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Your business blog may be many things, but above all else, it should be a way to move the needle on your company’s sales. If it’s not improving your bottom line, it’s not really worth having around. Paradoxically, though, this does not mean your blog should be over-the-top in its sales strategy. Indeed, an aggressively hard-selling blog is going to be counterproductive, turning off rather than engaging potential customers.

So here’s the tricky part: Establishing a company blog that sells without coming across as salesy; a blog that earns trust and displays thought leadership in such a way that it makes readers want to pick up the phone or come down to your store to buy something.

It’s not impossible to do, as we’ll illustrate through a few tips and guidelines.

How to Sell Without Being Salesy on Your Business Blog

Always write with a specific audience in mind. If you want to avoid coming across as salesy, you need to write in a way that conveys specific value to your audience—and to make that happen, you first have to know who your audience is. This is where buyer personas come in handy. Know who you’re writing for, and what value you hope them to glean from your blog. Always ask: What’s in it for them?

Avoid writing about yourself. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, of course. You can certainly use your company blog to share updates about your company, about new team members, or about product launches. Generally speaking, though, it’s better to make it about the reader, not about you. Share actionable insights. Provide valuable tips. Give them something they can use to improve their lives right now.

Refrain from mentioning your company in every sentence. We’re not opposed to branded references where appropriate, but you typically won’t need but one or two of them per blog. Include your brand name in a call to action at the end, but beyond that it’s usually not going to be relevant. Again, don’t make it all about you. Make it all about providing value to your readers.

Be conversational in your tone. For the most part, it’s best to avoid writing in a way that it stuffy or needlessly academic, just as it’s wise to go easy on the used car salesman shtick. Just write as if you were speaking to a friend, and be straightforward but approachable.

Include links where relevant. If you see an opportunity to include a link to one of your products, by all means do so. That can be genuinely helpful to your readers. Always keep them relevant, though; shoehorning in a bunch of off-topic links really comes across as shamelessly salesy.

Don’t forget your call to action! Every blog post you write should end with a clear and simple call to action—an invitation for readers to act on the post by connecting with you in some way. It doesn’t have to be much more elaborate than, “Call us today to learn more.” This is the part of the blog post where you can push that sale.

Write Blog Posts That Get Results

Your blog posts shouldn’t be fluff, and neither should they be entirely self-promotional. The goal of any blog post is to foster engagement, and ultimately to lead to a conversion. If your posts aren’t doing that, it’s time to rethink them—and we can help. Reach out to Driven2020 to learn more about our fluff-free, results-oriented approach to digital marketing, and ask how we can help you sell without being too salesy!

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Email marketing is one of the most reliably effective marketing channels there is—but that doesn’t mean it’s foolproof. Many small businesses invest in email and are unsatisfied with the return they get. This isn’t because email marketing is deficient; it’s because it requires a certain level of strategy in order for it to get results.

If your email marketing efforts aren’t working, that’s no reason to throw in the towel. Rather, it’s simply an indication that you need some fine-tuning to your approach. Here are a few potential reasons why your email marketing may not be working, and some recommended fixes.

Your Subject Lines Are Lackluster

The subject line is arguably the most important part of any email you send. It creates the first impression, and determines whether or not the rest of the message is opened. A bad subject line means your message falls on deaf ears, so here’s how to write a good one:

• Be brief—seven words or less
• Focus on value—what’s in it for your readers?
• Avoid spammy-sounding words, like sale, free, percent off, etc.

You Haven’t Segmented Your Email List

Good marketing messages feel personalized. That’s hard to achieve when you’re sending a general e-blast to a massive, unsegmented email list. Instead, what we recommend is breaking your list of contacts into different groups, allowing you to find-tune your messaging to reach different members of your audience base. Use buyer personas to help determine how best you can break down your audience and individualize your messaging.

