2020 brought a lot of changes in every business. Some have started new delivery businesses. Some became freelance service providers and adopted a work-from-home model. Such businesses don’t have a front office and the owners don’t get to leverage the benefits of local SEO.
Actually, this is a misconception about local SEO. Optimizing the web presence of a business for surrounding locality sure requires a physical destination but local marketing is also possible without owning a brick-and-mortar store.
Wondering how? Today, we will outline a few handpicked tips preached and practised by the professionals at any top SEO agency India to optimize the local presence of a business that doesn’t have a physical storefront.
How to Perform Local SEO for Businesses without a Physical Storefront
Identify Business Model
Below, we will explore three categories. If you don’t own a physical store, your business may belong to any of these.
i. Digital Business
Digital service providers witnessed huge business growth during the trying times. Website developers, mobile app developers, social media marketers, eCommerce store owners, or any business operating in the virtual domain need not have a storefront.
However, it’s important to own a website / landing page and optimize it locally. Why? That’s because, when someone searches for mobile app developers in a specific country or region, your website may appear in the top search results. This will drive awareness among the potential clients.
ii. Home-Based Business
Your home address can be the physical location of your business. You may obtain a home bakery, offer online training, own a home-studio for photography, makeup or yoga – opportunities are many and you should grab ’em.
For such businesses, local SEO is a must so as to make people get aware of your presence. This will encourage them to visit your place and purchase or avail the products/services.
iii. On-site Service Providers
Housekeeping, plumbing, etc. can be classified under this category. Here, your business may not have a headquarter or office location. You visit the clients’ space to offer a service. Even then, local SEO can do wonder for you.
When people look for housekeeping, they prefer to find it within the surrounding. Having a web presence and optimizing it locally will draw more clients to your business.
Below, we will explore how to execute local marketing for each type of businesses. In order to optimize any type of business for local SEO, having a Google My Business (GMB) account is a must.
Local SEO for On-Site Service Providers
- Share your personal contact details (phone number, email ID, etc.) so that the potential customers can contact you.
- If you are offering contactless delivery service all the while observing social distancing, mention that.
- While optimizing for local SEO, you have to provide your address information to Google. However, you can hide the address from the public. Simply answer “No” when Google asks “Do you want to add a location where the customers can visit?”
- Set up an area where you offer your service. You can enter up to 20 places or postal codes. The boundaries of these areas must not exceed about 2 hours of driving distance from your business location.
- Create a location-based landing page and display the USPs of your business and services that you offer. Organic or paid SEO efforts will help to drive web traffic to this page. However, don’t create duplicate landing pages without any unique features for different cities.
Local SEO for Home-Based Business
- Here, you need to display your address to bring the visitors to your store. Consider your place to be a brick-and-mortar store.
- Make sure to display the service time. That way, people won’t bother you at your home all around the day. Also, if you are taking a break or going for a holiday and no one is there to take care of the customers at your home, it’s your responsibility to edit the GMB listing and display the updated timings.
- If people have to take your appointment virtually before visiting your place, feature that in your GMB listing.
Local SEO for Digital Services
- Without a physical address, you cannot enlist your business in the Google My Business Listing. However, you can own a landing page and earn organic or paid ranking.
- You can also invest in content marketing to earn brand reliability and organic traffic. Make sure to feature your contact details on the landing page.
- You can also include your home address in the GMB account and hide it from the listing. That way, people can find your business details right at the Google SERP and contact you.
Conclusion
When it comes to digital marketing, local SEO is a crucial tool. Following the above-mentioned guideline will help you to drive local traffic and conversions.
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