When it comes to your small business’s SEO, you want to rank for only the highly relevant and top-trending keywords associated with your niche. But there is a problem with this approach. When you use keywords that are the perfect fit for your business, your competition is bound to include some major brands that have huge marketing budgets.
SEO is highly competitive, and the truth is that you may not be able to compete with big brands. However, you can take advantage of how important local SEO is for Google right now. This is exactly where geo-targeting steps in to give your Joliet business’s online marketing a huge helping hand.
Targeting Location-Specific Keywords
The idea here is that you want to get around the really tough keyword competition. You can do so by targeting location-specific keywords.
What does this actually mean?
To put it as simply as possible, instead of targeting a keyword like “buy shoes,” you target a more specific, longer, location-specific keyword like “buy shoes in Joliet.”
Why Target Location-Specific Keywords?
Using geo-targeting, SEO offers some benefits that simply cannot be ignored for both marketers and business owners. For one, it drastically lowers competitions. It is very difficult for smaller businesses to consistently rank for highly competitive search terms like “protein supplements” or “bakery.” However, when using location-specific keywords, the market (and thus, the competition) becomes smaller. This makes it much easier to rank in search results. Because location-specific keywords are not very competitive, you also have to pay a lot less to run your SEO campaign, and it takes less time to get you on the top of the 1st page of search engines.
How to Use Geo-Targeting in SEO?
Creating suitable landing pages
You can use geo-targeting for both paid advertisements and organic searches. However, if you want to make the most of it, you’ll want to create location-specific landing pages as well. Try to create one for every single location where you offer services. Then, when you use local SEO ranking strategies, you can point your links towards the appropriate resource.
Registering in local-based business directories
For local SEO, in general, the business directories that target a specific region are much more valuable than the larger ones that have global coverage. This is especially the case when you can focus on the location-specific landing pages that we’ll mention below.
Bartering with local businesses
The link you get from a business that services the same area as yours is very valuable with location-specific marketing campaigns. This is especially the case if they already have good local coverage on search engines. Aim for different arrangements that you can set up, and always opt for something that is beneficial for both parties.
Conclusion
In 2020, if you are not using geo-targeting as a part of your local SEO, you could be losing customers to your competitors. It is as simple as that. So, when you hire an SEO agency to do work on your website, it’s important to avoid all those that do not talk about the importance of local SEO and fail to mention location-specific keywords to help you rank exactly where you serve customers.
Making the Most Out of Your location-specific Keyword Research in Joliet, Illinois
Coming up with the right set of location-specific keywords for your local SEO in Joliet isn’t a 5-minute craft. It takes time. But once you have the right keywords, they can generate revenue on a regular basis. If you would like some help in researching the most profitable location-specific keywords to boost your Joliet business’s local SEO efforts, contact us today.