You Aren’t Offering Value

When considering a marketing email, always ask yourself this question: What value are you offering your readers? There should be some takeaway in each message—some benefit the reader gets just from opening the email. Discounts and sales promos can work, but so can actionable tips and insights. Just avoid sending emails that are entirely fluff.

Your Email Messages Are Too Long

Imagine that you received a 1,000-word email in your inbox—just a big, rambling block of text. Would you read it? Unless it was from a friend or family member, probably not. People just don’t have time for epic emails, so keep yours succinct and readable. A few short sentences, formatted with plenty of white space, is usually the way to go. Sometimes, 100 words or less will suffice.

You’re Selling Too Much

People don’t like to feel like they are being advertised to all the time. They don’t like to constantly be on the receiving end of a sales pitch. Your emails can sometimes be salesy in their nature, but you should also send emails that are simply informative or educational. Let your readers know what’s going on with your company or with your industry.

Your Goals Are Poorly Defined

Here’s a big one: You won’t achieve email marketing success if you don’t first define what success looks like. Are you trying to sell products directly? Generate website traffic? Or simply build customer loyalty? Make sure you know what you’re tying to do with your email marketing, and which metrics you’ll use to measure and quantify your success.

Take the Next Step with Email Marketing

As you endeavor to get better results from your email marketing, don’t hesitate to enlist a professional guide. That’s where Driven2020 comes into play. We know how important email can be, and also how to integrate it into the big picture of digital marketing. We’d love to help you develop an action plan for your brand. Reach out to Driven2020 today to learn about our growth-focused marketing services!

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When it comes to optimizing your website for maximum search engine visibility, it’s important to take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way—no matter how small it might seem. Case in point: The meta description. This is an easily-overlooked section of online real estate, but it also happens to be a crucial way of communicating to readers—and to search engine algorithms—what your content is about and how it should be categorized. Knowing what meta descriptions are, and how to write good ones, is a key SEO skill that anyone can learn.

What is the Meta Description?

You’ve seen meta descriptions before, even if you didn’t know what to call them. Do a quick Google search for something—anything. You should see a list of roughly 10 blue links—the search results—and under each link, you’ll notice a short blurb of text. That blurb is the meta description. Essentially, it’s a preview of what the website content is about—a way for you to determine whether you should click on the link to have your search query answered.

How Does Google Determine the Meta Description?

When you perform a search for a given term, Google will first try to find a snippet of each search result that includes that term—and if possible, it will use that snippet of text as the meta description. Often, though, there’s not necessarily a good, succinct snippet of text that the algorithms can obtain, so they default to the manual meta description that the author of the content has (hopefully) written. In other words, your meta description may not always be displayed to search engine users, but a lot of the time it will be—so you definitely don’t want to neglect writing one. (If you do, Google may just use the first 150 characters or so of the page, which may not be particularly enticing to readers.)

Why Do Meta Descriptions Matter?

You can probably guess some of the reasons why meta descriptions matter. One is that it’s a great place for you to embed some keywords and phrases—signaling to Google’s algorithms what the main topic of the content is. Additionally, meta descriptions can convey value to readers, and encourage them to click on the link and read more. In a way, meta descriptions are almost as important as headlines when it comes to making a strong, persuasive first impression.

How Do You Write a Good Meta Description?

So what should you know about writing a good meta description? Here are a few tips:

• Keep it to roughly 150 characters; if you go much longer than that, Google will cut off the end of it. 150 characters is the ideal length for ensuring the whole thing is displayed on all
• Include some keywords and phrases in the meta description, but try to incorporate them organically. The meta description should make sense, not just be a jumble of search terms.
• Include a branded keyword in the meta description, too—like the name of your business or product.
• End your meta description with a call to action if you can!
• Above all, convey value. Show your reader why he or she should click the link to read your content.

Mastering All the SEO Essentials

A good meta description is an SEO must. To learn more about what makes an SEO campaign successful, we invite you to contact the Driven2020 team. We’d love to provide you with a full SEO and integrated marketing consultation. Reach out to us today!

