Local SEO is most commonly known for its benefits in the B2C industry.
However, Local SEO is just as important for a B2B company, if not more so. It can help you position yourself as the authority of your product or service and differentiate yourself from competitors, especially those not as invested in their local SEO efforts.
People trust Google, regardless of whether you are selling to a consumer or a business.
Meaning: If you rank at the top, you will get the most significant piece of the pie, a.k.a the search traffic for that keyword.
Sounds interesting?
Then this article is for you, in which we’ll look at why B2B local SEO is essential and how it works.
What is Local SEO in Digital Marketing?
Local SEO means optimizing your website to be more easily found by users searching nearby.
Search engines drive organic traffic to a site. Local SEO helps attract those visitors to your website so that you can turn them into clients and customers. How?
By targeting local keywords. For example, if you were a business consulting agency in New York, you would want to rank for keywords like “Business Consulting Agency New York.”
Unlike traditional SEO, which is based on generic keywords and content that is relevant to your business, local SEO focuses on defining specific areas with the geolocation in the keyword (like New York, in the above example.)
Why Is Local Search So Important?
There are several reasons why local search is so vital for businesses and organizations.
First, local search is relevant to the user. People looking for products and services in their area trust Google, and they expect to find a local trusted authority at the top of the results.
Plus, local SEO can help you differentiate yourself from your competitors. Many businesses don’t invest in optimizing their sites for local search, which can help you get a big piece of that pie.
Most importantly, that can help you establish yourself as an authority and leader in your industry.
How Do You Get Started with Local SEO?
Here are some steps you can take to get started with local SEO:
- Do keyword research to identify the terms and phrases people in your area use when searching for products or services you offer. These might include specific names of neighborhoods, cities, or other geographic locations, as well as broader keywords like “business consulting agency [+ location] ” or “accounting firm [+location].”
- Optimize your website and online profiles to include these keywords and phrases, making sure to include them in relevant content, titles, meta descriptions, and other metadata. You can check out our complete SEO checklist and guide here.
- Make sure you have your GMB set up, as this will help you rank in the local business section at the top of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). You can set up your GMB by visiting the Google My Business website.
- Establish local business listings on all the major directories and online review platforms your target audience will likely use. These might include sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, Yellowpages.com, and others.
- Get your existing customers to leave reviews, as reviews are a crucial ranking factor for local SEO. Make sure you aren’t paying your customers to leave reviews, and always stay in the green area with the law.
Local SEO is a Powerful Tool For B2B
Local SEO is a Powerful Tool For B2B businesses, offering a range of benefits that can help you reach and connect with new customers.
This is because it instantly gives you trust. However, a B2B business needs to be able to sell products or services at a higher price point. With a lack of online presence, you’d find it hard to sell B2B services because of the high price points.
Local SEO is a powerful tool for B2B because it doesn’t just give you the traffic. It also gives you credibility and trust.
How to Improve Local SEO?
Here are the main ways to improve local SEO:
- Monitor your search rankings. The first step to improving your local SEO is understanding where you currently stand in the rankings for your target keywords. This can help you identify gaps in your optimization efforts and make targeted changes to improve your rankings over time.
- Make sure you are optimizing all of the significant elements of your website, including the title tags, meta descriptions, headings, and content. You can find detailed guides on optimizing these elements in our SEO checklist here.
- Invest in local link building. One of the most important ranking factors for local SEO is the number and quality of backlinks pointing to your site from other local businesses or industry-related sites. You’ll need to establish relationships with other companies, blogs, and influencers in your industry and work to earn high-quality links.
- Build citations. Citations mention your business’s name, address, and phone number on other websites. They can help improve your local search rankings by providing more data for Google to index your business. To build citations, ensure you are listed on all major directories and review sites in your industry, such as Yelp or TripAdvisor.
- Get reviews from your existing customers. Reviews are another crucial ranking factor for local SEO, which means that you’ll want to encourage your current customers to leave positive reviews on sites like Google and Yelp.
Local SEO Strategy for B2B Small Businesses
Besides what we have already covered in this article, here is the strategy we’d recommend for B2B small businesses.
- Plan your website structure and page keyword first. You will likely have service or product pages that you want to rank first. We recommend planning the structure of your website first so that you know your internal linking structure, and targeted keywords for each page.
- Fix technical SEO issues. Make sure to get an audit and fix all the technical SEO issues that are impacting your rankings. This might include improving broken links or optimizing your page loading speed.
- Don’t rush the process. It can take months to see results with local SEO, so you will likely need patience as you build your rankings and traffic. Instead, focus on creating high-quality, authoritative content that will attract links and shares, and you’ll be on your way to improved local SEO rankings.
- Invest in reliable SEO tools. Finally, to give yourself the best chance of succeeding with your local SEO strategy, we recommend investing in reliable SEO tools that can help you monitor, track, and optimize your results. Some examples include Ahrefs and SEMrush.
Local SEO Tips for B2B – Checklist
Here is a checklist for Local SEO for B2B:
- Research Keywords
- Plan your page structure
- Build out your pages
- Write SEO-optimized content
- Create local citations
- Build quality backlinks
- Encourage reviews from customers
- Monitor your search rankings and results
- Make consistent improvements by seeing what the top of the SERP is doing
Local SEO Agency for Small Businesses
We hope you have enjoyed this article on local SEO for B2B.
At Scion Social, we help SMEs rank in search engines and scale their business. We’ve worked with many great clients, such as BNI India, Nik Halik, and KSTG.
You can check out some of our case studies here:
4000+ Enquires in Automobile Industry For Kevin Smith Transportation, Philadelphia With Scion’s SEO Strategy.
