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Social Media Usage Statistics For Digital Marketers In 2022

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Social Media Usage Statistics For Digital Marketers In 2022

One component of a successful digital marketing strategy is your social media presence.

If you need numbers to prove the value of social media marketing, you’ve come to the right place. There are now 4.55 billion active social media users globally, but that number is 9.9% higher than last year.

That means 400 million new people have signed up for at least one social media account within the last year.

Worldwide, the top social networks are Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Instagram.

Continue reading to discover more reasons your business needs social media marketing.

How Many People Use Social Media Each Month?

As of 2021, 84% of the US population use at least one social media network.

Worldwide, the active number of social media users is 57.6% of the total population. That means over half of the world regularly uses at least one social media network once a month.

The top seven social networks have over 1 billion monthly active users.

Facebook leads the list of most used social networks, followed by YouTube, and then the rest of the metaverse – WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger.

Let’s take a closer look at the numbers.

Average Amount of Monthly Users in 2021

The following are the statistics for monthly users of the top 15 social media apps globally in 2021:

  1. Facebook – 2.89 billion
  2.  YouTube – 2.29 billion
  3.  WhatsApp – 2.00 billion
  4.  Instagram – 1.39 billion
  5. Facebook Messenger – 1.30 billion
  6.  WeChat (Weixin) – 1.25 billion
  7.  TikTok (Douyin) – 1 billion
  8. LinkedIn – 800 million*
  9. QQ – 591 million
  10. Sina Weibo – 566million
  11.  Telegram – 550 million
  12.  Snapchat – 538 million
  13. Kuaishou – 506 million
  14. Twitter – 463 million
  15.  Pinterest – 454 million

* Total members – number of monthly active users listed.

In the U.S., the top social media platforms used by a percentage of adults include the following:

  1. YouTube – 81%
  2. Facebook – 69%
  3. Instagram – 40%
  4. Pinterest – 31%
  5. LinkedIn – 28%
  6. Snapchat – 25%
  7. Twitter – 23%
  8. WhatsApp – 23%
  9. TikTok – 21%
  10. Reddit – 18%
  11. Nextdoor – 13%

Platform-Specific Statistics

Check out this list of 2021’s social media industry leaders and some of their best performance statistics.

1. Facebook

Facebook is at the top of this list for a reason. Not only did they knock the competition out of the park with 2.89+ billion users each month, but 69% of U.S. adults have used Facebook at least once in the past year.

The Facebook statistics for 2021 tell a story where many chapters focus on the younger generations.

Over 53% of Facebook users across the globe are in the 18-34 age group, with 25-34 year-olds leading at 31.5% and 18-24 year-olds at 22.7%.

Businesses also benefit greatly from Facebook. Over 200 million businesses use Facebook to reach their customers.

It’s not a surprise when you see that the average Facebook user clicks approximately 12 ads per month.

If you’re looking for more engagement for your brand, definitely try Facebook.

2. YouTube

Google may be the leading search engine, but YouTube is the second most popular search engine and website globally.

People can’t stop watching YouTube. In the United States, 62% of YouTube users visit YouTube daily. On a monthly basis, over 2 billion logged-in users watch an astounding 1 billion hours of video daily.

Each minute, YouTube creators upload over 500 hours of content. That’s not only a lot of content but a lot of commercials and business promotions.

What advertisers will be happy to hear is that YouTube ads work, reaching 2.29 billion YouTube users.

3. Instagram

Instagram now connects over 1 billion users who want to share and create.

People also like interacting with businesses on Instagram. Over 200 million businesses receive visits from Instagram users daily. You can see why many companies are now turning to Instagram to promote their brand.

According to Instagram, 90% of its users follow a brand and 87% take action when they see a product.

What’s also interesting are the Instagram statistics on how people act when they shop. For example, 70% of shoppers look to Instagram for their next purchase, and over 130 million Instagram users tap on shopping posts monthly.

Furthermore, 86% of Instagram users would be likely to check out a product because it was shareworthy, and 50% of shoppers have visited a website after seeing a product in Instagram Stories.

4. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is worldwide. The professional network has over 800 million users from over 200 countries. Known for being a great way to market yourself professionally and make business connections, the site has a long reach.

In a survey about digital trust, U.S. consumers rated LinkedIn as the platform most likely to protect their privacy and data.

According to Statista, 59.2% of LinkedIn users fall into the 25-34 year-old age group, with 56.6% of users are male.

LinkedIn is also good for B2B businesses. According to a survey conducted by LinkedIn, they were the number 1 lead generation platform.

5. Pinterest

Pinterest isn’t just for planning your wedding or saving 10 million recipes you’ll never cook. It’s for just about everything you can think of, which is part of why people use the site.

Over 459 million people use Pinterest for inspiration, and 80% of weekly Pinterest users have discovered a new brand or product while perusing the network’s feed.

And Pinterest has been doing quite well. Incredibly, the company’s 2021 Q3 revenue grew 43% year to year.