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There’s a familiar saying in online marketing—content is king. There’s a lot of truth to that statement; when it comes to enhancing your brand, there’s simply no substitute for engaging, value-adding content. With that said, there’s more to content than the messaging itself. For the best results, it’s important to create content that engages readers, but also fulfills all the prerequisites for high Google search placement. This ensures that your content receives the visibility it needs to connect with its audience.

But what does it really mean to optimize your written content? There are many considerations to make here, and in this post we’re going to run through some of the basics.

Optimizing Your Written Content

Start with the title. It’s important that your content have a headline that grabs attention—but also that complies with SEO best practices. For one thing, we’d recommend using at least one focus keyword in your title, as naturally and organically as possible. We also recommend keeping your title to 60 characters or less. The reason for this is simple: It ensures that Google can fit the entire title into the SERP, without needing to truncate it.

Have a relevant URL. So-called “vanity” URLs aren’t mere vanities at all; they are SEO essentials. A URL that’s just a random string of numbers isn’t going to do you any favors, so instead make the URL something relevant to your title and keywords.

Structure your page. Your written content should lead readers (and search algorithms) from top to the bottom, using a series of H1, H2, H3, and possible H4 headings that divide the content naturally into different sections. Each heading is also a great place to include another keyword!

Be judicious with keywords. Speaking of which, what are the best strategies for keyword optimization? Rather than try to hit a magic number, we’d advise employing keywords as naturally as possible. Remember that titles and headings are the best places to position keywords. And remember, too, that keyword stuffing—that is, throwing in so many keywords that the content is hard to read—is a big SEO faux pas.

Be readable. Optimizing for the search algorithms means making it easy for people to read—period. Your headings help with that, as we mentioned above, but we’d also encourage you to use shorter sentences and concise paragraphs. Bullets and numbered lists are helpful. Passive voice is not.

Don’t forget your meta description! Providing Google with a meta description—150 characters or less, including a clear summary of the content, a keyword or two, and a call to action—is a critical SEO activity.

Remember to optimize for mobile users. Your content should be easy to read on any and all devices. Check your page for mobile optimization on a number of different devices—and if you don’t like what you see, call your Web developer. Alternatively, note that the most common content management systems, including WordPress, provides an easy way to switch on mobile optimization.

Include links. Both internal and external linking can help you with optimization, just so long as you keep them genuinely helpful and relevant. Random or paid-for links, meanwhile, will do more harm than good.

Make Your Content Shine

For your content to pack a punch, you need it to be original, compelling, and actionable. You also need it to be well formatted, structured, and keyword-rich. That’s a lot to think about, but our team can help. Talk with us about what it takes to truly optimize your content. Reach out to the Driven2020 team sooner rather than later!

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Small business owners feel a constant pressure to produce more content on their brand’s behalf; you probably feel that way yourself, and so does your competition. What this means is that there is simply an incomprehensibly large amount of digital content out there—far too much for any one person to take stock of, let alone digest. The irony is that as the volume of available content increases, the average attention span is just getting shorter. This poses a problem to online marketers: How can you keep making content that generates engagement, even as readers have less and less patience for content consumption?

It is tricky, but not entirely impossible, to develop written content that caters to short attention spans—and in this post, we’ll offer you a few specific strategies.

Writing Content with Short Attention Spans in Mind

Know Your Audience. It’s always important to know who you’re writing for. Consult with a buyer persona or do demographic research so that you can have a good sense of your audience, and tailor content that feels like it’s written directly for them. When you can write to someone with specificity, rather than in generalizations, they’re more inclined to pay attention.

Be Smart About Structure. The way you organize your written content is imperative. You want to structure content that can be easily skimmed, and key sections read more thoroughly. What this means is that you should always write in short paragraphs and concise sentences. Additionally:

• Use subject headings to divide your content into distinct sections.
• Use bulleted or numbered lists whenever possible.
• Make sure your opening paragraph makes it clear what the content is all about.
• Make sure your closing paragraph recaps the main point of the piece, and offers an actionable takeaway.

