Ways to Start Growing Your Business with SEO in Anchorage, AK
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Originally Posted On: https://dotwolfseo.com/grow-your-business-with-seo-anchorage/
Ways to Start Growing Your Business with SEO in Anchorage, AK
Do you have a small business in Anchorage, AK and have your eyes set on growth? If you already have a website then using search engine optimization (SEO) is a perfect way to get more customers, but it can be overwhelming to know where to start. Read on to learn more about how your business could use SEO to generate growth.
Anchorage small businesses want to win market share
As a business owner in Anchorage, AK, you’re in great company. There are more than 73,000 small businesses in the city, with a population of about 300,000 people. This is a number that’s growing every year for obvious reasons – what a beautiful place to live.
The problem with being one of many businesses in an area like this? Competition! You can’t afford not to have a strong marketing strategy if you want your business to grow into something great. So what’s the best way to achieve growth and market share when there are so many local competitors?
Local SEO for Anchorage
Local SEO is the process of optimizing your website for local search engines, such as Google and Bing. 46% of all online searches are looking specifically for local information. So, rather than competing against millions of others with general search results, you target location-specific searches. What this means for you is that your business needs to target local users in the Anchorage area with SEO strategies.
Where to start with local SEO for businesses in Anchorage, AK
The first steps in your local SEO strategy should be:
- Start with your Google Business Profile Optimize your Google business profile. This means when people are searching in your local area your business profile will show up, and your result will appear on Google Maps.
- Do the same with Apple Maps. iPhone users will then view your profile, your location and contact information and how to get to you.
- Consistency is key. Ensure your name, address, telephone number and email address are consistent everywhere you’re found on the internet.
- Utilize directories. Make sure you’re listed on all local business directories, including Bing Places, Yelp, Foursquare, Next-door etc.
- Optimize your website This one calls for an entire section!
How to optimize your website for local SEO
The benefits of having a website are obvious: it’s your online storefront, where customers can come in and check out what you offer. But if your prospective customers aren’t coming across your online storefront, then are you really feeling the benefit of having it?
The benefit of optimizing your site for search engines is that you get every ounce of value from it by ensuring it ranks highly in search results. And the best place to start is to figure out which keywords you need to be targeting.
Identifying local SEO target keywords for your Anchorage business
You’ll need to conduct some keyword research. This can be done in several ways, but the first step is to figure out what keywords people are searching for in relation to the services or products that you offer.
There are lots of ways to conduct keyword research, and one of the simplest for SEO laypeople is to type in phrases related to your business and take a look at Google’s “people also ask” section. This will likely produce some questions people are asking when they search for your type of business. You can then generate content to answer those questions, with a local twist.
Going further with SEO will yield far better results
If you’re looking to develop your website to attract more customers, it’s critical to understand the current strengths and weaknesses of your SEO performance. That’s where an SEO audit comes in. This is a discovery process that identifies issues or poor practices that need to be fixed so you can rank more highly.
A rich source of target keywords for your business would come from a process like competition and gap analysis. This helps unearth opportunities by analyzing your specific marketplace, your competition and the trends of users who are looking for your type of business. The objective is to discover the keywords that you are most likely to achieve results from and use them to create content.
SEO is more than keywords
There’s also so much more to SEO than the words Google matches to user queries. How often your content is updated matters, and how people behave on your site matters more. You want to create content that not only gets people on your website but keeps them there so search engines think you’re useful.
In addition to content, there are back-end tweaks and tricks that enable you to maximize your results that can be highly technical in nature. Things like metadata, backlinks, anchor text and links, images and alt-text, and schema markups. Analytics and tracking are also crucial, so you know what you’re doing works and what you should be doing next.
This all sounds like a lot of work. And it is. That’s why outsourcing your SEO is such a great idea.
Let someone else take care of your Anchorage SEO so you can focus on your business
Many businesses fall into one of two common SEO traps. Either, you may believe you can cover the basics of local SEO yourself and get decent results, but not execute it optimally. Or, you may believe SEO is too complex and difficult and not tackle it at all. As a business owner, it shouldn’t be your job to learn the complexities of a whole other profession. Instead, you should focus on what you know best—running your business. This means leaving your SEO strategy to the people who do it best (that’s us, by the way).
It should be easy for anyone with a website (regardless of how small) to grow their business through local SEO in Anchorage, AK! You just need the right support. Do you think your website is working for you? Find out how it could work harder by contacting Anchorage search engine optimization experts DotWolf SEO for a free SEO Audit.