How to get more website traffic? Local SEO is the answer for many. Beating local SEO small business competitors is simple, but can be time-consuming. Here are some tips for increasing your website traffic with these strategies:

Get incoming links to your website and citations that your competitors won’t make the effort to get.
Get authority links from locally relevant sites with the location in the domain. Local blogs, non-profits, review sites, university sites, are all good examples of the kind of sites we want links from. If there is a location in the domain, we want a link from there.

How to Get More Website Traffic with Local SEO

See if these are your answer to get more website traffic. Local SEO can build relationships as well as links to your site. Remember to comment on your experiences!

Local Blog Comments

Find local online communities and bloggers that are related to your industry that have your location in their domain name. No spamming just because a blog meets these criteria! The point is to get involved in local community discussions that you can make valuable contributions to. Of course, this is how to get more website traffic from exposure of your ideas to new audiences in addition to get links back to your website. Use both in-text links, when available, and links from your bio profile. Don’t worry if the blogs’ links are “dofollow” (meaning that it shares link juice). “Nofollow” links help build authority, too, your website’s and your own expert status in your field. Here’s some tips to find relevant blogs to comment on:

Make a list of “YOUR LOCATION” and “YOUR KEYWORDS” to target.
Use Google Blog Search and these example queries(create your own versions once you see how they work):
- blog “keyword” inurl:”YOUR LOCATION”
- inurl:blog “post a comment” -”comments closed” -”you must be logged in” “YOUR KEYWORD” “YOUR LOCATION”
- inurl:”YOUR LOCATION” “comment” -”comments closed” -”you must be logged in” “YOUR KEYWORD”
- Remember to adjust the queries with your own negative keyword. Like I live in a town called Katy. Any query I do that involves location usually requires that I add “-Perry” to avoid my search results being filled with references to the pop star.
Note a few blogs you should be reading and that you can comment with valuable insight on.
Create a Google alert for your useful query so you can be notified of any new blogs that become available.
When you leave comments, create links in the post back to your website home page, interior web pages, blog posts, and Google+ Business page using anchor text (the text of the hyperlink) related to your website’s keywords, when that feature is available.

Local Guest Blogging is How to Get More Website Traffic

Now that you found local blogs related to your business, use the same list of searches with “location” and “keywords” to identify local blogs that you can post articles on. Sharing your expertise is how to get more website traffic and keep them there! Target blogs that have a higher readership than yours and are on a domain with higher authority. Because you are also local, you can probably start relationships with the other bloggers in person. Reach out to them to see what types of topics would appeal to their readers. You will get exposure to readers and valuable links back to your website content. If you are having difficulty finding blogs that accept guest posts, try the ideas here or a version of these searches:

inurl:”YOUR LOCATION “YOUR KEYWORD” “guest post”
“YOUR KEYWORD” “write for us” – example: “foreign translation” “write for us”
“YOUR KEYWORD”” “guest article”
“YOUR KEYWORD” “become a contributor”
“YOUR KEYWORD” “guest *” inurl:blog
“YOUR INDUSTRY” intitle:expert interview

Note a few good guest post prospects and then contact them. If an email seems the most prudent first step, remember to comment on a particular blog post that you found interesting or helpful, be brief, state what you want, and provide a link to your blog. There are lots of resources about how and how not to pitch for a guest blog, so do your homework. Once they accept your offer, carefully review their requirement s and give them the best content you have…oh, and get those links (best way to get your links link you want them is to provide the html versus a text document, plus that saves them time).

When the blogger allows it, include your business Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) in the guest to boost the value of the post to your domain. By doing this, you get a citation which is becoming an increasingly important ranking factor.

Boost Collaboration with Bloggers

Trying to guest blog but not getting their attention? Especially when you can make connections in person, these tips can be powerful to build those relationships.

Offer to provide a discount (or something free) for the blogger’s readers. Use a promo code if you are an eCommerce business. If you are a brick-and-mortar, then have the readers mention the blog name.
Offer the blogger a free product or service to generate interest and links.
Offer a blogger a custom image such as an infographic, comic, graph, or photo related to their blog topic or readers’ interests. You’ll get their appreciation for your originality and helpfulness (they don’t have to hunt for an awesome image for their next post), plus you will get a link for attribution of the image.
Plan a contest and get bloggers involved. Maybe a video contest for the best sports fan targeting all local business bloggers or sports-related bloggers. There are many affordable options for running video contests these days and they are highly shareable in social media. It is a fun and engaging topic for bloggers to share with their readers.
See a problem on a blogger’s site? Learned a new tip that will help a blogger? Take the time to help a blogger fix a problem, do something new, or get more visibility for their blog. There is no guarantee, but you will likely be rewarded with a link and a mention of your business…and your expertise! If not, then you made a friend, who will likely help you one day.