Enrich Your Text. In addition to strong written content, we’d advise incorporating some compelling visuals. Images, infographics, and even embedded video can make content more exciting—for lack of a better term, more attention-grabbing. Meanwhile, a page that’s 100 percent black-and-white text simply isn’t going to engage anyone but the most studious reader.

Be Bold. Sometimes, it can be effective to bold key parts of your text—so long as you use this strategy judiciously. When everything is bolded, the effect is lost!

Offer Value. This may almost go without saying, but your written content should offer something actionable and meaningful to the reader. Always ask yourself: What’s in it for them? And again, make that value proposition something that’s clearly stated at the very beginning and very end of your text.

Be as Concrete as Possible. People like to see specific examples, facts, figures, studies—things that take your abstract ideas and make them feel more tangible. Try to include these concrete particulars whenever you can.

Don’t Sweat the Length. A lot of content writers get hung up on word count. To keep things engaging, we’d honestly recommend just writing as much or as little as you need to make your point and to deliver on that value. Longer content is preferable—and if you follow the rest of these tips, it won’t compromise engagement—but sometimes, a quickie blog post can also be okay.

Engagement is Always the Goal

It really doesn’t mean anything just to produce content to support your digital marketing efforts; you also need that content to be read. Engagement is always the goal, and that means grabbing people’s attention span. We’d love to show you more about what that looks like, and to help you implement a comprehensive marketing plan that truly gets results. Connect with Driven2020 to start that conversation.

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Facebook boasts an unsurpassed audience, but what makes the platform valuable to marketers isn’t how many users there are—it’s how narrowly you can segment that audience, targeting the people who see your ads and your content. When done correctly, audience targeting allows you to ensure that your ads are displayed only to the customers you’re specifically trying to reach; this effectively removes the risk of “wasted” ad dollars and provides immense benefits for your digital marketing campaign.

The Facebook Ads platform offers a lot of useful targeting functions—too many for us to get into in a single blog post. Today, we want to look at what Facebook calls Custom Audiences—a handy way for you to control how your ads are displayed.

About Custom Audiences

A Custom Audience is exactly what its name suggests—a grouping of Facebook users that you can select and customize. Once you create a Custom Audience, you can ensure that the ads you pay for are only displayed to the users in that group. This allows for incredible control in your own marketing endeavors.

There are different ways to build a custom audience, too. Here are some of the primary ones to consider.

Custom Audiences from an Existing List

If you already have a list of customers you wish to target, you can upload it directly to Facebook and trust the Facebook algorithms to handle everything else for you. This might be a list of email addresses, phone numbers, or Facebook user identities, and it can be uploaded as an Excel spreadsheet or a MailChimp contact list. Facebook is not always able to locate and match 100 percent of the people on your list—and obviously, it won’t be able to find any of your customers who don’t have Facebook—but it’s usually pretty accurate and pretty thorough.

Website Lists

Another useful option is to create an audience based on your website traffic. You can choose to have your ads displayed only to people who have previously visited your site, and you can even limit it to recent site visits—within the last week or the last month, for example. Facebook will also allow you to target users who visited certain pages of your site—so, for example, you can show ads to people who have already browsed certain products or services. A website-based audience will require you to create a Facebook Pixel code and install it on your website, but this is a fairly quick and easy process.

Lookalike Audiences

Here’s one more option for us to note. Say you have already created a target audience on Facebook, and the people in your audience have responded well to the ads you’ve run. Using the Lookalike Audience function, you can task Facebook with locating more people who mirror the demographics of your existing audience. This can be an invaluable way to expand on your previous advertising success.

Learning Your Way Around Facebook Custom Audiences

Facebook Ads provides a number of deep, rich features, which is very much a positive thing, but it does come with a downside: It may take some time to become comfortable with some of the more sophisticated features, like Custom Audiences. Remember that you can always make small bids while you feel your way around these new features, then scale up once you become more knowledgeable.

