One of the best parts of living on Maui is enjoying the great outdoors.
When I started my digital marketing business, I had the freedom to choose where I lived. Naturally, I chose to stay in Maui. I love to take advantage of the best the island has to offer: mountain biking, dirt biking, and surfing.
Come to think of it, managing SEO for local business is like surfing. Its many changes and fluctuations in the last few years are like waves in the ocean. We can’t control them; we can only decide what we do with them.
The fun begins when we learn how to make the best use of the waves.
Whether SEO is a “familiar friend” or “necessary evil,” it’s now as powerful and unavoidable as a force of nature for 21st century business. This week, we show you how to ride the waves.
Also Read: The Top 5 Misconceptions about SEO for your business
Why It’s Time To Focus on Local SEO
We’re at historic lows, when it comes to visitors and tourism-related spending in Hawaii. We typically make a ton of cash from visitors. To survive, Hawaii businesses need to target local customers like never before.
Additionally, Google keeps tweaking their search engine algorithm – including a substantial update in December of 2020. Things that used to work for boosting your web presence may not anymore.
Lastly, it’s a new year. Many businesses entered into a “holding pattern,” just trying to weather the storm of 2020. Now, it’s time to walk confidently into the new normal, taking advantage of opportunities at your fingertips.
4 SEO Moves to Make in 2021
These days, businesses can rise and fall on Google search performance. You need to make a few key moves to rank higher, increase traffic and boost sales.
- Reinvest In Keyword Selection
SEO starts with matching titles, headers, and content to key terms people use to search. So, how current is your knowledge of keywords that match local customers with your business?
Here’s a free guide to selecting the right keywords for your business. It includes categories like “relevance” and “search volume,” and also goes over various types of keywords.
Additionally, here are three of my favorite FREE tools for keyword research:
Ubersuggest – This one shows you a keyword’s popularity over time, and offers suggestions for your content.
Google Trends – Google Trends shows the popularity over time for other, different searches. You can also compare terms to see which ones rank better in your local area.
Keywords Everywhere – This tool shows the volume and competition of a keyword, with an eye to formulating your cost-per-click ad campaigns.
- Develop or Renew Your Content Marketing Strategy
Google’s philosophy is, “Content is king.” They want the best content to rank highest on searches. Your business should have blog and social media posts related to your products, as well as your industry at large.
It’s safe to say, more than anything else, that long-form, authoritative, and helpful content will boost your Google ranking.
If you have a content marketing strategy, it’s time to consider reposting your best content.
Take a look at your highest-performing content over the past few years. Update it where necessary, add a new introduction, and repost it under the same URL.
- Reexamine Your Links
While you look over your content, also look for ways to link posts together.
Sometimes when we get on a posting schedule, we back-link to previous posts. But how many of your past posts link to newer posts? Go through and look for ways to “connect” all of your content.
While you’re there, make sure every single link on your website still works. Sometimes URLs change, or external links that you once used have gone away for whatever reason. Sometimes links can differ between mobile and desktop, so check everything using both platforms.
So, if you want to rank higher, update and boost your internal links.
- Try Local Services Ads
Finally, a quick shortcut to the very top of searches is to take advantage of Google’s new Local Services Ads feature.
Local Services Ads are exactly what they sound like: when someone searches for “X business near me,” your business will appear at the top of their search.
This isn’t “SEO” per sé, but it causes your business to perform better on searches.
Surf’s up! With these four moves, you can quickly climb the ranks for your local market, which is critical when it comes to riding the wave of uncertainty as the pandemic continues.
If you need additional help with SEO, ad campaigns, or Local Services Ads, don’t hesitate to book a call with us today!
Photos courtesy of
Jeremy Bishop, and Mitchell Luo on Unsplash, and Acquisio