Many businesses operate without a physical location that customers can walk into. But this doesn’t mean that local search isn’t applicable. While some service-based businesses, such as house cleaners, plumbing companies, construction companies, or locksmiths may not have a storefront, customers are looking for them with “near me” search queries.
Fortunately, a physical storefront isn’t required to build local visibility in search engines. Instead, businesses need to focus on displaying their services and service area to search engines.
Google Business Profile
Having a Google Business Profile is essential to appearing in local search results. Service area businesses are able to set up a profile that includes their geographic service area, rather than their physical office location.
It’s important that the profile is complete with accurate information. Hours of operation, services offered, phone number and contact information, reviews, and website information should be complete and accurate. A strong profile will send signals to Google to make your business more likely to appear in local search results, more so than an incomplete profile with an address would.
Service Area
Your website should clearly showcase the regions, cities, and towns your business operates within. From a customer perspective, it doesn’t matter where your business is located, it matters to them whether or not your business will be able to help them in their location. By looking at your website, customers should be able to understand whether your business will travel or has experience in the location they need.
It is also a good idea to create specific Service Area Pages and optimize them for SEO. These pages can showcase location-specific information for customers, examples of past work in those particular areas, in addition to general company information.
Service-Based Content
While optimizing for location is important, it’s also important to make information about the services your business offers is accessible and easy to understand by website visitors and search engines. For example, a construction company should have separate service pages for kitchen renovations, home additions, and new construction.
These pages give the business the opportunity to go into further detail on these pages about the products they use, timeline they work under, and other helpful information. These pages can target searches related to specific services, because the website visitors viewing this page will be interested in said services.
Reviews and Local Listings
Reviews and local listings are an important part of local reputation. Encourage your happy customers to leave a review about their experience with your business. Having genuine, positive reviews on your Google Business Profile and website helps showcase your trustworthiness as a business and helps strengthen your online presence.
Creating local listings on business directories is another way for search engines to understand your service area. Accurate listings can make it easier for your business to appear in local search results.
Improve Local Search Results with Boston Web Marketing
Even without a physical presence, it’s very possible for your business to establish local authority and relevance in search results. Boston Web Marketing can help you grow your digital presence and connect with the communities you serve. Contact us today by calling (857) 526-0096 or using our online contact form to learn how our team can help.