Someone somewhere has locked themselves out of their house or car. Or maybe they lost the keys and need the locks replaced. 20 years ago, they would open up the phone book and start calling from the potentially hundreds of locksmiths available. It was time-consuming and you never knew if you were calling a reputable Locksmith.
Fast forward to the information age today and it is a much different story. Now when someone locks themselves out of their car or needs help with the locks in their home, they open their phone and do a quick search for “locksmiths near me” or “24-hour locksmiths”. Right at their fingertips, they have everything they need to find a locksmith. They can even see how their past customers rate them.
“There are almost 1 million searches every month for people looking for Locksmiths”
1. Claim your Google Busines Listing
When you do a search for a local service, Google will show a section with a map of local businesses that match your search. In order for you to show up in the maps section, you will need a Google Business Profile. It was just renamed from Google My Business if you have been active in search. Not only do you have to claim the profile, but you also need to fill it out as completely as possible. There are even opportunities to leave content for your users. Possible special COVID instructions or anything else you would like your potential customers to know.
2. Identify keywords customers find locksmiths
What are the keywords that your customers might use to find your business? The most popular one is “locksmiths near me”. The second most popular is “care locksmiths near me”. There are quite a few more available to target but may differ based on your location and target customer base. At Lift My Rank, we can do all the hard lifting and already know what locksmith keywords to target. Click here to see our SEO for Locksmith page.
3. Review your content and optimize around your keywords.
You should follow Google’s E.E.A.T. methodology when doing SEO. The E stands for Expertise. Does your content provide enough valuable information for your clients? Does your content deserve to rank for your target keywords? Review your content and add more content if needed.
4. Start a blog.
This is a good way to continue to build on showing expertise to Google. Write about problems and solutions for your customers. If you can solve potential clients’ problems or answer questions that they may have before deciding on which locksmith to use, then Google will reward you with page one keyword rankings.
5. Write content for Guest Posting
The A in Google’s E.E.A.T. stands for Authority. Google determines who has authority by utilizing a type of popularity contest. When another website links to your website, that is a vote for you. The more votes. you have then the more popular you are and Google sees you as an authority site. Not all links are created equal and do not count these votes as equal. Getting links on other quality sites that are contextually the same as your content are the most valuable links you can have. Avoid link spam and private blog networks .
6. Submit your site to local directories, keep contact info consistent.
The last letter is the letter T which stands for Trust. A big part of the trust is that your contact information is consistent across local directory sites. There are about 30 high-value local directory sites that you should submit to.
7. Ask your customers to review your Google profile
Part of that Trust also has consistently good reviews. Don’t worry if you occasionally get a bad review. When you do get a bad review, reply in a respective way to address the problem addressed in the review.
8. Get involved in your community.
Be involved in your local business chapters. Or donate to a local school sports program. You could also sponsor local civic programs in your area. These links will help you with your authority as well as contribute to a good cause. Lift My Rank believes in supporting local businesses and local causes.
9. Keep your website updated with security updates.
The last factor in the Trust category is making sure your site is safe to use for your visitors. Nothing tells google to trust your site less, is if you have a virus on your site causing users problems and security issues. Make sure all updates to your website are completed in a timely manner. If you are using WordPress, keep your WordPress up to date as well as all the plugins you might be using. Every plugin could create a security hole in your website.
10. Create a lot of content.
I cannot stress this enough, “Content is King”. Google needs content to absorb and analyze to create a good user experience for its users. The more useful quality content you have on your site and linking to your site the better off. you will be.
Doing your own SEO can seem challenging. If you would like us to do a free audit and proposal to help you with the SEO, Create a free account.