According to a report, out of the employer businesses in Canada, over 1.18 million (97.9%) are small businesses. Ontario(97.7), British Columbia (98.3%), Saskatchewan (98.3%) are some of the regions in Canada with the highest percentage of people employed by small businesses.

Do you have plans to improve your Canadian small business visibility in the local space? Undoubtedly, local Search Engine Optimization (SEO) would be the right choice to achieve it.

Driving your local customers through normal SEO practices would be an overwhelming experience. With local SEO, you can expand your visibility on various local channels, capture the right customers to your sales funnel, and excel in the local competition.

Going through effective local SEO strategies would be a healthy practice before embracing local SEO for your business. In this blog, we have outlined the importance of local SEO and the effective local SEO tactics that play a vital role in your business enhancement.

Here’s an image about the Canadian Local Search ecosystem as per Moz

By the end of the blog, you will get a clear picture of the significant role of local SEO in your Canadian small business and the best practices of implementing local SEO.

Let’s dive in.

1. What is Local SEO?

Before kick-starting local SEO for your Canadian small business, understanding the concept of local SEO is important. The root cause for the success of any business depends on its active visibility on the right channels where they can meet their target audience.

Today, the majority of people use search engines to find answers for any type of query and get satisfied with the results. It’s of no wonder, people even search for things like “best personal trainers in Montreal”, “bakery-cafes near me”, and all information they need based on location.

Over 90% of consumers use the internet to find a local business with 33% looking every day. Therefore, search engines are the right platforms to create awareness about your business amongst your target audience.

One of the best practices of local SEO is clearly understanding the intention of your local audience and developing professional content that best answers the queries of your local Canadian prospects. Check out this article to learn more about the advantages of local SEO for small businesses.

Also Read

Role of SEO in Lead Generation

2. Why Should You Consider Local SEO for Your Canadian Small Business?

Today, 97% of people learn more about a local company on the internet than anywhere else. The primary aim of local SEO is to get your business on Google Maps, Google’s local 3 Pack, and the localized organic results.

Through aggressive local SEO practices, you can battle in the ground only with local competitors. Unlike the ranking factors of normal SEO, Google uses different methodologies in local SEO to rank your business.

It focuses on the searcher’s location, your NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) citations, visibility on Google My Business (GMB) listing, keywords used in your GMB profile, number of check-ins, social media shares, and online ratings & reviews.

By strategically optimizing all these channels including website, social media profile, GMB account, and others, you can make your small business flag fly-high above your local competitors.

Moreover, if you are using WordPress for building your small business website, then there are a plethora of opportunities to multiply your presence on the local search engine results page (SERP). To learn more about how to implement local SEO for your small business WordPress website, check out our blog.

3. How Can You Become Successful through Local SEO?

Absolutely, local SEO is a key ingredient that improves your visibility on local SERPs, drives quality traffic, and builds a local competitive edge.

However, it’s not that easy to grab the results of local SEO overnight. Through skillful tactics, you will be able to look at the reflection of your SEO efforts in your business growth in the long run.

Based on our research and expertise, here we have listed the best practices of local SEO that will nurture your small business growth.

Build a Mobile-friendly & Voice Optimized Website

In this tech-savvy world, before heading to a physical store or making a purchase, prospects take a look at the company’s web presence.

All these above statistics prove that an online presence is very much essential and almost mandatory. Developing a website / web page becomes an unavoidable option to showcase your services/products to your prospective audience.

As your website is the perfect reflective mirror of your business, developing it with user-friendly features and making it accessible to all types of users is a must.

Most of the people are exposed to smartphones and do voice-searching nowadays. For 2020, the number of smartphone users in Canada is estimated to reach 31.38 million.

By developing a mobile-friendly website and optimizing your content for voice search, you can provide a better user experience to your existing & new customers which in turn, improves your presence on local SERPs.

Add Schema Markup

In order to make search engines understand the differences in the pages, the major search engine giants Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex launched this Schema markup.

It’s a vocabulary that you include for your content to make search engines understand the variations of each section on your website. Through Schema, you pave the way for search engines to easily understand your business, services, products, location, and other services that you offer.

After receiving better clarity about your business, search engines compare the users’ queries with your services. If there are any connections between your services and users’ queries, then search engines will index your profile on better rankings.