Pinterest users generally have a purpose, however. Compared to everyone else, Pinterest blows the competition away when it comes to intent. That’s because 55% of its users get on the app specifically to search for products.

6. TikTok

With 1 billion monthly active users, where 60% of them are 18-34 years old, you cannot deny TikTok has a place in the marketing mix for many businesses.

The top categories, based on hashtag views, include entertainment, dance, fitness/sport, home renovation/DIY, beauty, and fashion. Brands that can create content that fits in one of these categories will likely increase their visibility with TikTok audiences.

How important is TikTok to ecommerce? According to an Adweek & Morning Consult survey, 15% of adults and 36% of Gen Z TikTok users have made a purchase based off of content seen on TikTok.

Get started with TikTok content with data-driven advice from their platform.

  • Videos that take up the full screen (9:16 ratio) see a 60% lift in impressions.
  • Videos with closed captioning or text on screen see a 55.7% lift in impressions.
  • Videos with summary/end card information see a 47.3% lift in impressions.

7. Snapchat

Snapchat’s potential ad audience and user base of 538 million make it a great platform for brands – especially brands marketing to 13-24 year-olds who make up over 58% of Snapchat’s user base.

According to Snapchat, 306 million people use the platform daily, spending an average of 30 minutes on the network. Over 210 million snaps were being created each day as of 2019.

Snapchat advertising is growing. In 2021 Q3, Snapchat revenue surpassed 1 billion U.S. dollars.

Conclusion

As we move into 2022, we will see emergence of new trends, features, and much more from social media.

Defined by an ability to change with the times, connect people, and engage, these social media titans will likely continue to drive the market.

The statistics don’t lie: Social media is here, and it’s here to stay.

More Resources:


Featured image: Anna Frajtova/Shutterstock




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I Got 129.7% More Traffic With Related Keywords

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I Got 129.7% More Traffic With Related Keywords

A few weeks ago, I optimized one of my blog posts for related keywords. Today, it gets an estimated 2,300 more monthly organic visits:

In this post, I’ll show you how I found and optimized my post for these related keywords.

Related keywords are words and phrases closely linked to your main keyword. There are many ways to find them. You can even just ask ChatGPT.

ChatGPT can find related keywords... but I wouldn't recommend using it for thisChatGPT can find related keywords... but I wouldn't recommend using it for this

But here’s the thing: These keywords aren’t useful for optimizing content.

If more traffic is your goal, you need to find keywords that represent subtopics—not just any related ones.

Think of it like this: you improve a recipe by adding the right ingredients, not everything in your fridge!

Not all related keywords are created equal when it comes to optimizationNot all related keywords are created equal when it comes to optimization

Below are two methods for finding the right related keywords (including the one I used):

Method 1. Use content optimization tools

Content optimization tools look for keywords on other top-ranking pages but not yours. They usually then recommend adding these keywords to your content a certain number of times.

Example recommendation from a content optimization toolExample recommendation from a content optimization tool

These tools can be useful if you take their recommendations with a pinch of salt, as some of them can lead you astray.

For example, this tool recommends that I add six mentions of the phrase “favorite features” to our keyword research guide.

Example of how these tools can lead you astrayExample of how these tools can lead you astray

Does that seem like an important related keyword to you? It certainly doesn’t to me!

They also usually have a content score that increases as you add the recommended related keywords. This can trick you into believing that something is important when it probably isn’t—especially as content scores have a weak correlation with rankings.

From our study on content score ranking correlationsFrom our study on content score ranking correlations

My advice? If you’re going to use these tools, apply common sense and look for recommendations that seem to represent important subtopics.

For example, when I analyze our content audit guide, it suggests adding quite a few keywords related to content quality.

This is something we should definitely improve!This is something we should definitely improve!

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that this is an extremely important consideration for a content audit—yet our guide mentions nothing about it.

How silly of us :(How silly of us :(

This is a huge oversight and definitely a batch of related keywords worth optimizing for.

Try the beta version of our new AI Content Helper!

Instead of counting terms that you need to include in your content, Content Helper uses AI to identify the core topics for your target keywords and scores your content (as well as your competitors) against those topics as you write it. In effect, it groups related keywords by subtopic, making it easier to optimize for the broader picture. 

Our new AI Content HelperOur new AI Content Helper

For example, it looks like my post doesn’t cover Google Business Profile optimization too well. This is something it might be worth going into more detail about.

Example subtopic recommendationExample subtopic recommendation

Method 2. Do a keyword gap analysis (this is the method I used!)

Keyword gaps are when competitors rank for keywords you don’t. If you do this analysis at the page level, it’ll uncover related keywords—some of which will usually represent subtopics.

If possible, I recommend doing this for pages that already rank on the first page for their main target keyword. These pages are doing well already and likely just need a bit of a push to rank high and for more related keywords. You can find these in Site Explorer:

  1. Enter your domain
  2. Go to the Organic Keywords report
  3. Filter for positions 2-10
  4. Look for the main keywords you’re targeting
How to find the best pages to optimize for related keywordsHow to find the best pages to optimize for related keywords

Once you have a few contenders, here’s how to do a keyword gap analysis:

a) Find competitors who are beating you

In the Organic Keywords report, hit the SERP dropdown next to the keyword to see the current top-ranking pages. Look for similar pages that are getting more traffic than yours and have fewer referring domains.

