What is Local SEO and why do I need it?

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For many businesses, Local Search Engine Optimization (Local SEO) is the most important tool in their marketing toolbox. It is designed to give a leg up to local businesses that thrive on traffic from nearby neighborhoods or cities.

You may not know it by name, but Local SEO is a tool that influences each of us every day. Whenever you search something on your phone or laptop, typically the options that pop up are those that are geographically nearest to you AND whose websites have the best SEO. To get your business on top of those local pop-up lists, you need to do far more than simply put your address on your website.

How Does Local SEO Bring More Customers to My Business?

This local focus is provided by search engines like Google or Yahoo because they know 90% of users are searching for local answers with certain search terms. For example, users searching “Pizza”, “Dentist”, “Florist”, “Math Tutor” and so on are almost always looking for an answer that is geographically nearby. A properly designed website with good SEO puts your business at the front of the line for users to view.

A website with good local SEO has several components. First, you need well-written, relevant content with a local focus. Second, you need to “check all the boxes” with Google, Bing and Yahoo and get your business information properly registered with them. Finally, you need to be sure your website has all the elements of traditional SEO with good link usage, structured data, and organic review signals as well as good social signals from other websites.

How Can I Get Good Local Search Engine Optimization for My Website?

Here at Ohiowebtech we design your website with local SEO in mind. We put the structure in place to get you to the top locally. A straight-forward website build takes a professional about 70-100 hours to build. A website that has special requirements needs even more time.

Building a website and building it well is a time-consuming task. You could try and do it yourself with DIY website builders, but you have a business to run. I know my team couldn’t walk into your business and naturally know how to make it work. In the same way it is not reasonable to expect yourself to walk into the world of web design and know how to do it. Trust our team to create the right website for you while you tend all the other needs of your business.

Search Engine Optimization – Let’s Break it Down

Search Engine Optimization with Ohio Web Technologies is an important topic we must discuss with every client. When talking to new clients, we sometimes see their eyes glaze over when we mention “Good SEO”. To some people, this three-word phrase Search Engine Optimization (SEO) sounds intimidating – like something only a computer genius would understand. Let’s break it down.

The first two words are easy. Search Engine refers simply to Google, Bing or Yahoo. There are a few others out there, but here in the U.S. those are the big three. We can search ANYTHING on them, and they instantly provide us a list of websites that relate to our search. They are exactly as their name implies, engines that search out information for us.

The third word Optimization refers to the numerous ways we can tweak our website design so those search engines like our website the best. The more they like us the higher they put us on those lists that pop up when people search for things. There are LOTS of ways websites and webpages can be optimized.

How do search engines decide which sites they like best?

Google and other search engines are continuously crawling our websites with so-called spiders. These spiders are like genius spiders. They scramble across our sites and through every page. They can read and analyze the parts of our site that users see and read. As if that were not enough, they also crawl “under the hood” of our sites and read the computer programming, the stuff only the programmers see.

There are several things these little Einstein spiders look for – in fact too many to mention here. But the more good SEO tweaks they see the more they like you. As you can guess, the more they like you the higher your site ranks and the more likely your site will be visited by searchers.

Why is it so important to be at the top of SEO rankings?

How to say this politely? Your website needs to be at the top because many people are . . . kind of lazy! They want quick information so they can make quick decisions. Additionally, many searchers feel the sites that top the search engine lists must be more professional and therefore more trustworthy.

As a result of our natural tendencies, most folks choose to engage with one of the websites in the top five. Very few searchers ever look at the second page of choices. You need your website up there, and Ohio Web Technologies can help.

What are Social Signals and how do they impact SEO rankings?

One of the “evolutions” of SEO over the past ten years is how social media behavior also affects the search engine result pages. Today, social media can have a big impact on your organic traffic. Even just a few years ago, it did not make a difference who was finding your content through social search. But now SEO considers tweets, retweets, Facebook likes, and other social signals.

As such Ohiowebtech offers SEO assistance that includes improving your business’ social media game. A good Facebook profile and some meaningful tweets that your customers like will help make you more relevant, and accordingly more likely to be at the top of result pages.

Couldn’t I do this myself with a DIY site builder?

Building a website and building it well is a time-consuming task. On average it takes professionals 70-100 hours to build a site that is simple and straightforward. You could try and do it yourself with DIY website builders, but you have a business to run.

I know my SEO team could not walk into your business and naturally know how to make it work. Likewise, it is not reasonable to expect yourself to walk into the world of web design and know how to do it. All businesses have their focus, and it takes a while to get good at it. Our focus is the best websites with the best SEO rankings.

Trust our team to create the right website for you while you tend all the other needs of your business.

Why Hire Ohio Web Technologies for our SEO work?

This can be summed up easily. Ongoing education, and experience, experience, and more experience.
Ohio Web Technologies has been at this for eighteen years. Our clients consistently achieve top ranking websites. We pay attention to the latest information releases from all the search engines and the biggest online visibility platform managers.
Part of our job is keeping up with the changing world of SEO as it evolves. The search engines purposely keep good SEO a moving target for two reasons. First, they constantly analyze what users are looking for and respond to. Second, they do not want website developers to find ways to manipulate their rankings by figuring out a few tricks and repeating them over and over.
The search engines are smart, and so are the people that design them. They want to reward websites that have what users are looking for through original content, relevancy, proper structure and organic traffic. In order to keep our clients (and even ourselves!) on top we make our industry research a priority.

Our local SEO service areas

Ohiowebtech is a local SEO company that has service areas across the state. Contact one of our team members today and let us serve you with the professional, well-optimized website you need. We look forward to hearing from you.

Please select our Expert SEO Services in any of the following cities or surrounding areas:

Ohio Web Technologies commitment to our clients

Ohio Web Technologies is dedicated to our clients’ success. We will continue to provide our clients with cutting-edge web design and marketing strategies that always include best SEO practices.

The only time we succeed is when your business sees consistent results due to your online presence. Whether you are looking to improve you SEO standings by updating your current site, building a new site, or conducting a technical audit, we are ready to help get you there.

Please contact our team today for your free consultation.

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