When you use traditional campaigns like TV commercials, billboards, radio and even Facebook Ads, you’re shoving your message down peoples’ throats, most of whom have no interest in it. With SEO, you’re giving people exactly what they are looking for at the exact moment they need it. It’s even better with local SEO. If someone needs a locksmith in Seattle because they’re locked out of their car, the company with 150 five star reviews that shows up at the top of Google’s search results for the keyword “Seattle locksmith’’ is going to get a very, very high percentage of the calls!

There’s no reason for a small auto repair shop in Reno to show up in Google for a person in Tennessee (in most cases anyway). So, the shop would just target “Reno auto repair’’ keywords. This would be considered local SEO.

On the other hand, a company that manufactures bike racks for vehicles and sells them on their website would want to show up for people across the entire US (or world), and rank for terms like “bike racks for cars,” “bike carrier for SUVs,” and keywords like that. This would be considered national SEO.

If you own a small law firm, landscaping company, flower shop or any kind of business that markets to a specific city and want to conduct local SEO, then you must understand how Google works.

Making Your Site Relevant For The Keywords You Are Targeting

One of the major factors to good rankings in Google is how relevant you are to the keywords you want your site to target. Google will deliver you 98% of all search engine traffic that comes to your site, so it’s important we give them what they want. It’s not about tricks or schemes that work for weeks or months. We give Google what they want and they give us better rankings. Giving Google what they want is all about giving your visitors what they want.

Targeting relevant keywords

There is no use ranking for a keyword that gets a lot of searches if it’s not even closely relevant to what you sell or offer. It’s about customers and clients in the door, not vanity metrics. In this step, we are going to turn your site into the most relevant search result, and we do that through content and on-page optimization. Don’t you agree that it would be worthless getting calls from people looking for emergency plumbers yet you’re a barber? Think through the keyword research process.