10 Proven Tips to Drastically Reduce Website Bounce Rate

Contents

What Is Bounce Rate?

How To Improve Bounce Rate

  1. Give Your Website a Makeover.
  2. Simplify Navigation.
  3. Add More CTAs to the Homepage and Landing Pages.
  4. Improve Your Website’s Speed to Lower Bounce Rate.
  5. Make Sure Your Content Is “Readable”.
  6. Use High-Quality Images and Videos to Make a Stellar Impression.
  7. Steer Clear of Popups.
  8. Create Purposeful Content.
  9. Prioritize User-Friendliness and Mobile-Friendliness.
  10. Targeted Keywords.

What is a Good Bounce Rate? The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

Final Word.

You’ve created engaging and compelling web content.

Your blog is updated on a weekly basis.

In fact, you went the extra mile and invested in PPC marketing to increase web traffic and sales.

And yet, you’re struggling to keep customers on your website; the leads aren’t great; and the email signups are at a bare minimum.

Chances are, you’re dealing with a high bounce rate.

What Is Bounce Rate?

Now, for most digital marketers, bounce rates are a mystery.

According to Google:

“A bounce is a single-page session on your site. Bounce rate is the percentage of all sessions on your site in which users viewed only a single page and triggered only a single request to the Analytics server.”

It’s a pretty simple formula:

So, what does a bounce rate indicate? Why is your bounce rate so high? And how do you lower your bounce rate?

A high bounce rate means your website failed to convince the user to perform an action (this could mean sign up for a new service, buy a product, book an appointment, etc.). It could also indicate a poor user experience.

Reducing your site’s bounce rate could help you boost conversion rate significantly. So what are the things you can do to improve bounce rate?

How To Improve Bounce Rate: 10 Tips That Work!

1. Give Your Website a Makeover

Adidas website with great design to reduce bounce rate

Would you consider investing in bleak and unimpressive wall art for your home? Probably not.

How about splurging on a coffee table book with an uninspiring and tattered cover? Doesn’t sound like a great idea, does it?

Aesthetic appeal matters. If your web design isn’t visually exciting, engaging, and impressive, web users will scram stat.

According to research, humans now have an average attention span of a measly eight seconds. You have approximately eight seconds to make a winning impression on web users who stumble across your website.

If your site takes a little too long to load, features complex navigation, or has an off-putting layout, it goes without saying that potential customers will bid you adieu before you know it.

Take a look at the following homepage by a leading brand:

M&M’s website with great design to reduce bounce rate

Notice how the homepage is designed meticulously and immediately draws visitors in. The visuals are clean, modern, compelling, and creative.

Depending on your industry and brand identity, you may use a more vibrant (or muted) color palette.

You can also experiment with different layouts and graphics to fit your brand personality. While these variations are acceptable—and recommended, in many cases—the overall web design should be unmistakably attractive and engaging.

We suggest consulting web design and development experts to give your website a much-needed boost in aesthetic appeal.

It’s no surprise that a whopping 73% of businesses invest in web design and development services to stand out from the cut-throat competition!

Ultimately, giving your website a makeover will go a long way in improving the bounce rate and boosting conversions. This is one of the best tips to improve bounce rate.

2. Simplify Navigation

Your site visitors have no time nor patience for delays. If they don’t get what they want within the first 5 seconds of getting to your site, they’re going to move on to the next website (which is most probably going to be your competitor).

One great example is GAP. Within 3 seconds of viewing the website, customers have access to the line of products, sale items, different brands, and a search bar option for additional information.

GAP website with simple navigation to reduce bounce rate

So how do you lower your website’s bounce rate? Your website needs to be built for effortless navigation:

  • Make sure your website has a clean look—less is more.
  • Highlight the most important pages in the navigation bar
  • Anticipate your users’ behaviors. Identify hotspots and allow them to find things they’re most likely searching for.

Do you want more traffic?

Call 855-444-4777 now!

Start Seeing Results in 30 Days!

3. Add More CTAs to the Homepage and Landing Pages

Evernote website with compelling call to actions

Long phone calls are generally considered big moneymakers in the fast food industry.

The longer a customer stays on call, the more extensive their order, right?

In most cases, yes. However, you’ll often stumble upon the odd customer who spends a lot of time asking for the specials but ends up ordering nothing.