Also remember that you do not have to navigate these waters alone. Driven2020 has Facebook Ads expertise, and we’d love to talk with you about how Facebook Ads—and Custom Audiences—can benefit your integrated marketing approach. Contact us today to start this important conversation.

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Content marketing is nothing new. By now it’s well established that social media, blogging, and video provide businesses with uniquely powerful ways to engage customers—creating trust and building brand loyalty. In fact, small business owners may actually be tired of hearing how vital content marketing is; it’s certainly a subject that generates a great deal of discussion.

But if the advantages of content marketing are so well known, why do many small business owners resist engaging in these important, brand-enhancing channels? The truth is, there are some obstacles to effective content marketing—and these obstacles are not insignificant, but neither are they insurmountable.

In this post, we’re going to acknowledge five of the primary barriers to entry, but also posit some solutions for small business owners to consider.

Common Barriers to Content Marketing

Lack of Time

One reason why business owners don’t do content marketing? They feel like they just don’t have the time for it. It’s certainly true that content marketing requires consistency, and that you need to put some time into regular content production and quality control. With that said, however, one of the great things about content marketing is that it’s scalable—and if you only have the resources for one blog a month, that’s a perfectly viable start. Social media posting can all be automated. And, of course, working with a marketing agency removes almost all of the busywork from your plate.

Lack of Money

Another common obstacle is the cost associated with content marketing. Posting to Facebook may be free, but what about running PPC ads? What about sponsored LinkedIn updates? What about pricey email marketing platforms? While these things can be helpful, we’ll say again that content marketing is wonderfully scalable—and that, when you work with an online marketing agency, you can develop a strategy that fits your goals and accommodates your budget.

Lack of Talent

We don’t mean to insult anyone, but let’s be honest: Some small business owners may not be great writers. Some may have little or no experience making videos. Some may not be comfortable with social media. There are always ways to work around these limitations—if you’re not a great writer, you can maybe do live video streams and curated content—and, once again, we’ll note that outsourcing to an online marketing firm takes care of the talent issue pretty straightforwardly.

Lack of Metrics

It’s possible that you’ve tried content marketing and didn’t find it to be effective—but maybe the reason for this is that you didn’t have a clear definition of success. A lack of meaningful metrics can certainly impede your content marketing success, but that’s something you can remedy by strategizing some key objectives. Increased website traffic, increased social media engagement, increased response to your marketing emails—these are not just worthy goals, but measurable ones.

Lack of Understanding

We meet a lot of small business owners who say that they eschew content marketing in favor of search experience marketing, SEO, or something similar. Our argument is that these different disciplines work best when they are working in tandem. You don’t have to choose between then; instead, we’d recommend trying to use them harmoniously. An integrated digital marketing strategy will help you join these complimentary mediums.

What’s Your Barrier?

Is there a reason why you haven’t embraced the role of content in your marketing strategy? We’d love to talk with you about your obstacles, and to share some ways in which Driven2020 can help. To start that important conversation, we encourage you to reach out to our marketing team at Driven2020 today.

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There are numerous ways for your business to use Facebook—and ideally, you’ll use all of them in tandem. There’s a great need to utilize your Facebook page to share content and cultivate an organic fan base; with that said, there’s also great benefit to running paid Facebook ads. It’s only when you unite these two methods that you’re really using Facebook for all its worth.

The good news here is that, when used correctly, the Facebook Ads platform is incredibly valuable—a powerful tool for building your brand and expanding your customer base. You’re not just throwing money into Facebook, but actually investing in the bottom-line success of your company.

Allow us to highlight just a few of the things that make Facebook Ads so beneficial for your digital marketing.

Why Use Facebook Ads?

