LOCAL SEO SERVICES FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
Learn more about what makes Markitors the best SEO company for a small businesses.
Local SEO (Search Engine Optimization) helps a small business get visibility on search engines for local searches related to their products and services. On Google’s search engine result pages (SERPS), local SEO is most recognized through Google Maps, Google Local, and traditional Google Search results.
Google says that local SEO search rankings are determined by relevance, distance, and prominence. Searching “local SEO services USA,” for example, will yield results in the United States that are most relevant to the query, closest to the searcher’s location, and have a higher prominence. This means that if you are located in Phoenix, then using this search term will show local SEO marketing companies in Phoenix that are most relevant and closest to you.
Some important factors that help define local SEO include:
1. Relevance
Business Listings
A business owner should create profiles on business directories, such as the ones below to establish local citations. A business directory is a list found online that indexes businesses based on their niche, location, and industry.
- Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business)
- Bing Places
- Yelp
- Social Media Profiles like Facebook
- Yellow Pages
- Other Business Directories
On-Page SEO
Information on your website is used to determine whether your small business would match the intent of a local search. Here are a few elements of on-page SEO that are factored into local rankings:
- Keyword Research
- Page Title Tags & Meta Descriptions on webpages
- Mobile-Friendliness (for mobile searches)
- Schema Markup
- Local Keywords on Landing Pages & Service Pages
- Social Profiles
- Phone Number
2. Distance
Distance is self-explanatory. Is the physical location of your small business within the service area in which a search is being conducted?
Managed Local Citation Services
These local SEO marketing services identify, and correct inaccuracies like business name, address, phone number (NAP), and other information pulled into local search results. The goal is to make sure this information is consistent and accurate across hundreds of local citation services.
- Moz
- Yahoo Local
- Whitespark
3. Prominence
Prominence is an umbrella term that captures how important your business is, based on brand, customer experience, and more factors that include:
Online Reviews
- Yelp Reviews
- Google Reviews
- Other Positive Reviews & Testimonials
Off-Page SEO
- Backlinks/Inbound Links (especially local links)
- Brand Mentions (how often is your business name searched)
- Content Marketing (articles written by bloggers)
Search Engine Results
- Business SEO best practices apply to local efforts too
So, what is local SEO? It’s optimizing your business website to show relevance, distance, and prominence. This helps search engines display the most relevant local search results for potential customers.
According to Google, every month, there are:
- 5 billion searches on Google for restaurants
- 3 billion searches for hotels
- 1 billion searches for clothing stores
- 600 million searches for hair and beauty salons
- 5 million searches for coffee shops
Local SEO helps market your small business to potential customers at the exact moment when they are seeking products and services similar to yours.
Take SEO for food businesses, for example. Let’s say you’re in the mood for Chinese food, and you conduct a search for “Chinese restaurants.” At that moment, a searcher is highly likely to visit a Chinese food restaurant –– much more likely than if they just received a piece of direct mail or saw a social media ad that advertised a local Chinese restaurant.
Search intent is captured within local SEO through relevance (Chinese food versus Italian food), distance (0.3 miles away versus 30 miles away), and prominence (is it good Chinese food, based on reviews from Yelp, Tripadvisor, and other ranking factors?).
For those reasons, local SEO is a key component of a marketing strategy for a local business. Even if you aren’t a brick-and-mortar business, search engine optimization has shifted in recent years toward a local search focus.
Take our SEO agency, for example. A few years ago, our website began to rank on the first page of search results nationwide for the term “digital marketing company.” Today, while we still enjoy a prominent ranking for this term. Search engine result pages now show business listings in Google Maps, local listings of nearby small businesses, as well as organic listings like ours.
In other words, the space has gotten more competitive and crowded as Google has identified keywords that better match search intent with local results. That is if you search “local SEO services USA,” you will likely see a map featuring several local SEO marketing companies near you, in addition to organic search engine rankings.
With that said, using local SEO to reach potential customers in your service area is an important online marketing tactic for any small business.
A local citation is a mention of a business online. This can include the mention of a business name, address, phone number (NAP) on any directory, website, article, app, or social platform.
These local citations help prospective customers discover relevant businesses and can also influence local search rankings.
Data within a local citation can include:
- Business Name
- Address
- Phone Number
- Business Category
- Hours of Operation
- Website URL
- Social Media Links
- Photos
- Verified Listings
- Reviews
- Owner Response to Reviews
- Email Addresses
- And more!