If you don’t incentivize customers to place an order, you’ll gain nothing from a longer interaction.

The same rule applies to web browsing. If web users actively browse your website but don’t end up taking a desired action, you’re back to square one.

This is where calls-to-action (CTAs) work their magic.

A CTA is a short phrase that compels visitors to perform an action, i.e., visit your product/service pages, sign up for your newsletter, follow your social media pages, browse through discounted items, etc. It’s a whip-smart way to keep your target audience on your website and prompt action.

Evernote’s attention-grabbing and perfectly placed CTAs are also a master class in effective bounce rate reduction.

Evernote website with powerful call to actions

4. Improve Your Website’s Speed to Lower Bounce Rate

According to Think With Google:

  • 53% of mobile web users exit webpages that take longer than three seconds to load
  • As a website’s load time increases from 1 second to 7 seconds, the bounce rate increases by 113%
  • A 1-second delay in load times can reduce conversions by up to 20%

Your website’s speed plays a big role in reducing bounce rate.

The longer you make visitors wait, the less likely they are to stick around. If your website glitches during the waiting process, your conversions will take a bigger hit.

So how do you increase your site’s speed and ultimately loweryour bounce rate?

Use Google PageSpeed Insights to determine where your website stands. If things aren’t looking so good, take immediate measures to increase page speed and reduce customer attrition, i.e. the loss of customers.

checking page load time to reduce bounce rate

Here are some strategies to improve your website’s speed:

  • Use a CDN (Content Delivery Network)
  • Optimize your images
  • Reduce HTTP requests
  • Add asynchronous pages
  • Enable browser caching
  • Minify and combine HTML, JavaScript, and CSS files

As your site speed increases, you’ll manage to significantly your website’s bounce rate.

5. Make Sure Your Content Is “Readable”

chunk paragraphing that increases bounce rate

Take a quick look at your content—your web pages, blogs, articles, guest posts.

Are they properly formatted? Or is the content presented in a bulk that’s reminiscent of a standard Terms and Conditions file?

No matter how value-added and engaging your content may be, improper formatting can instantly turn it into an eyesore.

If your content isn’t adequately paragraphed, italicized, emboldened, and underlined where necessary, you’ll prompt yawns instead of sales. Before you know it, the yawns will turn into swift clicks on the “close” button.

Fortunately, closing this Pandora’s box is easier than you may think:

  • Revisit old content.
  • Break it into short paragraphs to increase readability.
  • Use bullet points to highlight important points (see what we just did there?)
  • Introduce new headings to the file to add more structure and enhance flow.

Here is a great blog formatted to perfection:

formatted content to reduce bounce rate

6. Use High-Quality Images and Videos to Make a Stellar Impression

high-quality images and videos used to lower bounce rate

Does your website feature pixelated images?

Perhaps your visual content isn’t as strong as your competitors?

These factors play a big role in determining whether visitors stick around or get going.

If you haven’t incorporated plentiful high-quality images and videos into your web design, you may want to make some quick adjustments.

According to Neil Patel, visitors who engage with video content stay on the site twice as long and interact with twice as many webpages (as opposed to those who don’t).

Unlike text, images and videos are more eye-catching, engaging, and stimulating. When used in tandem, these forms of content yield powerful results, including greater audience engagement and improved conversions.

While you may use stock images for your homepage, avoid relying on them for the bulk of your website.

Capture high-quality images and videos of your products/services and get some impressive behind-the-scenes footage.

high-quality images and videos used to lower bounce rate

Feel free to let your creative juices flow! Thinking outside the box will help your content stand out from the crowd and intrigue visitors in the best way possible. We do, however, recommend running your ideas by your marketing team to ensure they align with your brand identity.This is inarguably one of the best tips to reduce website bounce rate.

7. Steer Clear of Popups

web popups

Popups can be extremely distracting and annoying. Some marketers feel they disrupt a positive user experience; others feel it could actually increase your bounce rate.

There are several brands that take it a step further by pretty much bullying their users into signing up with them. Not a great strategy if you want to build a relationship on trust and credibility. It’s too aggressive, and your site visitors may hate it.

web popups that increase bounce rate and reduce conversion

On the other hand, we can’t completely deny its effectiveness. If you do want to go down this road, consider making them as un-disruptive as possible.

