Whether you own your own locally-focused business or work with small businesses to optimize their websites, you should be aware of some of the following techniques to optimize that website to increase conversions and get more organic traffic from search engines. Here are 5 important tips to optimizing a local business website.
Schema.org provides specific code that you place around your business name, address, phone number and descriptions. All of the major search engines recognize this code and use it to confirm a business's information. Put the Schema.org code in the footer of all of your pages.
2. KML File
A KML file is uploaded to your server and provides your exact latitude and longitude coordinates for all of your locations to search engines. This will help make sure your business is properly located on their mapping services.
3. Contact Information
It may seem obvious but many small businesses neglect to include their phone number and email address on their website. Put your phone number in your header on every page so it's very prominent and easy to find. We also recommend a contact form somewhere on your site.
4. Incentive to Contact
In addition to making it easy for visitors to contact you, give them a good reason to cnotact you. For example, as a dentist, you could offer free teeth whitening to new patients when they use a certain promotional code to book an appointment. If someone was on the fence about using your or a differnet dentist, a free offer may push them to call you versus a competitor.
5. Ask for Reviews
Getting reviewed on 3rd party sites like Yelp and Google+ Local can help you rank higher and get more business. However, most people don't think to review a business. Include links to popular review sites on your website so it's easy for a client or customer to go leave a review for you.
While there are many more things to do to fully optimize and run a local business online marketing campaign, these 5 things will help you get started on growing your business from online lead.