The best way for a small business to manage local citations is to verify the accuracy of the information and to fill out complete profiles on the online directories that matter.
Why are local citations important? Because they can mislead potential customers. The wrong address, phone number, or hours of operation can negatively impact a customer experience. And since search engines focus intensely on user experience, a misleading local citation can lead to a decrease in online visibility on search rankings.
That’s why local citations are so important to local SEO. Local searchers rely on them for information about your business, and so do search engines. Whether you’re managing your local campaign in-house or are working with a local SEO service provider, your business should create, update and monitor local citations to ensure accuracy and that you’re found by local customers.
Google provides business owners with a business listing that appears in both Google Maps and local search results.
Here’s how to maximize your business page in a Google Search:
1. Enter complete and accurate information.
The more information about your business, the easier it is for a local search engine to connect local customers with your goods and services. Make sure to fill out information like your physical location, phone number, webpage, and other business information.
Learn how to edit your business information.
2. Verify your locations.
To appear in SERPs like Google Maps and Google Search, business locations must be verified by adding or claiming your business listing. This can be done through a Google Business Profile (or GBP/GMB) listing.
3. List accurate hours.
Potential customers need to know when your business will be open. Adding store or office hours gives both customers and Google confidence to rely on the information in search engine results.
4. Manage & encourage Google reviews.
Monitoring and responding to online reviews shows potential customers that you care about their business. Positive reviews give searchers an idea of what to expect if they were to call the listed phone number to learn more.
5. Add photos.
Images have always been an important part of search engine optimization. Including photos of your office, products, and services not only improves your local listing but it’s an important factor in differentiating your business on results pages.
There are several other ranking factors that enable a small business to appear in a local pack on desktop and mobile searches. But these are some of the main tips offered by Google Local Guides.
Google shares that local ranking is primarily determined by relevance, distance, and prominence.
Relevance
Google receives a local search query and connects a user with a few local business listings. These local listings are based on Google’s understanding of your business. The more information you share with Google about your business –– business name, phone number, website –– the better Google can match your business to a relevant potential customer.
Distance
There’s not much magic to distance. How far is the search away from your local business? The closer the search, the more likely your business will display in the local pack of search engine result pages. As mentioned earlier, if you are in Phoenix and search “local SEO services USA,” the results you will get will be those that are the closest to you even if you didn’t type the word “Phoenix” in. These search results will change if you are in Denver and type the same query.
Prominence
Prominence, according to Google, is how well-known a business is. Local links, articles from bloggers, local citations, and more digital marketing tactics all factor into the umbrella term of “prominence.” Other important factors include positive reviews, local keywords, and even schema markup. Basically, it’s anything online marketing-related that falls outside of “relevance” and “distance.”
You can learn more about how Google determines local ranking on this Google Support Page.
The cost of meaningful local SEO services starts at $750, and can exceed $10,000+ , depending on your location, industry, and business needs. Another factor in cost is whether you do it yourself or pay a local SEO marketing company.
Some do-it-yourself tools like Yoast Local SEO ($79/year) or Moz Local ($168/year) are very affordable for a small business.
SEO companies that offer local SEO marketing services can charge different SEO packages that offer a variety of local strategy work. These packages can include a combination of content marketing, schema markup, and link building.
The best way to get accurate pricing information is to request a proposal. To find out how much working with a local SEO marketing company will cost you, contact us or call us to learn more.
Markitors has a full suite of local SEO services for small businesses. Learn more about each one below.
On-Page SEO
Our On-Page SEO services cover areas such as internal linking, page titles, meta descriptions, page structure, and more. On-page optimization is anything that is done on the actual web page that affects its ability to rank in search results.
Keyword Research
Our Keyword Research services allow you to skip the hassle of doing keyword research for your small business. We use a handful of SEO tools to conduct the highest-quality keyword research and competitor analysis.
SEO Content
SEO Content is another service Markitors offers local SEO clients. From our extensive keyword research, our team of content writers constructs valuable, SEO-driven blog content, landing pages, and more with strong call-to-action (CTAs). This content, aligned with targeted SEO campaigns, will boost your website’s visibility in search engine results. Our content strategy services help you rank on the first page of Google for relevant keywords.
Digital PR
Our Digital PR services expand your brand’s digital footprint. We strategically secure online placements through media relationships. This will build up your brand mentions and backlink profile to make your site more authoritative.