Alternatively, you could also opt for a powerful CTA button or banner instead. This way, you’ll successfully prompt action without forcing it on visitors.

A high bounce rate can lower your sales in the long run. We can help turn things around!

Click here for a free proposal

8. Create Purposeful Content

Struggling to figure out how to lower bounce rate? It’s time to turn to content for help.

In many cases, brands hear the phrase “content is king” and optimistically jump on the bandwagon without researching. This is one of the biggest marketing faux pas that could end up taking a toll on your bounce rate.

Creating hasty content without researching trends, relevance, and customer interest can ultimately leave you with dwindling audience engagement and retention.

Instead, develop a laser-sharp focus on creating purposeful content that your audience actually wants to read/watch.

If your blog page features miscellaneous blogs that fall outside the bounds of what customers are interested in, you’ll end up losing visitors. This is more common among businesses that prioritize content quantity over content quality.

Turn things around by retouching your content marketing strategy and making extensive research a priority.

Use Google Trends to keep up with industry and region-specific audience interests and create content accordingly. Ultimately, posting relevant content will keep your target audience on your site longer and maximize conversions in the long run.

Etsy’s audience-specific blogs are paradigmatic of content that revolves around audience interest, demand, and preferences!

Narrow down your demographic and tailor your upcoming content plans accordingly. This simple yet effective switch will reduce your website’s bounce rate and increase the visitor-to-lead conversion rate. It’s one of the best things you can do to improve your bounce rate!

9. Prioritize User-Friendliness and Mobile-Friendliness

responsive and mobile-friendly websites that reduce bounce rate

When it comes to web design, user-friendliness and mobile-friendliness are your biggest allies.

Why?

An astounding 62% of people are less likely to invest in a brand’s products/services if they have a negative experience on mobile.

And while the need for mobile-friendliness may not have been as relevant in the 2010s, it’s imperative in the 2020s.

It should come as no surprise that 52% of all web traffic is generated from mobile phones. As mobile accessibility reaches new heights, targeting customers accordingly has become non-negotiable.

If you haven’t optimized your website for mobile yet, you may want to give it another thought!

Ensuring your website operates seamlessly on all digital tools—especially smartphones—is a great way to keep visitors from clicking off your site.

We also recommend ensuring user-friendliness across the board. Improve accessibility and navigation to ensure visitors have a seamless browsing experience.

The last thing you want is to lose visitors because your navigation panel was non-clickable or too complex. These easily fixable blunders will end up saving you a ton of time, energy, money, and customers.

 10.Targeted Keywords

Most often, websites are just focused on shelling out content without taking the time to a) understand who they’re targeting; b) building credibility. The result is sites with high bounce rates.

Don’t underestimate the power of targeted, high value keywords. They improve the quality of traffic (you get people who are actually looking to buy your products directed to your website). You enhance engagement,build credibility, and reduce your website’s bounce rate.

So what are targeted, high value keywords? And how do you determine a comprehensive list?

One tool you can use is Google Keyword Planner.

Insert your keyword + a qualifier and hit “Get Ideas”. It’s going to look something like this:

Identifying high-value, targeted keywords to increase authority

This can get a bit tricky, though; you have to be careful about not stuffing too many keywords—Google could penalize your website. You’ll also have to focus on LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords. These are conceptually-related words that search engines use.

What is a Good Bounce Rate? The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

There’s no clear directive here. The general rule of thumb is that:

80%+ is Very Bad

70–79% is Poor

50–69% is Average

30–49% is Excellent

Note: It’s unlikely for a bounce rate to be lower than 20%, so you may want to triple-check your analytics code or add-ons.

Final Word

In this blog, we’ve discussed several content and web design tips to improve your bounce rate. If you’re losing valuable visitors because of high bounce rate, our team can give you the boost you deserve.

Keep in mind; you need a complete strategy. Let’s say you hammer down on one of these factors and you manage to get your bounce rate down by 20%. That’s a great win. But it may not be a permanent one. You run the risk of getting your bounce rate up high again.

At Search Berg, we understand how to improve website bounce rate, and offer expert content marketing, SEO and web design and development services to accomplish just that! Our web specialists use state-of-the-art tools, cutting-edge software, and extensive expertise to develop engaging websites that run seamlessly across all platforms.

