Making local SEO work in Jacksonville

While the competition to be the top SEO firm in Jacksonville remains fierce, most local businesses won't need that level of SEO investment to come out on top for their keywords. A focus on the basic and essential aspects of your website may be all that is necessary to boost your organic search rankings and organic traffic from highly motivated potential customers.

Keys to Local SEO Success in Jacksonville

So you want more web traffic for your local business? The good news is that the basics are often good enough. Here are some of the classic keys for success when it comes to ranking through local SEO.

• Improve loading speed
• Fix or remove missing files and assets
• Register with Google Businesses
• Produce fresh, unique content
• Review existing content for updates

When it comes to the technical side of SEO, it is critical that web pages load quickly and without any missing files or 404 errors. Slow pages lead to high bounce rates and low user engagement, so even if it wasn't effecting your search engine result position (SERP) it is still effecting your conversion rates.

Visitors will appreciate the quick response of your server, and so will Google. If you can find a local web host or one nearby, you'll get even better speeds due to geographic proximity.

It's also important to verify your business with Google's business listings. This will help put you on the map, both literally and figuratively. Verified businesses are eligible to show up in Google's map results box - although you're not guaranteed a prominent listing just for existing.

And this brings us to the big secret that isn't really much of a secret: content is the most important part of any SEO campaign. Once the website is working well on the server side, the most critical step is the development of fresh and unique content that is structured so that users and search bots alike can discern exactly what it's all about. Pictures are good and video is better, but each post should have an absolute minimum of 300 words attached to explain what the other media is about.

500 words is better and 1,000 better still, but that doesn't mean to ramble on about irrelevant things or repeat yourself. Get to the point as much as possible while striving to be comprehensive. Stay on topic, but don't be afraid to branch out a little bit toward related concepts. Take advantage of internal linking opportunities and make sure all of those related posts and pages are connected through hyperlinks.

Then once your content is in place, don't forget about it! Facts become obsolete and details change - your content should also be updated to stay relevant even if it was published long ago. It's also important to ensure that existing content doesn't violate the standards for good content set out above: watch out for keyword stuffing, unnatural link profiles, and scraped content. These "shortcuts" can end up costing a lot more than they save, in the long run.

What's Missing? 

The obsession with backlinks. Don't get me wrong: backlinks are great and they're powerful, but most people who set out to "build" them just end up with junk links and/or unnatural link exchanges.

Editorial links are the strongest signal by far, and you can really only earn those with high quality content published with a regular and consistent frequency.

Based on my experience, a combination of technical SEO auditing and a commitment to new content is all it takes to dominate the local search results. So what are you waiting for? The traffic is out there, you just have to claim your share!

Don't bet on business as usual

With the state of Florida eager to reopen, many small business owners and sole proprietors are looking to get back to business as normal. Unfortunately, wanting it won't be enough to make it happen.

As posted previously, this attempt to move on beyond the pandemic is based largely on hope and hasn't fully addressed the underlying problem that has caused so much disruption so far.

Yes, we'd like to go out. Yes, we'd like to see our friends and acquaintances again.

But there's still an incredibly infectious virus that has a much higher fatality rate than most of the bugs that spread this quickly.

As it stands, we've successfully managed to slow down the pandemic. Early projections would've had every hospital in the country overflowing by now if we hadn't done anything.

But that doesn't mean we've done enough. The virus continues to spread and people are continuing to avoid unnecessary travel and social events. They'll continue to, too, until the virus is entirely stamped out.

So if you're trying to get your Jacksonville area business back to operation - what do you do?

It can be tempting to bet big on this coming reopening, but it might be a safer idea to bet on trying to survive the lull a little longer. We've got some time to position our SEO strategies for long term growth, so don't bet the farm on a short term return to normal!

Give us a call at Jacksonville SEO today! We're here to help your business maximize its online presence through a combination of search engine optimization, online marketing, social media, and conversion optimization. We look forward to helping you build a new normal - one that's even better than what came before!

Jacksonville begins to re-open

Many local companies in Jacksonville have been decimated by the coronavirus pandemic, and they're eager to open up shop and get back to business.

Unfortunately, there are also many indications that the spread of the virus has not been fully stopped, so any attempts at a resumption of economic activity may incidentally backfire and produce unintended effects.

The Hope

A best case scenario would look something like this:

• Business begins to reopen
• Social activity returns with maintained distancing and sanitation
• Customers and sales return to local Jacksonville businesses
• At-risk populations remain at home, safely

The goal here would be to slowly build up herd immunity while protecting the most vulnerable individuals (elderly, pre-existing conditions, etc...)

Infection rates would continue to climb - but slowly. Hospital admissions related to COVID-19 would continue to be treated, but the hope would be to keep the rates low enough so that the new patients do not overwhelm the medical system.

The Risk

A worst-case scenario could also develop:

• Business reopens, but a vast majority of customers stay home
• A false sense of victory diminishes social distancing and other precautions
• Infection is spread to at-risk populations through grocery stores and other essential retail
• Economic stagnation lasts for years until herd immunity or a vaccine is achieved

Rushing out to declare victory may very well be the worst option available right now. While six weeks of central quarantine with test & trace is enough to completely eliminate endemic infections, six weeks of casual social distancing and half-enforced stay at home orders hasn't done much but bend the curve.

If we extend the slowdown anyway, we may be on our way to the economic worst-case scenario. Is your business and SEO strategy ready for that? We are. Call us today to find out how Jacksonville SEO can help your business adapt to the challenges of the 21st century.