How to Create a Local SEO Campaign the Right Way. Part 1
If you’re a local business using Squarespace as your website hosting, prioritizing your online presence for Local SEO is one of the most important steps you can take to help your business be found by local searches.
Did you know that 46% of all searches in Google are looking for local information?
These searches often come in the form of “near me” searches. We’ve all done this! Whether it’s looking for a “plumber” near me when you’re having trouble in your apartment or a local café while on vacation, finding a local business nearby is often a sigh of relief!
Almost half of consumers who do “near me” searches are using mobile devices.
76% of those amazing “near me” searchers visit a related business within a day!* How awesome is that!?
But so often, local businesses are not taking advantage of the power of SEO for your local business which leads to less visitors and phone calls to your establishment.
Meanwhile what local businesses really want is to be effortlessly getting in front of customers looking for immediate results to their daily woes and desires. So how do you get your local business found on Google? How do you end up in a situation where your business telephone starts ringing with people who found you on Google?
Today I’ll share with you some first steps you can take that can optimize your business for local search results.
Squarespace SEO for Local Businesses
Squarespace SEO Tip #1: Keyword Research
Oh Keyword Research. Nothing causes shivers down the spine of local entrepreneurs than uttering the words keyword research. It sounds overwhelming….it sounds tricky and it sounds time consuming. To be fair, I do think keyword research is indeed tricky and time consuming and sometimes it’s great to hire it out (See my SEO Services). But, with that being said, keyword research is more of an art than a science. It takes trial and error and just like a chef in a kitchen, embracing the trial and error approach is good and it’s better than doing nothing at all.
If I’ve learned anything since diving into the world of SEO strategy it’s that taking the time to figure out how your customers are searching for things can make a huge difference in connecting with your local audience.
For example, my first ever SEO SETUP client was a local photographer. This photographer was offering “branding” photography in her local studio. Before we started working together this client had very few organic visits to her website and didn’t get many phone calls from local callers who found her on Google. So when I did keyword research for her website, I realized that people wern’t looking for “branding photography” in her location. But there was a high search volume for headshot photography.
So we replaced any mention of branding photography with “headshot photography” across her website. I bet you’re wondering…did this little tweak work? We tweaked her website for a lot more than just THAT keyword, BUT within two months of launching her new website she is now getting a lot more calls from people who found her on Google! And I’d call that a huge win.
But how do YOU get going with keyword research? You can go the easy way and log into Google Keyword Planner (this is free and straightforward) or you can dive deeper into a software such as Ubersuggest (which I’m obsessed with) or SEMrush.
I’d say if you’re just starting out use Google Keyword Planner.
It’s straightforward and easy. What you’re looking for are keywords that have a search volume between 100 and 1500 words and have low to medium competition. This is a great place to start!
I bet you’re wondering? But how do I know what keywords to even start with…well with that I’d say: Think about how your clients would be looking for your service on their cell phones. What are they looking up? What are the variations of that word or variations of your service topic? For example:
Lola owns a local ice cream shop. So she brainstorms that people looking for ice cream in her neighborhood of Canton NY are likely googling:
“Ice cream in near me”
“Ice cream shop near me”
These are great starter searches but they are also high competition keywords to rank for. But then Lola gets a little more creative because she ALSO SELLS SHERBERT. Lola types into Google Keyword Planner.
“Sherbert near me” And BOOM! There are a bunch of searches for Sherbert and lower competition than trying to rank for “ice cream near me”! Lola now knows that this is an awesome keyword to add into her website (maybe making a special page dedicated to her sherbert choices on her website) and making sure that sherbert is listed in her Google Business Profile Description as one of her ice cream shop’s offerings.
SECRET TIP: ALSO include your location across your website. A great way to do this in putting your business address in the footer of your website.
Voila! There you have it. The power of keyword research. With a little time.. And strategy, Lola’s ice cream shop could be full of sherbert craving tourists all summer because she made it easy for them to find her, by making it clear across her online presence that she indeed sells Sherbert.
To sum It ALL UP:
Research relevant keywords: The first step in any SEO campaign is to identify the keywords that people in your target audience are searching for.
Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or Ubersuggest to identify the most relevant keywords for your business.
Squarespace SEO Tip #2: Optimize your website
Once you’ve identified your keywords, you will need to strategically place these keywords across your actual website. The practice of on-page keyword placement is more of an art than a science because if you just randomly drop your keywords across your page, you end up with a website that looks a little deranged and definitely won’t connect with customers who end up reading the web page. I’ll explain more below.
When I first started out in the world SEO, “keyword” was the number one term I kept hearing about. As it turns out, there are higher and lower priority areas to place your keywords. I could and should write a full blog post dedicated to art and science of keyword placement but to sum it up briefly.
You want to put your keywords in the following places:
Header Texts
Paragraph text
Meta Titles & Descriptions of each page.
URLS
Some fun caveats of keyword placement (are you ready for this).
Number 1:
Each page of your website should have its OWN keywords that it’s trying to rank for. Do not repeat the same keywords across every single page of your website. Rookie mistake.