Whether you’re looking for ways to reduce your website’s bounce rate or interested in reducing customer attrition, we’ll create a customized strategy accordingly.

We’re ready when you are! Call 855-444-4777 and let’s talk! Want more tips to improve bounce rate? Stay tuned for more web development content! We release new blogs every week to help you master the art of SEO. 

5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs A Link Building Strategy [Infographic]

As link building becomes one of the fastest-growing SEO strategies, marketers are jumping on the bandwagon stat.

And there’s a good reason why.

But, what is link building? High-quality backlinks are among the top three Google ranking factors for 2020. As you build authoritative backlinks from websites with high domain authority, you make it much, much easier for Google to crawl, index, and rank your site page(s).

Google’s algorithm also perceives your site as a reputable source in the industry when you work toward this goal, owing to the quantity and quality of backlinks pointing in your direction.

While you may have leveraged web design and development and mastered the art of content creation, sidelining link building for SEO could end up doing more harm than good.

In this infographic, our experts walk you through five reasons why your business needs the best link building strategy.

We dive into some compelling statistics and offer numerous tips to help you make the most of our backlink building service and climb search engine result pages (SERPs).

Continue reading “5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs A Link Building Strategy [Infographic]”

A Guide To Local SEO in 2020

Contents

Delving Into a Local SEO Strategy in 2020

If you run a local business, we can take a guess at what your search history looks like:

“How can I increase local traffic?”

“How can I improve rankings for local SEO?”

“How can I rank in the Google 3-Pack?”

Sounds about right?

All these search queries fall under the umbrella term local SEO.” In other words, if you master local SEO, you pretty much cover all the bases and save yourself the trouble of running a dozen individual search queries.

What is Local SEO?

If you run a small business that’s restricted to a certain location (neighborhood, town, city, country, or state), local SEO ensures that your marketing efforts will be strategically targeted at individuals within that region.

Let’s say you run an electronics e-commerce store in Atlanta. Since your clientele is based in Atlanta, marketing to consumers in Savannah or Augusta would defeat the purpose of your campaign.

Instead of optimizing your business for generic search results, you need to optimize it for local search.

Local SEO helps you do just that by making your products/services/content visible to a wide local audience.

As you attract local visitors, you’ll generate high-quality traffic and increase your conversion rate. And while focusing your efforts on local SEO makes complete sense conceptually, its practical efficacy has been proven time and again.

According to research:

      • 4 in 5 consumers want search engines to offer localized results
      • 76% of consumers who run a local search on their phone end up visiting the business within 24 hours
      • 2 out of 3 smartphone users are more likely to purchase from a business that offers a mobile-friendly site with customized information based on their location
      • Mobile searches for local businesses have recently grown by a whopping 200%

Last year, we compiled a local SEO checklist for 2019. From touching upon the importance of leveraging Google My Business to discussing the significance of online reviews, we covered all the bases that were relevant in 2019.

Of course, there have been many changes since.

Local SEO isn’t a stagnant strategy; it’s constantly evolving and taking new shape based on current trends, consumer patterns, and algorithm changes.

To help you get a good grasp on how to do local SEO in 2020, we’ve compiled an updated checklist that focuses on how to perform local SEO and how to optimize your website for local search keeping in mind 2020 developments. Use our definitive guide to local SEO in 2020when creating a winning strategy for your small business, startup, or corporation.

Let’s dive in!

10 Local SEO Tips for 2020: Key Tips on How to Rank Locally

1. Create Location-Friendly Content

If there’s one local SEO strategy that can be implemented right away (while reaping powerful results), it’s local content creation. In fact, we’d go so far as labeling it the crème de la crème of local SEO.

The reasoning is simple.

Web users are smart; they understand that running a generic search will most likely fetch results that may not be of relevance. If a consumer in Los Angeles is on the lookout for modern furniture, their search query will be highly specific. The last thing they want is to fall in love with a gorgeous pair of sectionals, only to find out that the business is based in an entirely different state.

Over the years, trial and error has played its hand in helping consumers understand the workings of the game.

Instead of simply searching for “modern furniture,” a Los Angeles-based consumer is more likely to search for “modern furniture in Los Angeles.”