Facebook Ads Allows You to Target Your Audience with Precision

You might be amazed by just how narrow and specific you can be with your Facebook Ads targeting. It’s not merely that Facebook allows you to target your ads just to women, or specifically to  women between ages 18 and 35, or women who live in your geographic area. You can actually target to moms, to new moms, to moms of preschool kids, to affluent moms, to hip moms, to moms who drive Jeeps—once you dig into the targeting options, you can ensure that you know exactly who’s seeing your ads.

You Can Use Ads for Different Objectives and Goals

Facebook doesn’t just let you pick your audience, but also the ultimate objective of your campaign. Are you looking to get more likes for your Facebook page? More traffic for your website? More engagement with your posts? More conversions in your ecommerce store? You can accomplish all this and more with a Facebook Ads campaign.

You Can Eliminate Risk Through Careful Bidding

Facebook Ads employs a bidding system in which you choose the maximum amount you’re willing to pay for an ad display. You can actually choose an ad type where you only pay when you make a conversion, though—which effectively removes the risk that your ads just “won’t work.” When used properly, Facebook Ads allows you to protect yourself from waste.

There Are Advanced Analytic Options

There’s an old saying in marketing—that marketing without data is like flying blind. Well, you never have to fly blind with your Facebook Ads, because the platform allows you plenty of opportunities to get reports and metrics. You can figure out what’s working and what’s not, and hone your ad campaign accordingly.

You Can Use Facebook for Remarketing, Too

This one will require a bit of technical know-how—or the guidance of an online marketing firm like Driven2020—but basically, you can use Facebook to reach out to people who have already visited your website and considered buying a product. You can set up ads to follow them across the Facebook network, keeping your brand in the forefront of their minds as they weigh purchasing decisions. This is a powerful way to guide potential customers through the buying process.

Use Facebook—But Use It Strategically

Facebook comes packed with so many advertising options, it may seem overwhelming at first—and that’s the one big downside. But don’t worry. You can take advantage of all these benefits by reaching out to Driven2020.

We’d love to talk with you about social media, paid ads, and any other marketing needs you may have. Ad
ditionally, we would love the chance to present you with some integrated marketing solutions. Start that conversation today. Reach out directly to the team here at Driven2020.

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Nobody likes receiving harsh criticism, and that certainly includes business owners. Receiving adverse comments or bad reviews from customers can feel personal; it can feel hurtful. It can bruise the ego—and yet, online reviews aren’t merely a matter of personal vanity.

Consider this: Reviews from sites like Google, Facebook, and Yelp are critical parts of the consumer journey. As a buyer weighs a major purchase, he or she will almost certainly pay attention to Google star ratings, or to feedback left from other consumers. These online reviews inevitably play a role in consumer decision-making, which means they impact the perceptions of your brand and your bottom-line revenues.

Online reviews are significant for other reasons, too. Did you know, for example, that Google reviews are key ranking factors for local SEO? The point here is simply that having online reviews is important—and having favorable reviews is ideal. You can’t simply ignore or opt out of online feedback, but rather, you have to proactively seek strong reviews.

How to Get Positive Online Reviews

So how can your business ensure that it’s receiving positive online feedback? The best and simplest thing we can say is that you should focus on providing excellent products and services. That’s possibly something that goes without saying, yet it’s important for us to underscore this central fact: You can’t fake your way into good reviews. Your efforts to court positive feedback have to start with actually earning those five-star ratings.

A related point: We don’t recommend trying to buy reviews, or to bribe people into leaving feedback. This is a poor strategy for far too many reasons for us to list, but basically: It can backfire spectacularly, leading to both SEO penalties as well as a PR crisis for your brand.

With that said, there are some recommended strategies for getting customers to leave feedback:

Make Your Review Platforms Easy to Access

Links to your Google review profile, Facebook page, and Yelp profile should all be clearly visible to your customers. Place links on your website, but also in email signatures, on invoices and receipts, etc. And don’t just include links, but calls to action, as well. Ask your customers to provide feedback, and provide them with an easy way to do so.

