Houston Local SEO Services is a subject that has received much attention in the content marketing world. And there’s a good reason SEO gets so much attention.

Local search is getting more popular than ever. According to a Google’s 2014 research on customer behavior, 4 in 5 consumers use search engines to find local information.

Additionally, “50% of consumers who conducted a local search on their smartphone visited a store within a day. And 34% who searched on computer/tablet did the same.”

Modern local SEO speech pattern graphic

The finding is telling. Customers are looking for local businesses to make a purchase. Ranking for local search has a direct impact one two things. A direct impact on lead generation. And on your online visibility and brand awareness. As Search Engine Land shared in one of its local SEO services blog posts, “The internet has become the primary source consumers turn to for local business information, not showing up in local search is tantamount to professional suicide.”

Professional suicide? That is a serious consequence all local businesses want to avoid. So what can you do to boost your local SEO? ProEngage is here to share a few easy, but often overlooked Houston local SEO strategies.

Local SEO Services – Integrate Geo-Specific Keywords

If you are trying to get local customers. The first thing you need to do is to make sure that your website has been optimized for local SEO. Keyword planning for local SEO involves you taking the industry-related keywords and combining them with your geographic locations.

For example, if you are a SEO company in Houston. You’ll want to have “web design” as your industry keyword. And “Houston” as your geo-specific keyword. Feel free to get more specific by mentioning county or city names for extra local organic traffic.

Local SEO Services Contact Page

You want your website to be a platform for your customers to contact you. How can you do that without any contact information? Early and often as the saying goes.

When designing their websites, most business owners only include their contact information on the contact page. This strategy limits the potential between you and your customers. Visitors like to find their answers FAST. And of course EASILY. Making them look for answers can lead them to lose interest and leave your website. According to the technical website criteria checklist provided by Moz, you should make sure that your name, address, and phone number (NAP) is consistently mentioned everywhere on your website. Businesses with multiple branch locations should also feature the complete name, address, and phone number of each staffed location on their Contact Page. Finally, Moz recommends businesses with 10 or less locations to include a complete name, address, and phone number of each location in the site-wide footer element.

Create Unique Local Service Pages

It is common for local businesses to serve more than one geographic community. Or even have branches in other locations. When designing your website, business owners can strategically create unique local service pages. Doing so to market their services to a particular geographic location. The tricky part is that you will need to create original content. Content that is unique on each of the local service pages.

If you look at ProEngage’s web design and Houston SEO local services. You will find that we have individual pages for geo-locations such as Houston, Humble, The Woodlands, and other surrounding areas. Read through each one of them and you will see that every page tackles the service from a different angle. For example, on our Houston web design service page, we discuss the importance of having a responsive web design. Use your service pages as opportunities to engage, educate, and connect with your audience.

Comprehensive On-Page Local Optimization

We have talked about industry keywords and geo-specific keywords. In addition to having a healthy keyword density (3% to 5% is what we usually recommend, but it all depends on your content), here are a few things you can do to further optimize your page for local SEO:

  1. Include your City/Region + a relevant keyword in your landing page title tag.
  2. Use your City/Region + a relevant keyword in your landing page H1 tag.
  3. Include your City/Region + a relevant keyword in your landing page URL.
  4. Do the same for your City/Region + a relevant keyword in your landing page content.
  5. Lastly include your City/Region + a relevant keyword in your landing page image ALT attributes.

Get Listed in Major Search Engines

Listing your business in major directories is a great way to promote your online visibility. When interviewed by Forbes about local optimization, Scott Langdon — managing partner of the nationally recognized SEO Company Higher Visibility — said that it’s important for business owners to establish local business pages for the three major search engines: Bing, Yahoo, and Google. Because doing so will help search engines to index you as a local business. Searchers who are in need of your service will then be able to see your location, business hours, and basic contact information whenever your business shows up in the search results.

Use Accurate NAP

As mentioned earlier, NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone Number. In addition to making your contact information (email and phone number) visible on every page, you should also ensure that all your contact information is consistently and accurately formatted and listed on your social media profiles.

Local SEO Services – Build Links

Link building is important for general SEO. It can be specially tailored to benefit your local SEO. When it comes to local linking, you want to be linked with other local websites. One of the places recommended by Search Engine Land is Meetup.com. Meetups are a great way to meet local people and be connected with people of similar passions like yours.

Are you ready to market your business to your community and make a true difference in their lives? Call (832) 857-0065 for more information about local SEO services.