Here’s a snippet of the search results for this specific query:

query

Notice how each title tag includes the geographic keyword “Los Angeles.” In fact, if you pay close attention, you’ll realize that the meta descriptions also include the location.

It’s evident that these businesses have optimized their website for local search. This neat trick is a great way to climb search engine result pages (SERPs) and sneak your way into the Google 3-Pack.

According to research, 75% of web users never scroll past the first SERP. And even if your business climbs SERPs and eventually earns a spot on the first page, the work doesn’t end there. In fact, the competition on the first page is ruthless.

The top five search results receive 67.6% of clicks, whereas the remaining five receive less than 3.73%. Optimizing product/service pages and preexisting content for location is a great way to dominate the top local search results.

    Incorporate local keywords into

    URLs, title tags, meta descriptions, H1–H4 headings, image filenames, image alt tags, and the body of the text.

     

      In addition, create new location-friendly content to build a wide local audience. For instance, if you sell wrought iron and steel doors in certain states, create content centered on those locations. Your local SEO content creation strategy should include: Blogs Articles Guest Posts Press Releases Infographics and Instructographics Videos OUAI’s local pages are a great example of going about this the right way! 

       

        OUAI’s local pages

        We also suggest getting creative and coming up with unique content based on local trends, events, pop culture references, and holidays.

        Keep your audience in mind to ensure you don’t end up alienating them for the sake of location-friendliness.

        For instance, if you offer home downsizing services for senior citizens, creating content around Gen Z-friendly local events wouldn’t make much sense. Instead, do your research and compile a list of trends that align with the interests of your demographic.

        Keep making adjustments to ensure relevance with time.

        Expert local keyword research will help your website get a much-needed boost on SERPs.

        In addition, keep a laser-sharp focus on consistency to avoid a potential dry spell. The local SEO landscape is fiercely competitive; if you fail to produce consistent and impactful content, it’s very likely that your SERP rankings will begin to fall.

        Steer clear of complacency and stay on your toes to ensure you maintain a winning online presence for local search in the long run.

        2. Ensure Mobile-Friendliness

        Wayfair and iRobot’s mobile-friendly websites Wayfair and iRobot’s mobile-friendly websites

        According to the Pew Research Center, an astounding 96% of Americans use a mobile device. In fact, the large majority of consumers go online using their smartphone as opposed to other electronic devices, including computers, laptops, tablets, etc.

        Smartphones are easy-to-use, accessible, and compact. While their popularity is currently at an all-time high, it’s expected to grow further in 2021.

        If you haven’t created a mobile-friendly website, you’re potentially losing out on a large number of local customers who solely use smartphones to purchase products/services online. In fact, the lockdown period has further fueled mobile internet use, resulting in more people looking for local products/services.

        Curious about how to optimize your website for local SEO in 2020? Start by creating an aesthetically pleasing, user-friendly, interactive, and optimized mobile-friendly website to increase local traffic and do your business justice. Since Google prioritizes mobile-friendly websites, your pages will get crawled, indexed, and ranked better; it’s a win-win situation any way you look at it!

        Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to determine how well your site is performing on mobile devices. If there are any issues, we suggest resolving them urgently. Essential factors like page speed, responsiveness, and user-friendliness play a big role in expediting the consumer buying process.

        Of course, don’t forget to optimize your website for local search.

        A whopping 40% of online transactions happen on mobile devices.

        Make the most of the staggering statistics by adding easy-to-find, compelling, and witty calls to action (CTAs) on your mobile website. Get creative to ensure the text grabs your audience’s attention and prompts immediate action. It should also appear seamlessly and vividly stand out on the page without overwhelming consumers.

        It’s a fine balance, but the right resources and expertise can help you get it right.

        Opt for a clean and user-friendly navigation bar that allows consumers to browse through different pages with ease. The last thing you want is to frustrate your audience by using illegible fonts, off-putting font sizes, and messy graphics.

        Here are some optimization tips to help you pull off a winning mobile website.

        Create a seamless and visually engaging mobile-friendly website
        by consulting professional web designers and developers.

        Click here for a free in-depth analysis report of your website

          3. Google My Business is Still a Game Changer; Jump on Board!

          Update and optimize your listing on a weekly basis to inch your business closer to the Google 3-Pack.

