It’s simple – if you want more customers, you need to make them know about your business. Promoting your products or services and working on your marketing strategies are the only sure ways towards success. Local business owners, although they know this fact, usually tend to make some limits to how wide the scope of their business can be. The belief that your small business can work only locally has changed long ago. The modern invention of the internet makes everything possible nowadays. Thus, if you appear on Google, chances are high people will know about you. But, we need to admit, it isn’t always that simple. The goal shouldn’t only be to get on Google but to appear among the first search results as well. That’s why this time our experts from Link Department want to present some cheap ways to make your local business rank better on Google.
Why do we need to rank high?
The fact is that most people get to know about local businesses by using search engines. And no matter if this business isn’t located near the place they live, if they need the service, they can easily get in touch with the marketer online. However, the truth is that in most cases this counts only if your business ranks on Google’s first page, and nothing less than that. There is only a small percentage of people who really visit the second, not to mention the third page on any search engine. This is probably because, in fact, what really matters has already appeared at the beginning. Therefore, if your business doesn’t rank high, you won’t see any benefits of online marketing.
What are the cheap ways to make your local business rank better on Google?
Improving Google’s rank is something that requires time and a good plan. Having a financial backup in the whole process can help a bit, but there are many free-of-charge things you can do to get what you want.
1. Creating the right keywords
When a person wants to find some information online, the very first step would be to insert a relevant word or phrase into a search space. This is exactly how we come to the so-called keywords. There is always a set of most used keywords for every business area people are interested in. Your task here will be to find out keywords that are popular with your niche. Then you should add them to your description, image file names, or some other content on your page. Use Keywords Planner through your Google Ads account to help you out in the whole keyword research process. And if you still get no ideas, check out some of your competitors on high-ranking positions. You may be inspired by some of their keywords, too.
2. A well-optimized Google My Business page
Once your business appears on GMB, Google becomes aware of your existence. However, creating a good account is not something that can be done in a minute. The quality of the information you share with your customers there, as well as the way you manage your page, are crucial factors to reaching a high position among the search results.
First of all, you must take care your NAP is consistent and accurate. Every misleading info you provide is a kind of warning to Google that your website cannot be trusted. Then, you can never just create a page and let it be. You should constantly control what is going on, especially when it comes to the point of reviews. There is nothing that can attract people more than another satisfied customer. So, give your best to do these things carefully and patiently. You need to understand that ranking on Google maybe takes time, but then nothing good comes overnight, as well.
3. Building high-quality backlinks
If you want your site to seem authoritative to Google, you need to make some links with some other high-quality sites. What’s more, Google’s algorithm uses these backlinks as an effective ranking factor, and thus it’s good to take this seriously. Building numerous links with some bad and non-respective websites certainly won’t lead you to the top. On the contrary, it will have a negative impact on your ranking, and Google will disregard you as unreliable and untrustworthy.
4. Writing some content
Updating your website with some fresh written content is yet another free way to help your local business rank better on Google. Think about writing some kind of blog posts where you will deal with some ideas or current questions associated with your industry. As long as your readers are interested in the topics, you will benefit from them. What’s more, you can use this medium to add some more keywords to your website as well. Just don’t forget to create a good posting strategy, so that Google can be aware of your updates and thus give you a higher ranking position.
5. Making a site mobile-friendly
This is the era of mobile phone devices. Therefore, it is good to keep in mind that most of the searches conducted on Google come exactly from mobile phone users. And, if your website is created to fit only desktop devices, you are one step forward to losing your customers. No one would waste time with a confusing and hard manageable site. They will just ignore you and turn to your competitors. So, don’t let this happen, and create your site to be mobile-friendly.
Now, all you have to do is to take some action. And, this time you won’t need the fortune to reach your goals. With these cheap ways to make your local business rank better on Google, you can go side by side with all your competitors, no matter how much money they have invested in their marketing. So, play it smart and use the best tactics. It’ll all turn out well but only if you’re patient enough.