Not all companies need to focus on the worldwide stage. As a small business I have found it can be far more beneficial focusing on my local community rather than taking on the entire world when it comes to the search engines. I offer homemade goods to people in my local neighbourhood mainly. Although I have gradually increased my reach to include the county as a whole rather than just my town I am still not ready to take on the world so with the help of my writer I have been focusing on making sure my website is optmized for my target areas.
Changes to the Web Copy Needed to Be Made
The first thing I looked at was the actually web copy on my site. Each page needed to be worked on as I had a lot of information to take in, none of which was focusing on local business. I really wanted to become a part of the community and become well-known for my products so I added small details such as the location of my business on each page footer, my local phone number and I also changed the meta description for the site to include the county I am targeting. I then added a blog and asked a writer to take control of the content for me. By creating a marketing plan I was able to come up with great ideas for blog posts each month, focusing on special events and holidays in order to encourage seasonal traffic. One of the main reasons for including the blog was to create interesting posts that really embraced my local surroundings and I always asked my writer to include information on local events as well as writing up about the local ingredients found in my products.
My Blog Was the Ideal Place to Build on Local Connections
I found the whole experience to be very rewarding on a few levels. Initially I found that with my blog and the use of social networking I was able to expand my network and I really did start to feel like I was a part of the community. Locally businesses started to contact me about my products and I have increased the amount of trade sales I make which has really made a difference to my income. Before I locally optimized my website I mainly made money from selling at fairs and markets, now my website is working hard for me. I recently left my part time job to focus 100 percent of my efforts on my own small business, which is a dream come true. I am about to take on my first in-house employees to help me keep up with demand and I truly believe that by focusing on my local community and gradually dominating the local search engine results pages my business has been able to thrive despite the global competition for my trade.
Local SEO is a Great Way of Starting Your Plan for Global Domination
If you are looking to expand your business and are hoping to dominate search engine results in order to increase your conversion rates I recommend putting local SEO at the top of your agenda. It is a great way of starting off your business plan and with time and dedication you can build solid foundations in your area and become an important part of your local community. My next step will be to expand my reach; I do already sell to other areas in the UK although as of yet I haven’t targeting any other regions. As my business and employees grow I hope to expand my reach further still focusing on optimizing the site just changing tactics slightly. With all the effort I have put into the business over the last few years I finally feel positive that world domination is possible and it all started off in my local town.
If you are looking to localize your website contact a SEO copywriter for assistance. With their expertise you can dominate local search and strengthen your position in the community.
Have you benefited from going local with your small business blog? Please share your small biz diamonds in the comments section below.