          We suggest checking out our previous blog to familiarize yourself with the ins and outs of how to optimize your Google My Business listing.

          4. Build Local Backlinks

          While you may be familiar with the importance of building quality backlinks, local SEO takes things a step further.

          Instead of simply leveraging link building, focus on local link building.

          What does this mean?

          It’s simple. Each time you receive a backlink from a website with high domain authority, draft an email requesting them to include your location in the anchor text. This will improve the quality and value of the backlink, resulting in better rankings and increased traffic.

          We suggest informing them about the benefits of making the content more location-friendly for their business as well. This is more likely to help you receive a response in the affirmative.

          Communicate the same concern to your backlink building partners so they can include your business location in the anchor text each time they offer you a backlink in the future.

          If you’re new to link building, we suggest checking out the following blogs for a quick overview of the basics:

          And while building backlinks is important, improving your internal linking structure is equally imperative.

          Each time you produce new content, link to earlier blogs/articles/product pages/service pages and include local keywords. This is especially recommended for the CTA.

          The simple yet powerful trick is a great way to help your content become more visible for local search. The outcome? A much-needed boost in local traffic and rankings.

          5. Optimize Your Website for Local Voice Search

          Local voice search is the newest player in the game that’s easily becoming a top contender.

          According to Google, 20% of all searches on Google are done by voice.

          That’s a lot of searches.

          Luckily, you don’t need to do much to optimize your website for local voice search. Voice queries are very similar to regular search terms. Of course, they tend to be a bit longer and more natural. For instance, a regular search term like “best pizza place in Ohio” would probably be modified to “what’s the best pizza place in Ohio that’s open right now” if spoken.

          Use schema markup (also known as structured data) to help Google organize and categorize your content accordingly. It may sound complex, but it’s a piece of cake.

          In short, schema markup is data about the information on your website. While your audience will not see it, search engines will use this information to understand your content better and crawl, index, and rank it accordingly.

          Ultimately, schema markup helps Google fetch more relevant and informative search results for web users. We recommend getting in touch with local SEO professionals who can do the work for you. It doesn’t take long, but makes a big difference in helping Google classify essential information, including your business hours, phone number, address, directions, etc.

          Each time a web user

          runs a relevant voice search, Google will effectively pull your listing out of the directory and include it in the search results.

           

             

              Another great way to optimize your website for voice search is by building a stellar Google My Business profile. Choosing the right categories and ensuring consistency across the board will help your business appear in the top results for voice search. As stated above, the local SEO strategies for voice search are very similar to those for regular search so there’s no way you can go wrong here.

              6. Request Reviews on “The Big Three”

              Local online reviews are a goldmine for businesses.

              We emphasized the significance of reviews in our earlier blog and can’t help but pay homage to this brilliant strategy in 2020 as well. It’s timeless and won’t lose its shine irrespective of how many new strategies enter the local SEO game in the future.

              According to research, 53% of Americans rely on product/service reviews and ratings to guide their online shopping experience. In fact, reviews can boost the conversion rate by a whopping 380%.

              While reviews are still just as important today as they were a few years ago, there have been certain alterations. Currently, reviews hold the most weightage if received on “the big threes”—GoogleFacebook, and Yelp.

              While reviews on other social media platforms play a big role in shaping audience opinion and improving brand identity, they don’t directly impact rankings.

              Of course, receiving great reviews on Google is your golden ticket to entering the Google 3-Pack. However, reviews on Facebook and Yelp also heavily impact rankings, though not as directly as Google.

              We suggest requesting reviews on each platform and maintaining a strong online presence to ensure customers have a positive experience.

              However, avoid going overboard by spamming or heavily incentivizing customers. Instead, share a link to the review form on social media, Google My Business, and in the CTAs.

              A balanced approach will help you generate reviews without putting off your customers. It’ll also give your Google listing a much-needed boost.

              Each time a web user searches for location-specific products/services in your industry, your listing will show up (if you’ve mastered local SEO, that is). And as they browse through your listing, the reviews will vividly stand out.

              Here’s a glimpse of what we’re talking about:

              the Google Local 3-Pack for Search Berg

              By doubling down on reviews—especially on Google, Facebook, and Yelp—you’ll manage to maintain a pristine brand identity and make it easier for web users to feel like they can trust your company and do business with you.