For more ideas on how to get more website traffic with local SEO, check out this post on creative ways to build local SEO and your community at the same time.

What are your ideas for boosting your expert status and building the authority of your website domain? Comment below. Need help with implementing the advantages of local SEO for your small business? See more on local SEO. Then, give us a call!

SpringBrett said:

ReplyJanuary 18, 2013 at 4:16 pm

Thanks, You just made my day a little easier. My old method was too time-consuming, and I was getting fed up with it. Local SEO is very underrated.

Dorothea said:

ReplyJanuary 20, 2013 at 11:56 pm

Wanda, thank you for sharing these amazing tips and guidelines with us. Even though most blog comments will only result in nofollow links, I too believe they can be very valuable for a local SEO campaign. I’m glad you mentioned local blog comments on top of your list.

Mikhiel Hutchinson said:

ReplyFebruary 01, 2013 at 12:18 pm

Thanks for this helpful and informative post. I however don’t like to depend on SEO (specially google) entirely to increase traffic. There are many methods which I wanted to add are also helpful to get traffic since we are on the topic. Some of these include article marketing, video marketing, forum marketing, viral marketing, and social media marketing to name a few. If you are looking to know more about traffic and how to use these kinds of methods, I discuss this on my site. Thanks again for this content.

Wanda | SEO Buzz Internet Marketing said:
ReplyFebruary 01, 2013 at 1:39 pm

Thanks for dropping by, Mikhiel. I completely agree with you that it takes more than SEO. For some niches, local SEO is very powerful and all that is required to get meet business goals, but that is rare, so it is good to have someone in your corner who has the full arsenal of internet marketing strategies. Your website is informative and I hope my readers pop over to see your recommendations. Thanks for commenting!

Mikhiel Hutchinson said:
ReplyFebruary 01, 2013 at 4:42 pm

Thank you for your feedback. One more thing I thought would be helpful to mention as an afterthought. The beauty of the methods which I have discussed and which you have is that everything fits and works together in synergy. What I mean is you will also have backlinks because of these methods in most cases which then also helps your SEO strategy as well by pushing up your search engine ranking especially when done from high PR sites. Hopefully this also helps your readers. I look forward to having more enlightening discussions with you.

shaun said:

ReplyFebruary 06, 2013 at 6:55 am

A large and interesting list, I like your ideas regarding helping the community in various social networks – I also have over 2000 followers on twitter that I try help and guide towards my website. I have also been trying out a free site called http://www.boostasite .com that gives you free advertising. Give it a try!

Brian said:

ReplyFebruary 07, 2013 at 1:00 am

These are some very powerful ideas, we use a lot of these strategies for our clients to get the number one rankings as well. Thanks for the great content!

Danny said:

ReplyFebruary 08, 2013 at 6:31 am

Some helpful tips for boosting traffic numbers, Wanda.

Definitely, Blog commenting, Guest Blogging, Forum engagement, social sites, etc, can be very helpful in ” Getting our site and name(brand) out there!

Without a doubt, the more we expand and diversify our online engagement, the greater the visitor flow to our sites shall be…..

SE traffic can be a solid foundation to build on, once we get the knack of understanding how to rank well for high quality Keywords(CPC – Volume) ….though, relying on Search engines alone leaves us vulnerable to any dramatic ranking shifts……often after Google Algorithm updates and refreshes….

So for me personally, I think it’s better to have a healthy balance of SE traffic and direct / referrer traffic…..

Also, your tips at the bottom of the post ” Boost Collaboration” make a lot of sense!

manish said:

ReplyFebruary 13, 2013 at 2:22 am

Awesome strategies and tips. Thanks for the post!

Patrick Tasner said:

ReplyFebruary 13, 2013 at 3:03 pm

Great ideas here. I am starting to using guest blogging strategy and presently I am into establishing good relationship with other bloggers.

Lancelot Ferrer said:

ReplyApril 03, 2013 at 6:05 am

Agree, establishing good relationship with fellow bloggers/buzz makers will help you get more traffic. Additional tips when looking for sites that accepts guest posting, make sure that these sites are true websites made for people and have a higher standards when approaching sites i.e., at least PR2, Domain and Page Authority of Minimum 30.

Wanda Anglin said:
ReplyApril 03, 2013 at 12:00 pm

Very good points, Lancelot. It seems to be increasingly important to only associate with high quality sites.