Technical SEO
Our local SEO marketing company will take care of Technical SEO, so you don’t have to. Our team will run regular tech SEO checks to find errors and fix them before they negatively affect search rankings. We will manage elements such as site speed, status codes, structured data, crawling, and more.
We work with clients across the United States but specialize in local SEO in the following cities:
Local SEO for Arizona Small Businesses
Local SEO for Texas Small Businesses
Other Cities Where We Specialize in Local SEO
We are a small business ourselves, so we have plenty of local SEO experience. We built our business using local SEO starting in 2012 and have continued to grow over the years using the same tried and true methods.
Trust us to build your business through local SEO just like we built Markitors. We know the methods that are proven to work and will use them to boost your business’s organic traffic. If you are outside of the cities listed above, don’t fret! We’d still love to work with you.
We always strive to be in the top search results whenever somebody searches “local SEO services USA,” wherever they may be, so trust us to know what works.
Contact Markitors today to get started on your business’s local SEO.
Markitors provides local SEO services to small business owners in a wide range of industries including, but not limited to:
Education
We have worked with many different clients in the education sector, from preschool to higher education. Local SEO is important for education clients, especially as they are looking to enroll more students in the area.
Franchise
Franchise SEO consists mainly of local SEO efforts. Franchisees are targeting a local audience to bring new customers to their business through SEO strategies. Local SEO helps franchisees rank higher in local search results.
Non-profit
The non-profit sector benefits from local SEO immensely. Depending on the type of non-profit, support from people in their local area is often their main goal. Local SEO can help non-profits target a local audience and grow their organizations.
E-Commerce
We have worked with many e-commerce small businesses to improve their local SEO and boost sales. E-commerce SEO services are the perfect way to drive high-converting traffic to your website.
Real Estate
Our local SEO services for real estate agents help attract new clients in their area. Since real estate is all about local business, having a local SEO strategy in place is essential to success. We optimize real estate agents’ websites and online presence to make them known in their area.
Healthcare
Healthcare SEO is focused primarily on local SEO so that people in the community can find the quality care they need. By updating business listings, creating a Google My Business profile, and more, we can bring in new patients to healthcare facilities.
There are numerous industries we do local SEO for, and our network is constantly growing. If you believe you could benefit from local SEO services, get in touch with Markitors today!
In 2024, local SEO is more crucial than ever. If local SEO sounds too daunting to tackle on your own, trust the SEO experts at Markitors. Working with a local SEO marketing company will save you time and maximize the potential of your small business.
At Markitors, we provide full-service local SEO that starts with an initial audit of your website. Once we understand the current standing of your business’s SEO, we develop a customized strategy to improve its rankings and visibility in search engine results.
You can contact us online or schedule a consultation to chat about local SEO for your small business.
We’d love to work with you to develop a local SEO strategy that will drive customers to your business. Just get in touch, and we’d be happy to help!
When searching for a local SEO company, consider the following key factors:
- Reputation and Reviews: Research the company’s reputation by reading reviews and testimonials from past clients. Positive feedback and case studies can provide insights into the effectiveness of its SEO strategies.
- Local SEO Expertise: Ensure the company has specific expertise in local SEO. They should be familiar with optimizing Google Business Profile listings, local citations, and leveraging local keywords to boost visibility in geographic-specific searches.
- Transparency and Reporting: Choose a company that values transparency in its methods and reporting. They should be willing to explain its strategies and provide regular, detailed reports on your campaign’s progress and metrics.
- Customization of Services: Look for a company that offers tailored SEO solutions rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. They should be willing to understand your business needs and customize their services to align with your specific goals.
- Communication and Support: Effective communication is crucial. The SEO company should be responsive and accessible, ready to address your concerns, and collaborate closely with your team.
- Pricing and Contracts: Compare pricing and contract terms. Be wary of companies that promise quick results at a very low cost. SEO is an ongoing process and often requires a reasonable investment to achieve sustainable improvements.
By considering these factors, you can select a local SEO company that not only enhances your visibility online but also supports your business’s overall growth strategy.
Deciding whether small businesses should only have in-house SEO or hire a local SEO agency depends on several factors:
- Budget Constraints: In-house SEO might be more cost-effective for small businesses with limited budgets, avoiding the ongoing costs associated with hiring an external agency.
