How to Skyrocket Your Small Business’ Local SEO Rank
How to stand out online and stay on top in the Fort Wayne business scene
As a small business owner, you’ve probably heard these words a million times – SEO, Google search ranking, keywords, and website optimization.
Even if you’re a marketing expert, these terms can still be a little intimidating and kind of mysterious. But they’re so important to ensuring the longevity and competitiveness of your business, especially in such a bustling, growing city as Fort Wayne.
Nothing’s worse for your SEO rank than sharing a URL that leads to an expired website, or confusing your potential customers with hours that contradict what’s listed elsewhere on the Internet.
Did you know that a whopping 46% of Google searches are made with local intent?
That means people are searching for things to experience right in their own cities and towns more often than not.
Making your business more searchable and strategic online can seem daunting, but don’t worry!
I’m breaking the process down into four manageable steps you can apply now, to help you rank higher in search results and reach more customers in the greater Fort Wayne area and beyond.
Let’s dive in.
Create an Effective Google Business Profile
This is one of the first and most important steps to getting noticed by customers who search for new products, events, cultural amenities, and dining and shopping options in their respective areas of interest and geographic locations.
By having a well-built, optimized Google Business profile, your business will begin rising to the top of potential customers’ search results.
How to Set Up Your Google Business Profile
Visit the Google Business Profile manager and sign in or create an account.
You can use your current business email address to sign up, or you can create a new Google account if you’re just now launching your business.
After signing in for the first time, you’ll follow the on-screen guide to set up your Google Business profile.
Be sure to include all of your business details like address, phone number, hours of operation, service areas, and any website or social media links.
Providing as much information as possible here is the first step to attracting the most eyeballs to your business in search results.
Take the time to verify that each piece of information or URL you’re listing is accurate, up-to-date, and matches what’s listed elsewhere, both online and in real life (i.e. on your website, marketing materials or promotional pieces, social media accounts, etc.)
Nothing’s worse for your SEO rank than sharing a URL that leads to an expired website, or confusing your potential customers with hours that contradict what’s listed elsewhere on the Internet.
Consistency of business information is hands-down the most important factor when you’re looking to stand out in Google search results. But it’s the one thing I see small businesses struggle to get right all the time.
Consistency is the key to long-term success.
Localize Your SEO Strategy
Once you’ve created and optimized your Google business profile, you’ll want to make sure your website content is optimized, too.
Unless you're well-established, customers likely won’t find your business on Google simply because it’s there.
Your website and its content make the difference between being discovered by customers online or being buried by other, better-optimized websites.
That's why your site’s content should feature keywords and phrases real customers are searching for, to help your business rank higher and be found more often.
Focus on incorporating related words and phrases that are relevant to both your business, its offerings and the geographic location(s) and target audience you serve.
For example, if you own an organic bakery with vegan options, using a generic phrase like “the best muffins in Fort Wayne” within your website content is good, but it’s a little bit generic.
A key phrase like “best organic vegan muffins in Fort Wayne” will better differentiate your business and help you rank higher when people in the community hit up Google looking for things like “best muffins in Fort Wayne”, “organic muffins near me”, or “vegan muffins in Fort Wayne”.
When your website gets found on Google search, the last thing you want customers to do is get turned off because they got bored waiting, their eyes hurt, or they can’t easily browse your site on mobile.
In addition to using keywords and phrases within your website’s body copy, make sure to thoughtfully sprinkle keywords throughout your site’s metadata, page titles, slugs, and page headings for increased searchability.
Just don’t go too crazy. The keyword density of any page on your site should be between 1 and 2 percent, meaning your keywords or phrases should appear once or twice for every 100 words of body copy.
And Google tends to penalize websites that have super-high keyword density, resulting in a lower search engine rank. We don't want that!
Moral of the story: everything SEO in moderation.
Make Your Site Speedy and Mobile-Friendly!
I’ll admit it. It’s scary out there for a website!
I see so many small business sites that are bogged down with images and videos that take too long to load; body copy that’s unreadable due to a clashing color palette or an illegible typeface; or content that gets cut off on mobile.
Did you know that 63% of Google searches in the United States take place on a mobile device, and 5.9 million Google searches worldwide happen every minute?
That’s roughly 3.2 million mobile searches per minute in the United States alone!
When your website gets found on Google search, the last thing you want customers to do is get turned off because they got bored waiting, their eyes hurt, or they can’t easily browse your site on mobile.
To make sure your website is compatible with mobile devices like cell phones and tablets, always preview your pages before making them live by asking a friend or family member to pull up the test pages on their devices.
Some website builders like Squarespace and WordPress even offer site preview tools within their web editors, so you can easily do a check for any wonky design or content issues before they happen in the real world.
Keep it right, keep it tight.
Create Content for Your Local Audience
As a business owner, the way you interact with your local community should go hand in hand with your online presence.
When you write a blog post, make an important announcement or business-wide change, or participate in a local event, you should always think about the connection those moments can facilitate between your business and your local audience.
When sharing information or updates on social media, use relevant hashtags to boost local visibility. Some hashtags will become your mainstays, especially #fortwayne, #fortwayneindiana, #smallbusiness and others related to your specific industry, type of business, or product offering.
If you’re maintaining a blog on your website, be sure to incorporate the keyword density rule – one to two keywords or key phrases per 100 words – to increase your business’ SEO and credibility as a leader in your industry.
Bonus points if you take it a step further and feature customer reactions, testimonials or feedback in new and exciting ways on your website, social media or marketing materials!