Create an Account on Google My Business (GMB)

As a matter of fact, brands that show up on Google are 2.7 times more likely to be considered reputable by consumers. Therefore, your visibility on Google is a must to create awareness of your small business among your target audience. Before the concept of GMB, it was challenging to list small businesses on quality rankings.

Many small businesses in Canada show a heart-whelming thanks to GMB because its advent gave higher visibility for their businesses on the local SERPs.

By adding your small business information on GMB listing, you will automatically be displayed on Google Search, Knowledge Graph, Maps, and more.

Have a look at the FAQ’s about GMB from the mouth of google here

Optimize Your Content for Local Keywords

Keywords act as the backbone for driving traffic to your local business. With proper usage of local keywords, attracting search engines will become an easy task!

Search engine giants like Google focus on providing the best solutions to their readers. Only when the search engines understand the intent of the readers, they will be able to provide values.

Google uses keywords as an important ingredient to examine user intent. Through keywords, you can make search engines understand the purpose of your content. Therefore, it is crucial that you implant the right keywords to drive the right audience to your web page.

Canada, being an independent country, has most websites built with .ca domain. This has to be kept in mind while linking Canadian based websites or building links for that domain

Maintain Consistent NAP

The important part of any business is that the prospective audience should have easy accessibility to reach your services. Name, Address, Phone number (NAP) are the three significant vehicles that carry your customers to your small business.

Mismatching citations will become a stumbling block for the upliftment of your Canadian small business. Therefore, maintaining it consistent across all the channels like your website, GMB listing, local directories, social media page, and others is essential.

NAP consistency is one of the ranking factors of Google to display your business in the GMB listing. Through consistent NAP specifications, you will gain authenticity for your business among the potentials.

Also Read

SEO Reseller Model – A Guide for Digital Agencies

Encourage Customers to Leave Reviews

Brands with the best reviews and star ratings obtain a special place in the customers’ hearts. Online reviews are a powerful tool that influences the purchase decisions of prospective leads.

Before making a purchase, people take a look at the reviews of your business, when the reviews don’t satisfy, there are opportunities for you to lose customers.

If you don’t want that to happen, request your existing customers to share their experiences with you in the form of reviews or ratings. Owing to the standard of your customers’ reviews & ratings, search engines consider you as the perfect solutions provider and will index your profile for queries related to your niche

Be Active on Social Media

Social media serves as a huge container that holds people belonging to different age groups, genders, regions, communities, and interests. Statistics show that one-third of the global population which is roughly 2.8 billion people are active social media users.

An interesting fact is that the majority of social media users get influenced by the products advertised on social media platforms. Therefore, if you want to reach a wider group of potential customers, then establishing your foot on social networks would be a lucrative option.

Google and Bing have confirmed that your Twitter and Facebook profiles have a huge impact on your SEO rankings. Also, other social media platforms like YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc contribute a lot to your visibility on SERPs. Explore for a particular period of time and understand which works best for you.

Choosing ColorWhistle as Your Dedicated Local SEO Partner

So, if your business falls under any of the above industries, it is essential you strategize your business to cater to your local needs.

At present, dedicated entrepreneurs and small business owners fall under the millennial group who use different communication platforms. If you want to reach them, then it is imperative to find the right platforms that are actively available.

As a leading local SEO solutions provider, we can provide out-of-the-box SEO solutions to drive more local traffic, generate high ROI, and get better rankings for your small business in Canada.

We understand your business type, target audience demographics, services offered, competition in the market, and other related details.

After obtaining complete knowledge about your small business, we implement the most effective local SEO techniques like keyword research, SEO friendly content, and more that increases your brand presence on the search results.

Additionally, we offer full-scale, highly professional, and result-oriented white-label services at affordable prices that will make you look great in front of your local customers. Stay visible to your local customers through our local SEO services.

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To Wrap Up Things

For implementing successful local SEO for Canadian small businesses, it is crucial to stay updated on the search engine algorithms and guidelines. Professional SEO service providers like ColorWhistle will be up-to-date on search engine announcements and make your small business well-optimized for local visibility.

If you want any assistance regarding local SEO for your small business, feel free to get in touch with us! Drop us a message or give us a call +1 (210) 787-3600 or ping us on Skype at any time. We are happy to work with you!

Which local SEO technique are you implementing for your small business? Share your thoughts in the comments below.