Number 2:
H1 tags are the champ. Your most important keyword should go into your H1 Tagged text. Notice how I say text…not texts. You guessed it. You should only have ONE H1 tag on each page of your website. Having more than one confuses Google.
Number 3:
There is some debate on whether Google actually reads the meta-titles & descriptions. But what isn’t debated is that customers who end up seeing your website in search results DO indeed read your meta titles & descriptions and if those descriptions match their query perfectly, then “Click” they will be bopping into your website to learn more about how you can serve them.
Here is an example for you:
Martine has a hair salon named Martine’s Salon located in Hartford, CT that specializes in delivering salon services for men and women with curly hair.
When creating her website, Martine did her keyword research and saw that people were searching for “curly hair salons near me” in the state of Connecticut. (Cool fact, you can limit Google Keyword Planner by state or nationally).
Martine decides to target “Curly Hair Salon” in her most recent blog post. Here is what she would do next. She would add “Curly Hair Salon” to the following areas of her blog post:
H1 tag in blog post:
Ex. “The #1 Curly Hair Salon in Connecticut”
Meta Title would read:
Curly Hair Salon | Martine’s Hair Salon | Hartford, CT
55-75 characters
Meta Description:
The #1 Curly Hair Salon in Hartford, CT. Looking for a hair salon that knows how to rock your curls like no other? Come check out Martine’s Salon!
130-150 characters
URL:
Go into the page settings of your blog post and make the URL:
/curly-hair-salon
BONUS: Martine can now write her blog post all about her salon’s services just for curly hair. She will naturally be using the targeted keywords across her paragraphs because “curly hair salon services” is the topic of this blog article. And voila: you have yourself an amazingly optimized blog post.
DOUBLE BONUS: make sure that page is at least 500 words long… 2000 words is MUCH better, but Google won’t even bother trying to read / index a page that is under 500 words. SO that is the ultimate minimum.
To sum it all up:
Optimize your website: Make sure your website is optimized for local search by including your location in your content, titles, meta descriptions, and URLs. Also, make sure your website is mobile-friendly, loads quickly, and has a clear and concise navigation. Nobody wants to look at a website that looks crazzzyyy on a cell phone.
Squarespace SEO Tip #3: Google My Business Profile Optimization
If you’re a local business and you don’t have your Google My Business Profile setup you are losing out on a major marketing strategy that is both free and easy to maintain. Google LOVES Google and hence when your business is using Google’s products, Google is going to want to show you in their results.
Google Business Profile is THE profile you set up so that your business can be found in google maps.
That’s the easiest way to explain it. People in the biz call this the Google Map Pack. But the gist is…get your business listed in Google Maps by making your Google Business Profile.
What I notice is a lot of people set up their Google Business Profiles in a hurry and put out a poetic description of their business rather than a strategic one.
A florist may write “Roses and Peonies Galore at a Gorgeous Shop.” This example florist is missing out big time if she is looking to break into the wedding flower game. Let’s say that this florist, (let’s call her Dan), LOVES doing flowers for weddings. Instead of describing her shop as this amazing place where you can find roses and peonies, she should optimize her Google Business Profile Description in the three following ways:
Number 1:
In the description of her website, she NEEDS to write that she is a florist shop that specializes in wedding flowers (*she would check Google Keyword Planner first before using “wedding flowers” as her targeted Keyword. She would make sure people are indeed searching for “wedding flowers” using those exact words).
Number 2:
She would encourage Google reviews from any clients she has served in the wedding flower market. Encourage these clients to leave reviews that happen to mention wedding flowers.
Number 3:
She would RESPOND to these reviews in a kind way & use her targeted keyword in her response. I.e. “I’m SO very happy that you love your wedding flowers! I really enjoyed designing them!
This is how you get a rockstar Google My Business Profile presence and, I’ve heard some SEO’s in the field claim that optimizing your Google My Business Profile is the most POWERFUL SEO move A Local business owner can make.
Especially if you’re a local service based business. This is the easiest and perhaps most powerful way for you to optimize your online presence TONIGHT. Isn’t that an awesome feeling?
To sum it Up:
Claim your Google My Business profile: Google My Business is a free tool that allows you to manage your business's presence on Google. Claim your profile and fill out all the necessary information, including your business name, address, phone number, and website URL. Describe your business STRATEGICALLY not poetically.
Does your website need an SEO setup?
If you’re struggling with how to get started with SEO optimizing your website or simply just don’t have the time to dive into it then I cannot recommend enough signing up for my SEO SETUP Package! I created it because I noticed SEO implementation and setup wasn’t easy to knock out without prior experience or time to learn the ins-and-outs of the magic of SEO and I wanted to provide SEO Marketing to other people like me who also needed it!
Check out my SEO services page here
Remember, the first two steps to getting started with SEO on your squarespace website are:
Step 1: KEYWORD RESEARCH
Step 2: ON-PAGE KEYWORD IMPLEMENTATION
