SEO Near Me - 8 Effective Local SEO Strategies for Small Businesses

Looking for the best 'SEO near me' strategy to boost local traffic and sales? As more businesses focus on local SEO, optimising your website for "near me" searches is crucial. A 2018 study from Uberall shows 82% of shoppers surveyed have used a 'near me' search to find a service. This guide covers the best local SEO strategies to help your business rank higher. By ranking higher you can increase the chances of people landing on your website and becoming paying customers. Google has resources available to help you, but if you're not tech savvy, it can be a little complicated. That's why we're here to help.

If you're struggling to get visibility for your business on Google, contact us and we can help you create and implement an effective SEO strategy that brings you more customers and more revenue month after month.

In this article we will discuss 8 effective ways to increase your local visibility using SEO. For the Do-It-Yourself business owner, this guide is enough to get you started. For the business owner that values efficiency and the benefit gained from leveraging experience, Branchlead offers a variety of service packages to meet the needs of your specific business no matter how big or small. 

How Does SEO Near Me Work?

When someone types "SEO near me" into Google, the algorithm uses their device's location, your Google Business Profile, local citations, reviews, and website signals to determine which businesses appear first. That's why optimising for local intent is non-negotiable if you want more leads from search engines.

Defining Your Goals---Strategy Before Tactics

Before diving into the world of SEO, it is important to be clear about the goals for your business. If you are looking for a magic solution that makes all your lead generation problems disappear, then SEO probably isn't for you. SEO is good for creating long-term traffic and revenue growth for businesses that plan to stick around. SEO takes a lot of upfront work, but the benefits are well worth it.

So, let's dive in.

How to Optimise for 'SEO Near Me' and Local Search

1. Optimise Your Google Business Profile

One of the most vital and often overlooked aspects of SEO is setting up your Google Business Profile.What is a Google Business Profile? Whenever a potential customer searches your business name, this is the profile that comes up typically attached to a local map. Here they can see your business name, your location, your hours, your phone number, your business description, and your reviews.  In fact, a 2019 study by BrightLocal has determined 64% of consumers use Google Business Profiles to find contact information for local businesses. To get the most out of this Google feature, you need to make sure all your information is accurate. It also needs to be regularly updated, that means new photos, new profile posts, and responding to reviews. Here you can find more information from Google on setting up your Business Profile.

While this step is one of the easiest and least technical aspects of SEO, it still requires a lot of continued time and effort that most business owners can't afford to dedicate month after month. If you want to optimise and regularly improve your Google Business Profile, Branchlead can help. We not only help you set-up and ensure information is accurate, we also help you update your profile posts with SEO keywords designed to show your business to more potential customers. To have your Google Business Profile professionally set up by the experts, contact us.

2. Ensure NAP is Up-to-Date

What in the world is NAP? NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone Number. This information is critical because it allows your customers to find you and any errors here can destroy your reputation with customers before they even give your business a chance. We talked a little bit about this information in the section above. You want to make sure this information is 100% accurate on your website and your Google Business Profile. Depending on your business, you can also list this information on other relevant sites and local directories like Yelp, Yellow Pages, or other trade-specific sites. Make sure information is accurate across all sources because Google penalises inconsistencies!

Just like with your Google Business Profile this process can be easy but if information ever changes you need to be ready to modify every single site. At Branchlead we use special tracking and monitoring tools to ensure posted information is accurate across all sites so that Google isn't finding any inconsistencies. If you are looking for someone to help you keep track of all the sites and how Google views your information, contact us.

3. Encourage Reviews

This one is a no-brainer for most businesses. Always encourage satisfied customers to leave you reviews, especially on your Google Business Profile (GBP). Many consumers rely on the reviews on your GBP to make purchasing decisions. Reviews on your GBP are the most important for your ranking in Google. If you have listings on other industry-relevant websites, you should also encourage reviews there. It is important to interact with your reviews, good and bad, both promptly and professionally. This boosts engagement and further encourages Google to share your business with others. 

At Branchlead although we don't respond to your reviews for you, we do remind our clients regularly when new reviews pop-up and we help set a benchmark for the number of new reviews each month. This target is based on the growth and revenue goals of your business.

4. Optimise SEO Keywords on Your Website

To outcompete other businesses on Google, you need your content to reflect the words your customers search for. (Google has their own resource available here, but again it's a little complex.) For local businesses that often means using location-based keywords in addition to your service. If you are a buyer's agent in Canberra, you may want to optimise your website content to focus on the phrase "buyer's agent Canberra" so when your customers search that phrase, they can find your business. But unfortunately, this step isn't as easy as it sounds. When planning which SEO keywords to optimise your website, you need to look at search volume (how many people search this keyword), keyword difficulty (how much competition is using this keyword), and purchasing intent (is this a keyword customers use when gathering information? Or when they are ready to make a purchase?). 

If that wasn't complicated enough, your basic website content usually isn't enough to incentivise Google to rank your business at the top of their search results. You will want to regularly post more content to your website (typically blogs and service pages) which also optimise for different keywords related to your business. 

This step is pretty complicated, but can be very rewarding. At Branchlead we use a myriad of expensive tools to search for the keywords that are most likely to rank on Google and most relevant to your customers. We also take care of regularly posting content with different yet relevant SEO keywords (think of this as casting a wide net) to get your business in front of more of your ideal customers. To ensure Google views your content as unique and valuable, we do not write content with AI. All content we post for your business is hand-written by a professional writer. While this can increase turn around time, the benefit for your business in terms of ranking and customer acquisition is much higher. If you are looking for help with SEO optimisation and content creation on your website, contact us.