              When the reviews are good and plentiful, web users won’t have to look elsewhere; they’ve already found exactly what they’re looking for!

              Ultimately, excellent customer service will help you dominate the web for local search and grow your business in the long run. Pull out our comprehensive guide to local SEO in 2020 when you’re about to create a winning strategy. It’ll help you check off all the right boxes and start off on the right foot.

              7.Maintain a Stellar Social Media Presence

              You can’t master local SEO without focusing on social media.

              Take a quick look at Setton Consulting’s Twitter post:

              Seatton Consulting’s location-friendly tweet for New York customers

              They’ve strategically used #NewYork to reach a geo-specific portion of their target audience: New York-based businesses that are looking for IT support.

              USA Electric uses a very similar approach:

              USA Electric’s location-friendly tweet for Los Angeles customers

              By using #LosAngeles in their Twitter post, they’re targeting Los Angeles-based homeowners who are looking for electrical support. By leveraging social media, these companies are excelling at reaching local customers.

              Here’s how you can use this strategy like a seasoned pro.

              Make a list of all the locations your business serves. Your list may include a handful of cities or several states depending on the size and reach of your business.

              Once you have a list ready, dive deeper. Break states into cities, cities into towns, and towns into neighborhoods.

              Once you’re done, highlight the most popular locations.

              All set?

              These are the locations you should specifically target on social media.

              Use hashtags, incorporate them into social media images/videos and captions, and include them in your bio (if they’re a handful of standout locations).

              patio furniture

              As you optimize your social media pages for the specific locations your business serves, you’ll manage to reach the right audience. Share these location-friendly posts aggressively to build a wide local audience.

              8.Improve Your Internal Linking Structure

              The large majority of companies that create local content fail to recognize the importance of working on their internal linking structure.

              Sure, you’re written a spectacular location-specific blog. You’ve also shared it on social media. Is it time to let it organically gain traction now?

              Yes and no.

              Yes, let it organically gain traction.

              No, can’t simply create a location-specific blog and call it a day.

              Once you’ve generated local content, actively incorporate it into other blogs, articles, infographics, and related forms of content on your site. This is a great way to help local content continually generate traffic instead of eventually falling flat on its face after serving its purpose.

              Keep the momentum going!

              As you improve your internal linking structure, your local content will continually stay fresh.

              The outcome? Better rankings, more traffic, and impressive local leads.

              9.Ensure Seamless Reputation Management

              Local consumers are quick on their feet. One social media search and they can easily identify negative reviews for your business in their state, city, town, or neighborhood.

              Search for “Dunkin Donuts Los Angeles” on Twitter and you’ll receive a plethora of tweets—some positive and some negative. And if the not-so-flattering tweets outweigh the positives, well, you may lose local customers.

              Here’s what we’re talking about:

              a negative customer review for Dunkin Donuts’ Los Angeles branch

              All it takes is a straightforward “Dunkin Donuts Los Angeles” search to reveal social media posts that can be detrimental to your business.

              So what do you do to turn things around?

              You leverage reputation management services.

              By helping you respond to negative comments the right way, remove inaccurate statements, and focus on the positives, reputation management experts can revamp your local online brand identity. Their aim is to counteract misleading trends and give you the chance to put your best foot forward.

              These factors go a long way in helping you retain local customers.

              10. Consistency, Consistency, Consistency!

              When it comes to local SEO, consistency is key.

              If you launch a winning strategy, make sure you continue to update it in the long run as opposed to letting it run its course. Abandoning your strategy will quickly undo your efforts and take you back to square one.

              If you’re willing to see consistent results, you have to be consistent with your strategy. Tweak it on a monthly basis for better reach, rankings, and overall performance. As long as you keep your strategy up and running, the results will continue to astound you in the long run!

              Final Word

              We often have clients ask us one question: How can I increase local traffic? How can I improve rankings for local SEO?

              If you’re struggling to kick-start or revamp your local SEO strategy, we can help. Our local SEO specialists have extensive experience and expertise in helping local businesses develop an edge in the industry.

              Over the years, our team has successfully completed over 30,000 projects and continues to leverage innovative local SEO strategies for clients in a wide range of industries. Call 855-444-4777 now and let’s identify ways to improve your local SEO!