Every business needs a website to be successful; that’s no secret. But if you’re running a local business, you don’t need website traffic from all over the world. You need to focus on making sure your site is seen by local residents who could become your customers.
Today we will look at what goes into making a local business website successful and driving traffic to your site.
What’s in a Name?
Choosing a relevant domain name is essential, but for a local business, it’s ideal to put your location in your domain too.
For example, if you have a maid service business called Made to Clean in Los Angeles, consider a domain like MadetoCleanLA.com or MadetoCleanLosAngeles.com. Consider using neighborhood names “Bronx” or city nicknames like “The Big Apple.”
SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is optimizing your online visibility to show up in those local search results.
SEO means focusing on keywords that potential customers might be searching for. For local businesses, those keywords may be the type of business you’re in and what neighborhood or city you are offering service to.
For example, you have a dry cleaning business in New York City. You’ll want to repeatedly use critical phrases like NYC Dry Cleaners or Big Apple Dry Cleaners in your blog posts, website text, business descriptions, and more. So when a potential client searches on Google for “Dry Cleaners NYC,” your business will most likely be at or around the top.
Local SEO helps you:
- Boost online visibility
- Attract targeted traffic to bring more potential business
- Supports reliability and trust
- Can bring in more in-person traffic to a physical location
Google My Business
Google My Business listings are an excellent tool for promoting your business. Take advantage of claiming your Google business listing. It is free and will show your business, website, and any other information you add to the listing, such as phone number or hours of operation in local searches. Plus, you can optimize your Google listing so that if someone searches for a lawn care service in your area, you can pay to be at the top of the search.
Map It Out
Showing the location of your local business on your website can help attract potential customers in your area looking for the services you offer. Highlight an interactive map of your business easily with apps like Google Maps that provide easy options for sharing your location with options to embed the map to your website simply by copying an HTML code and pasting it into your website.
Create Quality Content
Websites that offer relevant and quality content related to the services provided will be more appealing than a bare-bones minimum website with little info.
Blogging is a great way to add content and drive traffic and potential business to your local business website. Not only can you use these blogs to educate people about the company you run and the complementary components of it, but you can also use these as sales tools for more local sales.
Create blog posts with location names if your website has a blog. For example, if you’re a lawn care service in Chicago, you might offer a blog post like “Ten Tips for Keeping a greener lawn in the Chicago Heat” or “Planning a Native Flower Garden in the Windy City.” Be sure to use SEO, as briefly discussed above, which involves keywords and phrases relevant to the subject.
Online Booking
Customers like convenience, and you stand to lose potential business if it’s not convenient. Make it easy for clients to contact you, book appointments, and schedule services with your business by offering the option to book everything online through your local business website. There are many software apps out there that offer a myriad of tools.
One such app is ServiceWorks. ServiceWorks provides a convenient online scheduling feature you can implement through your local business website and many other valuable tools like accounts payable, accounts receivable, invoicing, customer satisfaction surveys, route optimization, and more.
Now you have all the tools you need to make your local business website and services appealing to potential customers in your area. Let’s do a quick review:
- Relevant Domain Name: putting the service offered and location into the domain name.
- Search Engine Optimization: using keywords or phrases to attract traffic and boost visibility.
- Google My Business listing: is an excellent tool for all aspects of getting the word out about your business, and it’s free to have a listing where people can leave reviews and find out more about your business.
- Interactive map: to show what area of town your business is on your website.
- Create quality content: relevant blog posts and content featured on your local business website using SEO key phrases and including location names like “Chicago” or “The Windy City” will drive traffic and potential business right to you.
Online scheduling and contact system: make it easy for clients to contact you through multitasking apps like ServiceWorks. Even better ServiceWorks offers a 14-day risk-free trial on all its great features, like storing client info, scheduling, and more.
