Navigating Local SEO: A Beginner's Guide For SMEs | Digitalfren

Local SEO: What Is It?

Local SEO is the strategic process of improving your website's visibility in search engines so that local Internet users can find you. This ensures that people in your business area can find your website by typing relevant keywords into search engines. While traditional SEO aims to improve your site's visibility on a national or global scale, local SEO focuses on increasing your visibility in local search rankings. So, it is best suited for businesses with a physical location because your ideal customers are likely to be nearby.

How can SMEs benefit from local SEO?

SMEs may believe local SEO optimisation is time-consuming due to a lack of resources. However, following simple steps can yield significant benefits. One of the most significant advantages of local SEO is that it ranks first in search engine results and Google Maps results. When a business appears at the top of local search results, it gains increased visibility, website traffic, and foot traffic to its physical location. To learn more about how local SEO can benefit your business, read the following points:

• Time and money-saving

Traditional advertising, such as flyers, brochures, and billboards, can be expensive and time-consuming to produce while providing a return on investment. Local SEO helps reduce costs by focusing on relevant customer segments and geographies. It also helps drive more traffic, particularly "relevant" traffic, which saves time. As a result, when compared to other strategies, local SEO saves time and money.

• Good rivalry with conglomerates 

SMEs face intense competition in ranking generic keywords like "coffee shop" and "boutique" due to large conglomerates. To compete, SMEs should include location tags in these keywords and use long-tail keywords like "minimalist coffee shop in Selangor" or "light academia boutique in Selangor" to increase their chances of ranking at the top of search results.

• Enhanced Visibility

Optimising your website for local SEO is crucial, as users often click on the first few results on search engine results pages. This ensures your website ranks at the top of the page and receives more visibility. By being the first to appear when someone searches for your service and your location, your website can gain greater exposure, traffic, and sales conversions.

• Attract Clients with high Purchase Intentions

Local SEO is crucial for local businesses as it boosts traffic, enhances user engagement, and enhances customer satisfaction. It helps businesses establish a strong online presence, drive business growth, and reach a large audience of potential customers. By focusing on local SEO, businesses can attract more active users and increase their chances of successful sales.

How can your local SEO be optimised?

• Register for a Google My Business Listing

The first step in optimising your Malaysia local SEO is to claim your Google My Business listing. This allows you to establish your search engine presence and increase your business's exposure on Google Maps at no cost. Fill in all of the necessary details to optimise your local SEO, including your company's name, website, images, address, and contact information.

• Optimise your website.

To optimise your website, ensure your address is correctly listed, and integrate Google Maps for easy location and planning. This will prevent search engines from capturing incorrect information and targeting the wrong audience. Additionally, make your website mobile-friendly, as many users prefer to search on their phones and are ready to travel to specific locations. This will help customers easily locate your shop and plan their route.

• Keep your name, address, and phone number consistent.

Consistency in your company's name, address, and phone number, including the area code, is crucial for Google's bot to better crawl your HTML text and produce good search results. For instance, if you have a name like "Katie's Coffee Shop" on your website, use it on social media. While "Coffee Shop" and "Cafe" can be used interchangeably, avoid changing them to "Katie's Cafe."

• Optimise your social media account locations.

You should also remember to include and tag your brand's location on its official social media accounts. The general rule of thumb is to include it in your bio and use a location tag in your social media posts. Another tip for optimising the location is to include specific location hashtags in your posts. For example, if you are a creative agency offering local SEO services, make sure to use the hashtag #creativeagencylocalseo in all of your posts.

• Add the address to local directory websites.

In Malaysia, popular online local directories include Business List, Yellow Pages, Malaysia Business Directory, and One Stop Malaysia. If you want your business to be known, you should enter all of the necessary information on these websites. Consistency and verification are essential when doing this. You want to ensure that the citations are accurate and correct, with no spelling errors, incorrect phone numbers, or street names.

• Request Google Reviews

If you want to fully optimise local SEO, we recommend asking for Google reviews from your current customers. Search engines consider the number of stars you receive on Google reviews to help promote the most relatable and high-quality businesses. It also influences how other new customers perceive your brand before they visit your physical store.

Conclusion

Finally, local SEO can assist small businesses in becoming more visible to their local customers online. You should do your best to make your store, service, or product discoverable online through search engines. After all, everyone is now online. 

If you are searching for the best local SEO Services Malaysia, then consider Digitalfren. Whether you know exactly where you need to go or are looking for ideas, our team of industry experts is here to help.