5. Leverage Local Backlinks to Rank for SEO Near Me Searches

You're probably thinking, "What in the world are backlinks?" This is one of the lesser-known aspects of SEO for local businesses. Backlinks are links on other websites that "link back" to your website. These show Google you are a trustworthy and reputable site because of your association with other trustworthy and reputable sites. How do you get these links? The easiest ways are to try to get featured in local blogs, news sites, and industry directories. You can also network and partner with other local businesses whether by guest posting or working together on projects that you both advertise. Another way to give back at the same time is to sponsor community events and charities. This provides good local PR and often the groups responsible will list your business as a contributor and can link back to your website.

For most busy business owners this can be a lot of work and can be quite expensive. At Branchlead, with our large network of clients across a variety of industries, we already have the connections and resources in place to leverage most local markets and get backlinks posted for your business. If you want someone to streamline the process for you, contact us here.

6. Improve Technical SEO on Your Website

This is the most technical aspect and it separates the top 10% of businesses from everyone else, especially in terms of Google rankings. Google looks at technical aspects like your page load speed, mobile friendliness/responsiveness, use of schema markup, broken links, duplicate content, and indexing issues. While broken links is something you can check and update on your own, the rest of this section is highly technical and is something we don't recommend approaching without the help of a professional web developer. 

At Branchlead we specialise in optimising the technical side of your website. We have some of the fastest page load speeds in the industry ranking in the top 10% internationally, clocking in at an average 3 seconds across all the websites we have made. You risk losing 40% of customers who visit your website for every second it takes to load after the first 3. We design every page with the proper schema to improve google visibility. We regularly check for broken links and indexing issues, and we compare all written work to previous content to ensure we are not posting duplicate content. If you need someone to help you tackle the technical aspects of SEO, contact us today.

7. Create Local Content

This is similar to optimising for keywords that we mentioned earlier but this is more location specific and requires more community involvement. If you want your business to be noticed in your community, you can write blog posts about local events, partnerships, industry news, and more. As long as it's relevant to your local community and business, you can write about it. As mentioned above you may also want to optimise your SEO keywords to be location specific. Examples of this would include "accountant Adelaide" or "best graphic designer Melbourne." Please note these pages also need to be at least 60% unique so Google doesn't mark them as duplicate content. To see what this looks like when we do this for ourselves, see SEO Adelaide and SEO Canberra.

This step is fairly simple but time consuming. The SEO aspect as mentioned above can also be complicated if you want to out-compete other local businesses. If done right this has the potential to greatly increase your local traffic, that's why creating local content is one of the strategies we at Branchlead focus on with 99% of our clients. If you want help from our experienced and professional team, contact us here.

8. Track, Analyse, and Adjust

Just like all other forms of digital advertising, SEO isn't simply "set-it-and-forget-it." To get the most benefit out of the time and effort you invest in SEO, it's important to regularly monitor your traffic and rankings using Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Over time (usually 3-6 months) you will see what's working and what's not. Be sure to adjust based on performance, but remember SEO is a long-term investment so don't change strategies if you don't see improvement in the first week. To ensure all your SEO practices are up-to-date, be sure to stay updated with Google's algorithm changes.

Over time this can take a lot of work which will detract from other aspects of your business. Branchlead can help you regularly monitor and optimise your SEO strategy. Because the main focus of our business is SEO, we always stay on top of SEO best practices and updates to Google's algorithms. With Branchlead managing your SEO, you as a business owner have one less thing to worry about and you can focus on the aspects of your business that make you money and help you grow.

Boost Your Visibility and Revenue with SEO Agency Near Me Services

SEO is a great investment that can bring massive returns for your business, but it can also be time consuming and knowledge heavy. That's why even though you can do a lot of SEO by yourself, it can save you time, hassle, and money by hiring a professional to do the job for you. With Branchlead we turn your services, experiences, and projects into marketing tools that bring you more customers and more revenue month after month. SEO isn't just something you do to get more visibility on Google. It is a reliable tool to increase client acquisitions and conversions. 

We have local SEO solutions specifically for businesses in Adelaide, Canberra, and Sunshine Coast, but we serve businesses all over Australia.

Ready to start increasing your visibility and revenue with SEO Services? Contact us today.

SEO Near Me FAQs

How long does SEO take to work?

On average SEO can take 3-6 months to start bringing in traffic and customers. Some simple changes like setting up a Google Business Profile can have immediate effects. To get the fastest turnaround on your investment and save yourself time and hassle in the process it's best to partner with SEO experts like the team at Branchlead, contact us here to learn more about how we can help your business.

How does local SEO help small businesses?

Local SEO increases business visibility by ranking your website higher on Google searches for relevant keywords. Through optimisation of your Google Business Profile you will also be visible to consumers searching for a service or product you provide on Google Maps. Through optimising your SEO, you attract more qualified leads which boosts your revenue. To get more consistent results faster, we recommend partnering with a team of professionals. If you want to optimise your SEO to increase traffic and customers, contact us.

Can I do my own SEO?

Yes, as with any sort of marketing and advertising you can do SEO yourself. Some steps like setting up your Google Business Profile are easier, but many of the more advanced aspects that put you ahead of your competition are technical, complex, and time consuming (not to mention the high-cost of the tools necessary to do these steps correctly). That's why we recommend partnering with an expert SEO agency like Branchlead. If you're serious about using SEO as a tool for long-term growth, contact us to learn more.

What's the best way to rank for "SEO services near me"?

The best way is to optimise your Google Business Profile, build location-based backlinks, use geo keywords like "SEO services near me," (more specifically for your business it could be 'accounting services near me' or 'painting services near me' etc.) and ensure consistent NAP across all listings.