- Control and Focus: Having an in-house team allows for greater control over SEO strategies and ensures that efforts are closely aligned with the company’s specific goals and nuances.
- Expertise and Resources: However, SEO requires a range of skills from technical SEO to content creation and link building. Small businesses must consider if they can afford to hire and maintain a team with diverse expertise or if their needs are better served by the specialized skills of an agency.
- Scalability and Flexibility: As business needs grow, in-house resources might be stretched thin, whereas agencies can offer scalable services tailored to fluctuating demands.
Ultimately, the decision should be based on the specific needs, goals, and resources of the business. For many small businesses, a hybrid approach—combining in-house management with strategic outsourcing — can often maximize both efficiency and effectiveness in their SEO efforts.
A local SEO package typically includes a variety of services designed to boost a business’s visibility in local search results. Here are some common components:
- Google Business Profile Optimization: Enhancing and maintaining the business’s Google Business Profile, ensuring accurate and complete information, and regularly updating it with posts, offers, and events.
- Local Keyword Research: Identifying and targeting keywords that potential customers in the local area are searching for, incorporating geographic-specific terms.
- On-Page SEO: Optimizing website content and meta tags (like titles and descriptions) for local search terms to improve relevance and search rankings.
- Local Citations and Link Building: Building local citations by listing the business in relevant online directories and developing strategies to acquire high-quality backlinks from reputable local sources to enhance authority.
- Content Creation: Developing localized content that resonates with a local audience, such as blogs about local events, news, or activities, which can help to attract and engage potential customers.
- Analytics and Reporting: Providing detailed reports on the performance of local SEO efforts, including changes in search rankings, traffic, and engagement metrics, to track the success of the strategy and make data-driven decisions.
These services work together to increase a business’s online visibility in its specific geographic area, attracting more local customers and boosting its overall online presence.
SEO services and success are measured through a combination of quantitative metrics and qualitative outcomes, tailored to the specific goals of an SEO campaign. Here are key indicators used to gauge SEO success:
- Search Engine Rankings: The most direct measure of SEO success is the improvement in rankings for targeted keywords. Higher positions on search engine results pages (SERPs) are indicative of successful SEO.
- Organic Traffic: An increase in the number of visitors coming to the site from search engines naturally, without paid advertising, is another crucial metric. Tools like Google Analytics help track this growth.
- Conversion Rates: While driving traffic is important, converting that traffic into leads, sales, or specific actions (like newsletter sign-ups) is a critical measure of effectiveness. SEO should ideally improve not just the quantity but the quality of traffic.
- User Engagement: Metrics such as time on site, pages per visit, and bounce rate indicate how well the site engages visitors. Improvement in these metrics often correlates with effective SEO strategies that enhance user experience and content relevance.
- Backlink Quality and Quantity: The number and quality of backlinks from other sites are strong indicators of the trustworthiness and authority of a website. A successful SEO strategy often includes increasing high-quality backlinks.
- Keyword Growth: Expanding the number and variety of keywords that a website ranks for is another important success metric. It shows that the site’s content is becoming more relevant to a wider audience.
- ROI (Return on Investment): Ultimately, measuring the financial return relative to the cost of SEO efforts is crucial. Effective SEO should yield a positive ROI by driving more revenue than it costs.
These metrics provide a comprehensive view of SEO performance, helping businesses understand the effectiveness of their strategies and make informed decisions for future optimizations.
LOCAL SEO SERVICES
Content
Complete data, verified profiles, and accurate information.
Digital PR
Local citations and local links to improve prominence.
Technical
Schema markup and optimization for mobile searches.
Ready to get started?
LOCAL BUSINESS CASE STUDIES
WHY IS SEO SO POWERFUL FOR SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING?
LOCAL SEO STRATEGY ARTICLES
TESTIMONIALS
I can’t recommend Markitors highly enough from both a speed and investment angle. Their SEO services are very effective in growing your brand online.
OUR LOCAL SEO CONSULTANTS
If you Google the term “small business SEO,” you’ll most likely find Markitors on the first page of search results. Of the 15,000+ digital marketing agencies who offer Local SEO services in the United States, Google consistently ranks us as one of the top agencies.
We launched and have built our SEO agency in a sustainable and predictable way through search engine optimization. We do the same for small businesses.
We get results. We practice what we preach. And we believe in having a good time while connecting our clients with customers.