Two months ago I made the big move to relocate to a small town on the border between the US and Canada, a short distance from Michigan.
It was a chance for me to break from a hectic life in London where I’d spent the last 15 years working a less than enthralling job in an office 30 minutes commute from my home. My new life, afforded to me by a burgeoning internet business and freelance writing has meant that commuting on the crowded subway train and spending over eight hours a day in a mundane office is a thing of the past.
I now work from home and earn an income far exceeding what I made as a journalist in London with more and more opportunities coming my way every day. The secret to this life I’ve managed to carve for myself is both having an understanding girlfriend as well the ability to profit from search engine optimisation (SEO).
SEO is the secret to running any internet business and is a profitable undertaking in itself. It uses the complex algorithms of search engines, such as Google, to help promote any business across the internet.
The techniques for doing this can be insanely complicated but essential to grasp for any startup.
What makes things even more complicated is the importance of local SEO-whereby regional businesses aim to maximise their exposure on local search results.
As an entrepreneur, my immediate client-base is those closest to me, in particular those operating in southwest Ontario and across Michigan. Major regional cities like Grand Rapids have been a big source of income and, despite the global reach of the internet, targeting local SEO techniques, with correct use of localised keywords, has helped me expand my business at an healthy rate.
Here, Grand Rapids SEO agencies, such as Level Up, have helped transform my own digital marketing efforts as well as those of countless others.
The advantages of using local SEO are many and include the paucity of competition for major search terms. Most startups make the mistake of using SEO to drive broad traffic from across the internet, but often face fierce competition from businesses across the globe. That competition can be cut to a fraction by targeting your SEO efforts locally.
Focusing your internet business locally may appear counterintuitive but you’ll automatically have the advantage of trust from clients who know you are just a stone throws away. What’s more, you yourself will know the terrain of your local environment and be better able to serve a client’s needs.
Even though I currently live in a small town, major regional cities like Detroit and Grand Rapids are just a short distance away. Indeed, you’ll be able to find agencies plying Grand Rapids SEO services, even though it’s a relatively small city in the US.
Of course, by focusing on local SEO, you are no limited to marketing your business to just one small region. For any serious entrepreneur, this should just be a starting point. However, by starting local, you’ll have the ability to go national or even international when the time comes.
