If you have a local business, you may be wondering how you can target more customers in your region. If you already have a website, that’s a great start, and if you don’t, it’s definitely time to join the digital marketing revolution.

More and more people are looking for businesses like yours online. That means they are using their computers, tablets, and phones to find you. If you are not online or their website cannot be found, you can kiss the opportunity of doing business with them goodbye. Whether you’re selling products or services, you could be missing out on a huge chunk of your market.

But I have a website. Isn’t that enough?

No, you need to make sure that people can find your website. The only way to do this, aside from handing out your website address to everyone in the area by hand, is by making your website known to search engines. And the only way to do that is through local SEO.

Local SEO: It is not as difficult as it seems

When it comes to ensuring local customers can find you, the process is easier than it sounds, but it does take work. It also needs constant maintenance if you want to ensure that you stay in front of your target audience and ahead of your competitors. Fortunately, there are companies that offer professional assistance with search engine optimization that can do everything for you, but we’ll talk about that later.

Here are 5 ways you can improve your chances of being found by local customers:

1. Create a Google My Business account – By claiming your own Google My Business page, you’ll join the millions of businesses that benefit from this service. It’s almost like an additional web page, and it’s just another way to get your business out there. This service allows you to add all the important details of your business and also receive and display customer feedback.

2. Get as many local reviews as possible – Local reviews also have a direct impact on local search, so try to get as many as possible. Use Google, Yell, and other review sites, and ask previous customers if they’d be willing to leave a review.

3. Optimize your landing pages – Every page of your website is an opportunity for your business to stand out in search engines. By using the keywords your audience uses to search for you online, you automatically increase your chances of being found. So if potential customers search for “ceiling,” make sure your pages contain that search phrase.

4. Create a link strategy – Business is largely based on trust, but how do you convince people to trust you if they haven’t dealt with you before? The answer is to become an online authority in your field. Blog posts are a great way to do this and will add more keyword juice for the search engines as well as show that you know what you’re doing. You should look to write blogs on your website that link to good quality sites within your industry, and also look to write guest posts on relevant blogs that then link to your own website.

5. Don’t forget about social media: Social media is another way to improve your search engine ranking, so use it as much as you can. It’s also a great way to build a relationship with your target audience and yet another way to advertise your service, communicate directly with your customers, and attract reviews.

If you don’t, your competitors will.

Search engine optimization is one of the best ways to reach your target audience. When it comes to attracting local business, you have many tools and options open to you, but you need to use them well to get the best returns. It’s only a matter of time before your competitors start adopting these methods, if they aren’t already.