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Today we’re looking at local SEO strategies that your agency should be implementing for your agency clients. With competition for search visibility stronger than ever, you need to be on top of on-site SEO, managing local listings, citation building, plus a host of other techniques. But with Google and the other search engines frequently updating their algorithms, what does it take to secure top search placement for your clients? Let’s explore the main elements of a new local SEO campaign.
6 Foundational Local SEO Strategies for Your New Agency Client
Your new agency client might be a startup with no search profile or an established business with a faltering SEO strategy (caused by lack of management or prior agency neglect). In either case, to help your local business client show up high in search results and even Google Maps, you’ll want a solid foundation built on experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. When it comes to local SEO strategies for businesses, establishing that foundation is imperative.
1. Research Local Keywords
The first stage of your local SEO campaign is to identify target keywords. For most local business clients, your focus will be on search terms related to the business or the services. Within these categories you have foundational keywords (the primary, high-volume terms), and long-tail keywords (secondary terms with lower volume and high intent).
2. On-Page Optimization Is Crucial
The home page, service pages and blog posts can all include primary keywords, supplementary terms and locations, but make sure to avoid keyword stuffing. Fortunately you can optimize pages without sacrificing the user experience. For example, including a location and service in the title tag, meta description and H1 tag signals to readers that your content is relevant to their needs. Internal linking and image alt text can also improve the site’s visibility for local searches.
3. Build Citations on Reputable Sites
Building citations for new clients begins with a thorough audit. A new business might have few citations, while an older company could have an outdated citation footprint that needs correction. We’ve recently outlined some top strategies for building and maintaining local citations. Among these steps, the most common challenge is creating high-quality citations on trustworthy directories. This is where our listing management service becomes invaluable to agencies seeking a simple solution to the time-consuming citation-building process.
4. Create Service and Location Pages
While analyzing your client’s competitors, you’ll likely find many websites listing business services on a single page (and failing to include dedicated location pages). Understand that taking the extra steps to create individual pages for primary services and relevant locations allows you to optimize for keywords and convert more visitors to buyers.
5. Develop a Review Strategy
In recent years reviews have undoubtedly become more important in a local SEO campaign. Consumers expect to see recent, positive reviews when they consider hiring a local business, and search engines are reluctant to list websites that lack consumer trust. For agencies, tracking client reviews and responding quickly should be a pillar of any SEO campaign. We make monitoring reviews easy for agencies with businesses listed in our dashboard.
6. Prioritize Google Business Profile
You can’t have a serious local SEO strategy without including a Google Business Profile (GBP). Google uses the GBP to collect accurate information about a business, with an optimized profile potentially getting featured in the Local Pack and Maps. If you want to go a step further, you can use our Enhanced GBP Tool to sync client data and access data insights. Ensuring that public edits don’t impact your client’s Google Business Profile is important too, and for agencies with businesses listed in our dashboard, we can auto reject public edits for you.
Local SEO Tools and Services for Agencies and Local Marketers
If you’re starting a local SEO campaign for a new business client, try local listing management software and solutions from Advice Local. We make building results-driven SEO campaigns for your clients easy with quality tools and services built for agencies. Call (214) 310-1356 or request a demo today.