Julia Harrison, Negosentro | If you’re in Canada, you might be aware of these numbers: as of 2013, 31.6-million of its 34.83-million population are actually internet users, giving the country a whopping 90.9-percent internet penetration in that year alone. Focusing on a local region like Montreal gives you around a population of 4.1-million as of 2016 – or roughly 11.77-percent of that total. Imagine being able to tap into that kind of audience for your local business – in Montreal or not – and imagine the kind of returns you’re getting if you get all of that into leads.
Doing that, however, means stepping up your digital marketing game, and what better way to do that but knowing what to consider when deciding on a local search engine optimization (SEO) strategy?
Tomorrow and SEO’s Potential
Hubspot numbers point towards local SEO doing a great deal of help when it comes to leading customers to businesses. In fact, 30-percent of mobile searches last 2016 are actually location-based, and 28-percent of searches that ended up being nearby most likely resulted in a purchase. Interestingly, half of local-based searches have users end up going to those very same stores in the same day, and 78-percent of mobile local searches end up as users making offline purchases. This means adopting a local SEO strategy might work if you know how to tap into your current customer-base, which is possible if you take into account these considerations:
- Make sure your content is tailored to the location. Remember that when it comes to local-based marketing, the location matters now more than ever. As such you should be careful with the keywords you’re using and make sure content you’re creating is suitable for your audience in mind. Make use of jargons properly, and try to make your content relatable specifically to your area of focus.
- Make sure you’re wary of your meta description and title tags. Remember that in the realm of search engines, your titles and descriptions give away what your page is about. When it comes to local searches, these become extremely important as information you put in there can attract or dissuade readers from your local area in the get go. Aside from making your title and description straight to the point, make sure they provide enough information about what you’re offering with that page. It should be informative and inviting at the same time, as per your Montreal SEO
- Make sure your business is listed and cited correctly. This might not be too important on the get-go, but make sure that when you look for your business in online directories, all essential information are indicated correctly. These include your business name, your industry and niche, your website address, and your contact details. Communicate with the directory owner immediately if there’s wrong information, so the possibility of your potential leads being turned away is low.
- Optimize and claim your spot in Google My Business. Let’s admit it that in the reality of search engines, Google really takes the top spot. As such, you should use Google’s features to your benefit. One of these is My Business, where you can actually register your business to be recognized in Google’s servers, allowing you to make full use of the search engine to make sure valuable information such as your address, your location in Google Maps, contact details, and even pretty pictures are available.
- Make sure you get reviewed by the right people. Reviews matter when it comes to business, and not just good reviews. Getting the right people to make a review for your website will expose you to an audience-base that might just be attracted to your website. Try asking your customers to make a review for you, as their opinion on your business matters not just for your operations in general, but for the rest of the internet.
The Takeaway: Carefully-Tailored Proximity, Interest, Opportunities
Depending on your niche and industry, a global and a local SEO strategy may be tricky to execute, especially if you’re running on a timetable and limited resources. However, if you’ve set up your business to tap into a local audience, then the above factors on a local Montreal SEO strategy can help take advantage of Montreal’s customer-base and amp up your local digital marketing game.
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Julia Harrison
Julia Harrison has a passion for both web design and content writing, which perhaps motivates her to push for both creative and informative pieces in the fields of digital marketing and its related subjects. As a contributor for sites like Comhar SEO, Julia explores concepts related to content marketing and digital marketing especially in the online scene, and makes sure her concepts, no matter how technical, can be easily understood by readers.
