Local SEO for Your Flooring Business: How to Get More Leads from Local Organic Searches

Flooring businesses need local traffic just as much as anyone. And yet, for as much expertise as you have in the world of floors, you might be lacking the best skills and knowledge of things like marketing and local SEO. SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of optimizing your website and online presence for the search engines and the users who are perusing them. For a local business, localized optimization will be part of that process. 

There is also more to local SEO than just listing your keywords with a city or region. Those will probably be useful keywords, but you need to do the keyword research first and find out. Then, you will be able to optimize your online presence using the most relevant and highest-ranking keywords related to the world of flooring and home improvement. 

In the future, that’s going to be the only way to outpace the competition and get found. People are increasingly reliant on mobile and local search, which means companies that want to succeed need to deliver in that regard. 

The case for local SEO

There’s a big focus on local SEO right now and as more people are utilizing their mobile devices to find local businesses, that’s only going to continue to grow. If you’re wondering why your flooring business needs to create a strong local optimization strategy, here are a few statistics to keep in mind:

• 4 of 5 mobile searches are for a local business 
• 97% of customers look online to find local businesses 
• 78% of local searches will result in a visit within a day
• The search phrase “near me” has increased in search popularity by 150% in two years
• 80% of all local searches convert

If your flooring business needs local traffic, it’s time to get on board with local optimization or update your SEO to include the latest best practices. 

How local rankings are determined

Among things like the type and quality of information that you provide, several different elements go into helping calculate your exact local ranking. However, there are generally three major categories, or benchmarks, that companies have to hit if they want the best local search rankings:

• Relevance
• Credibility/prominence
• Distance

Relevance and distance are obvious—if you don’t have the right services or aren’t in the right location, you’re not going to get ranked. However, you also have to have a solid reputation and credible options for customers. If you have a basic website without much information and you don’t have a lot of authority-building backlinks, you might be ranked poorly for prominence. However, if you have several directory listings, optimized social profiles, and a well-ranking website, you’ll get a much higher authority score from Google and others. 

You have to optimize your entire online presence

Local SEO isn’t just for your website. This strategy should include addressing the optimization of all of your online listings and pages, from directories to social media to your website and beyond. After all, the more places you’re found online, the more authority you build with search engines. Plus, some customers might be searching social media while others are looking at directories like YP (Yellow Pages) to learn about your business. 

When it comes to optimization, make sure that you include every single instance of your flooring business online. Also, make sure that you standardize your name, address, and phone number so that they’re consistent on every single listing for your business. Otherwise, you could get negative marks from Google for a lack of consistency. 

Other factors to consider 

Keyword research and relevance aside, there are some other elements at play in determining your local rankings. Sometimes referred to as “technical SEO,” we’re talking about user experience, navigation and site speed, and so forth. Your site needs to be user-friendly, easy to navigate, and quick to load and function. You should test your page speed and use available tools to speed up load times. One of the best ways to get the best possible speeds is to embrace the mobile-first approach when building your website. 

You’ll also need to incorporate local keywords into your website, but more importantly, you’ll want to add a contact page that discusses location, driving directions, etc. Perhaps one of the best things that you can do is get engaged with your audience. This includes creating a blog and other educational resources on your website, service pages, and more. You’ll also need to stay engaged on social media and incorporate as much of that as you can into building your local presence. 

DIY vs. outsourcing your local SEO 

Some flooring company owners and leaders see all this information and feel a bit overwhelmed by it all. Fortunately, there are SEO experts out there that you can enlist to assist you in your own local optimization efforts. A little research can go a long way in helping you figure out how to do it yourself, but if you don’t have the time, capability, or desire, there are people who can assist you. 

Take the time to consider how you can hire SEO companies or independent SEO consultants to help your flooring business build a strong local presence. Then, you’ll guarantee that you get the best rankings with organic search results. 

Speaking of outsourcing, who’s fielding the leads?

While you’re beefing up your local SEO efforts, you’re going to start seeing new leads coming in faster than you might expect. You need to be ready for them with a 24/7 answering service, and that’s just the start. For the best assistance, partner with the virtual receptionists at Smith.ai for lead intake, appointment scheduling, and your other communication needs. 

We can also help with outbound sales and creating winning outreach campaigns to draw in the leads in the first place, and we’ll do it all with a comprehensive strategy to manage every last detail.

To learn more, schedule a consultation to discuss how the 24/7 virtual receptionists at Smith.ai can help your flooring business. You can also reach us at hello@smith.ai. 

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