Ask for Reviews

Along those lines, send follow-up emails to your customers, thanking them for their purchase and expressing how much you’d love them to provide you with honest feedback. (Don’t forget to provide them with the relevant link!) Another approach: Go into your contact database and identify some of your best, most loyal customers. Send each of them a frank, personalized email, explaining to them how valuable online reviews are to your brand, and asking them to take a minute to leave you one.

Incentivize

While we do not recommend attempting to buy or bully your way into reviews, we do think it can be effective to have contests or drawings. Let your customers know that everyone who submits a review, within a given span of time, will be entered to win a $25 gift card to Starbucks, or simply a credit for your own products and services.

Monitor Reviews

Finally, we’d certainly recommend keeping an eye on the online reviews you receive—thanking people for their positive feedback and acknowledging constructive criticisms. This isn’t just about ticking off a requirement on your online digital marketing checklist. It’s also to show that you’re willing to engage with your customers and clients; to listen and take them seriously.

Remember: Reviews Matter

Reviews shouldn’t be seen as “extras” within the context of your marketing efforts. They’re really indispensable—and if you need help managing your reviews, we’d love to provide it. Talk with us today. Reach out to the team at Driven2020.

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When you own a brick-and-mortar business, your SEO endeavors tend to be highly focused. What you want, ultimately, is to get foot traffic—to get people into your store to make purchases. As such, you want to market to a very specific audience—locals. When you own a mom-and-pop shop in Los Angeles, it’s not especially advantageous to market yourself to customers in New York, Vancouver, or Beijing.

In other words, a big part of your SEO online marketing strategy should be local SEO—showing up on the Google search engine results page (SERP), and perhaps even in a coveted map pack position, when people in your area conduct searches with commercial intent.

Local SEO doesn’t have to be a big, daunting, or overly technical undertaking, either. In this post, we’re going to list five simple ways in which business owners can position their brands for local visibility.

How to Improve Your Local Search Results

Claim All Your Local Listings

First of all, local SEO isn’t just about your website. You want to create as many customer touch points as you can, which means claiming your Google My Business page, starting a Facebook page, and taking advantage of sites such as Yelp. Industry-specific sites, like TripAdvisor, can also be handy to have. Make sure that, on each listing you establish, you present consistent NAP (name, address, phone number) information. In other words, always list the same local phone number, and avoid listing your business name differently (i.e. don’t say Al’s Pancake House in one listing but Al’s Pancakes in another).

Include Contact Information Throughout Your Website

That NAP information should be displayed on your website, too—and in fact, we’d recommend including it on every page, not just on a Contact Us hub. This information is used by Google’s algorithms to determine your location, so including it on every page of your website is smart.

Use Localized Keywords—Naturally

If your storefront is set up in San Diego, California, it’s wise to include San Diego and/or California in your content here and there—though make sure you don’t overdo it! Google wants content that reads as naturally and smoothly as possible. We see sites that overstuff local keywords, and the result is something like this: “Looking for a San Diego plumbing company? Our San Diego plumbing company offers San Diego plumbing services to…” This, of course, is ridiculous. You can be natural and judicious in your keyword placement without making it seem robotic.

Ask for Reviews

Reviews from local customers go a long way toward boosting your SEO. Make sure your customers feel encouraged to leave feedback in the form of a Yelp review, a Facebook review, or—best of all—a Google review. Include review links on your website, and encourage people to offer you their thoughts.

Get Local Links and Citations

Finally, you’ll benefit greatly from having other local businesses or organizations link to your website. The easiest way to achieve this is to reach out to local chambers of commerce, BBBs, or professional organizations, and to simply ask for links in their online directories. It really is that simple!

Be Found by Local Customers

Local SEO has a direct, bottom-line purpose behind it—you want people to find you, to visit your business, and to become paying customers. As such, an investment in local SEO can pay huge dividends, especially when it’s done right.

We’d love to talk with you more about what effective local SEO looks like. Connect with Driven2020 today to begin that important conversation about the future of your brand!