How to Perfect Your Efforts with SEO in Seattle
You might have just launched a business in Seattle and realized getting the word out about your company is harder than you imagined. Your Seattle-based business might be years old, but still ranks poorly in Google, Bing or Yahoo. In either case, your efforts with SEO Seattle might need to be revamped and a marketing plan might need to be implemented.
But where do you start?
In today’s digital world, there are just so many elements of a good marketing campaign that focuses on SEO results in Seattle. A Seattle SEO team must conduct some local keyword research and determine where you are lacking and what needs to be done to correct it. Ranking locally takes concerted effort and a long term plan. If you don’t have time to wait for leads to start trickling into your business, you might have to consider supplementing with ads on Google or Facebook for the time being.
Perhaps hyperlocal marketing is also one of your team’s priorities. We’ll cover what this means later in this article, but local based Seattle SEO results are critical for success in today’s business environment. Even when the going gets tough, you can always depend on some tried and true SEO strategies. Continue reading to find out more about the local SEO strategies that will catapult your business to the next level!
Keyword Optimization
Keyword optimization is an important part of any search engine optimization effort. It helps customers (current and potential) easily find your business’s website. But you must remember, keyword selection is a delicate process. It depends on numerous factors: the industry your business belongs to, your location, your strategy, your customer types, etc. For this reason, you must make your Seattle SEO efforts location and industry specific. If you’re not sure where your clients come from or what industry you’re focusing on, it might be time for a marketing analysis of your business.
At the basis, you can start with your relevant keywords. Luckily for you, not all of your keyword selections will be difficult. For example, if you own a thrift shop in Seattle, you wouldn’t be competing against the general keyword target “thrift shop.” Doing so is a huge mistake because there are thrift shops everywhere and trying to rank nationally for a specific keyword can be difficult. The keyword “thrift shop” is highly competitive as a result and has monthly searches upwards of 40,000 and returns 19M results in Google alone. Unless you’re selling online, this may not be the strategy you want to pursue.
You’ll instead target “thrift shop Seattle” or “Seattle thrift shop.” Not only that, but you’ll also target local districts or Seattle neighborhoods if possible. For instance, if your shop is located in West Seattle, perhaps you’ll consider adding that one extra word.
There are several tools which will help you with this optimization. Google, for instance, has some nifty tools like keyword planner to help with your SEO Seattle. This tool is typically made for creating ads, but does a nice job finding relevant keywords as well.
And if you’re struggling with your keyword research? Entrepreneur contributor Perry Marshall has some tips on conducting keyword research.
Local Google Ranking
As we mentioned above, Google has some useful tools for you. As a matter of fact, they have too many to list here.
In this section, we’ll be bringing attention to Google My Business. We’re sure that you’re familiar with the tool, even if you don’t think you are. Have you ever searched for a local store or business? If so, Google no doubt provided you with a list of local options. The owners of those businesses certainly used Google My Business to get that information there. And they did it for FREE! Seriously, if you own a typical brick-and-morter store in Seattle, this one is a no-brainer!
There is, however, a right way to go about getting that info there. Generally speaking, you don’t want to leave any important information out. This means that everything from your business’s phone number, to its hours and address will ideally be listed.
What happens when all of that information isn’t present?
Well, for one, people are more likely to doubt your business’s legitimacy. If they doubt your business, your site probably won’t get many hits and will lack a revenue source.
Secondly, your business might not pop up in the results because of the shortage of information. Google My Business is an important part of any Seattle SEO strategy for ranking in local search engines.
Needless to say, your site’s ranking will suffer without it.
Want to make sure that your business shows up in search results? Follow Google’s guidelines on how to improve your local ranking or consider using a reputation management tool.
Hyperlocal Marketing
In this article we’re talking about something extremely specific: Seattle SEO. That said, hyperlocal marketing might be just the thing your small business needs.
But before we begin, though, you need to understand what hyperlocal marketing is.
According to Steve Olenski, hyperlocal marketing “allows brands to communicate to a group of individuals with similar interests in a specific community or neighborhood.” Notice this doesn’t say region or multiple cities. This is talking about specific neighborhoods or communities. Consequently, it requires deep community engagement on your part. Yes, deep community engagement is time-consuming. Not only that, but sometimes the payoff is not immediate.
If you stick with hyperlocal marketing for long enough, however, you might be pleased with the results. Consider, for example, how your company’s involvement in a local charity event would ultimately be useful. Yes, you’re working for free. Even so, you are endearing yourself to the locals. You’re getting your business’s name out there.
You’re bettering your company’s reputation in a specific neighborhood in the Seattle area.
Hyperlocal marketing might require more effort, but it’s certainly worth that kind of payoff. Wouldn’t you agree?
Local Citations
Have you ever used Yelp or anything similar to it? If so, you’ve come into contact with other business’s local citations.
Now it’s time to start building some of your own citations.
Technically speaking, your Google listing we talked about earlier, is a local citation as well. Still, there are others to claim. There is, after all, nothing wrong with claiming every legitimate citation that you can get. We’re talking every social media site you use and every credible review site.
Further still, if you can find a legitimate directory of Seattle businesses, you should definitely claim your citation there too. It’ll greatly help your Seattle SEO efforts. We must, however, caution you against choosing to claim “illegitimate” citations. These come in the form of paid links on shady sites. These sites might brand themselves as “directories.” Inexperienced site owners probably think these “directories” are helpful.
These sites, however, will only hurt your business in the long run. Stay far away from them, even if they sound great up front.
Social Media
As we discussed, your social media pages count as local citations. Your use of social media platforms should, however, go beyond mere citations. There are so many uses of social media, and it’s not just posting cat videos or wishing your friend happy birthday.
For one, social media can be used to endear your business to locals. In this way, it’s similar to hyperlocal marketing. Taking the time to post community events you’re involved with or volunteer work your staff is doing can drastically improve your social media reach.
Furthermore, you can use your social media pages to create direct calls to action (CTA’s) and stay in touch with your customers. Thanking a customer who mentions you or responding to a question on your Facebook page is vital to social media success. Or you can just use your pages to remind people that you’ll be at the upcoming Ballard Jazz Festival or something similar. It’s up to you how engaged you want to be.
We recommend enlisting the help of professionals here since they’re specifically trained to use social media to your advantage. We’ve actually covered this topic in detail in our article about how social media specialists increase traffic to your site.
You’ll Have SEO Seattle Efforts Down In No Time
Search engine optimization is a challenge anywhere. We hope though, that your local SEO Seattle techniques have been improved because of the content of this article. Focus on 10 keywords or so, create content for those 10 keywords, reach out to businesses and ask them to link to you or your articles. Then continue to utilize social media on a regular basis, posting links to your articles, answer customer questions, interacting and tracking how well your postings do online and have fun! One keyword and location at a time, right?
And if you need a little extra help? Try a content marketing agency, like us!
Their specialty is, after all, helping you, especially with your SEO Seattle.
If you just want to start small and understand where you currently rank, you can use our site to find out your SEO score for FREE. It just might put you on the right track.