Similar to the keywords, these landing pages should contain information that are relevant to the potential customer and what he or she is searching for.
Build Links and Citations
–A staple part in affordable SEO plans for small business is creating backlinks and citations that will lead people to your website. Essentially, these are mentions in directories or linkings that contain important information about your business, most importantly your website URL. When creating these links and mentions, make sure that the details you enter are correct and exactly match the ones on your website and GMB listing.
Focus on High-Quality Backlinks
–Speaking of link building and directories, make sure to also get backlinks from websites that have high authority. For local SEO, your linkbuilding should be focused on websites and businesses that are within your area. Activities that you can do include establishing partnerships, guestposting and more. Such services are also provided by affordable SEO companies in the Philippines.
Get Reviews
–Word-of-mouth remains an effective way for people to learn more about your business. With Google SEO in the Philippines, you can easily spread the word about the quality of your products and services through the Reviews feature on your GMB. Ask your previous customers to leave a review, and share pictures to support the review if possible. The more positive reviews you get, the higher your credibility and authority are, and the more people will want to enlist your services.
Keep an Eye on Your Site’s Health and Quality
–Google actively crawls your site to ensure its quality and relevance to a query made by a searcher, and from this provide you with your ranking. Knowing this, you should make sure that Google can crawl your site without encountering any problem and errors such as broken links, duplicate content, broken pages and more. Your SEO consultant can perform regular audits to ensure that your site is in top shape.
Local SEO is a powerful tool to help you reach potential customers who are near you, and are actively looking for products and services you provide. If you’re considering adopting this strategy to your digital marketing practices, make sure to have the best SEO company in the Philippines by your side.
AMPH Advertising Agency Inc. is one of the country’s leading digital agencies, offering services such as search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), social media advertising and more. Contact us at +632 8553 6002 to learn more about the company and its services. Avail our Free SEO Site Audit today.