How effective is your local SEO? Does your computer repair shop even have a local SEO strategy? If you don’t, you’re certainly not alone. However, it’s time to get on board now so that you can keep up with the competition and keep your local business growing. Local optimization efforts can involve several different processes and steps, depending on what you already have in place and what needs to be done.
For starters, you need to understand that local SEO is as much about your reputation as it is about the actual optimization of your online presence. And speaking of your presence, local optimization includes improving both your website and your off-page SEO (social media, directory listings, etc.). Here’s what you need to know to get your computer repair shop at the top of the search results for your local audience.
Too often, companies think that they have to scrap everything and start from scratch with local SEO. We’re happy to tell you that’s not the case at all. An SEO audit can go a long way in checking out and validating your existing content, as well as helping you see where you can make improvements and changes. You might even find some content that needs scrapped entirely and replaced with something better.
This isn’t just about keywords, either—it’s about adding value and providing user-friendly resources that can help people learn more about your business and why you’re the best choice for their computer repair needs. Once you’ve taken care of your existing online presence, you’ll be able to move into the creation parts of your SEO strategy and get your local optimization efforts moving.
The first step in those efforts should be to claim your Google Business Profile if you haven’t already. Make sure that you complete all of the different sections of this profile and optimize it with keywords in as many ways as you can. Google considers this a big indicator of your reputation when it comes to local SEO and optimization efforts. It’s so valued that they even have a completion tracker that will help you optimize your listing until it hits 100%, giving you the best chances of ranking higher in local search.
Speaking of keywords and optimization, you’ll need to know which words to use. Sometimes, companies are tempted just to add cities or other locations to their existing keywords and call it local optimization. Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee that will be effective. It’s important to research keywords and learn which local terms and phrases are going to get you the highest rankings when you put them to work. It can also help you see which keywords are oversaturated and help you make smarter choices about your optimization efforts.
Getting people to leave a review isn’t difficult if they have an extremely good experience. If they have an extremely negative experience, however, it could be just as easy for them to go telling the whole Internet how awful it was perceived in their eyes. You should take advantage of and encourage positive reviews and ratings, but you also can’t just ignore the negative ones. Ignoring them is the worst thing that you can do.
Instead, address the issue head-on. Reply to the review and apologize, asking the original poster (OP) what you can do to improve their experience or rectify the situation. Even if you don’t come to an amicable resolution, the fact that you tried counts for a lot in the eyes of Google because it means that you care.
Networking is a great tool for reputation building. It can even be invaluable to your link-building strategy. Take the time to find other local businesses that you can network with, as well as non-local companies that may be a good connection for your computer repair shop:
This will give you the chance to build a solid reputation. If you are connected to a bunch of reputable companies, the search engines will see your repair business as being more reputable by association. Of course, you have to remember here that quality outweighs quantity every single time. Google will rank a business with good networking highly but could detract points from you if you just form connections with any and every business or website that you can.
Your name, address, and phone number (NAP), also known as your citation, needs to be standardized and consistent. This is something small that can make a big impact on the success of your local SEO efforts. Even the difference between abbreviating and spelling out the state could have a big impact on your local rankings because it’s just not consistent.
You should pick a format that works and make sure that wherever your business is listed, the listing is identical. It’s a simple enough task, but it’s also commonly overlooked because of its simplicity.
Once you’re optimized for local search, are you ready to start fielding all the new leads? Start by enlisting the assistance of a 24/7 answering service like the virtual receptionists at Smith.ai. Plus, when you partner with us, you’ll also have access to solutions for appointment scheduling, lead intake, and even live website chat. If you’re still working on outreach and lead generation, we can even assist with outreach campaigns and other outbound sales support.
And as always, it comes with a custom strategy to ensure that we’re managing everything for you just the way that you need. To learn more, schedule a consultation to discuss what the virtual receptionists at Smith.ai can do for your computer repair business, or drop us a line at hello@smith.ai.