For example, our page ranks #10 for “local SEO,” has 909 referring domains, and gets an estimated 813 monthly visits:

Estimated traffic and referring domain stats for our pageEstimated traffic and referring domain stats for our page

All of these competing pages get more traffic with fewer backlinks:

Competitors with fewer links getting more trafficCompetitors with fewer links getting more traffic

Sidenote.

I’m going to exclude the page from Moz going forward as it’s a blog category page. That’s very different to ours so it’s probably not worth including in our analysis.

b) Send them to the content gap tool

Hit the check boxes next to your competitors, then click “Open In” and choose Content gap.

How to open pages in Content GapHow to open pages in Content Gap

By default, this will show you keywords where one or more competitors rank in the top 10, but you don’t rank anywhere in the top 100.

Content Gap report in AhrefsContent Gap report in Ahrefs

I recommend changing this so it shows all keywords competitors rank for, even if you also rank for them. This is because you may still be able to better optimize for related keywords you already rank for.

I recommend toggling this to "Any"I recommend toggling this to "Any"

I also recommend turning the “Main results only” filter on to exclude rankings in sitelinks and other SERP features:

... And toggle this on!... And toggle this on!

c) Look for related keywords worth optimizing for

This is where common sense comes into play. Your task is to scan the list for related keywords that could represent important subtopics.

For example, keywords like these aren’t particularly useful because they’re just different ways of searching for the main topic of local SEO:

These are just different ways of searching for the same thing, not "related keywords"These are just different ways of searching for the same thing, not "related keywords"

But a related keyword like “what is local SEO” is useful because it represents a subtopic searchers are looking for:

If this process feels too much like trying to find a needle in a haystack, try exporting the full list of keywords, pasting them into Keywords Explorer, and going to the “Cluster by terms” report. As the name suggests, this groups keywords into clusters by common terms:

Use term clustering to spot trendsUse term clustering to spot trends

This is useful because it can highlight common themes among related keywords and helps you to spot broader gaps.

For example, when I was looking for related keywords for our SEO pricing guide (more on this later!), I saw 17 related keywords containing the term “month”:

Term clustering reveals that lots of people are searching for monthly SEO pricing in different waysTerm clustering reveals that lots of people are searching for monthly SEO pricing in different ways

Upon checking the keywords, I noticed that they’re all ways of searching for how much SEO costs per month:

Term clustering reveals that lots of people are searching for monthly SEO pricing in different waysTerm clustering reveals that lots of people are searching for monthly SEO pricing in different ways

This is an easy batch of related keywords to optimize for. All I need to do is answer that question in the post.

If you’re still struggling to spot good related keywords, look for ones sending competing pages way more traffic than you. This usually happens because competitors’ pages are better optimized for those terms.

You can spot these in the content gap report by comparing the traffic columns.

For example, every competing page is getting more traffic than us for the keyword “how much does SEO cost”—and Forbes is getting over 300 more visits!

Competing pages beating us on traffic!Competing pages beating us on traffic!

Now you have a bunch of related keywords, what should you do with them?

This is a nuanced process, so I’m going to show you exactly how I did it for our local SEO guide. Its estimated organic traffic grew by 135% after my optimizations for related keywords:

Results of related keyword optimization: 129.7% more trafficResults of related keyword optimization: 129.7% more traffic

Sidenote.

Google kindly rolled out a Core update the day after I did these optimizations, so there’s always a chance the traffic increase is unrelated. That said, traffic to our blog as a whole stayed pretty consistent after the update, while this post’s traffic grew massively. I’m pretty sure the related keyword optimization is what caused this.

Here are the related keywords I optimized it for and how:

Related keyword 1: “What is local SEO”

Every competing page was getting significantly more traffic than us for this keyword (and ranking significantly higher). One page was even getting an estimated 457 more visits than ours per month:

Competitors were getting significantly more traffic than us for this keywordCompetitors were getting significantly more traffic than us for this keyword

People were also searching for this in a bunch of different ways:

People are searching for the subtopic in a bunch of different ways tooPeople are searching for the subtopic in a bunch of different ways too

My theory on why we weren’t performing well for this? Although we did have a definition on the page, it wasn’t great. It was also buried under a H3 with a lot of fluff to read before you get to it.

Our guide is full of fluff before getting to what people want to know!Our guide is full of fluff before getting to what people want to know!

I tried to solve this by getting rid of the fluff, improving the definition (with a little help from ChatGPT), and moving it under a H2.

Solution = remove the fluff!Solution = remove the fluff!

Result? The page jumped multiple positions for the keyword “what is local SEO” and a few other similar related keywords:

Result = higher rankings for this keyword and variationsResult = higher rankings for this keyword and variations

Related keyword 2: Local SEO strategy

Once again, all competing pages were getting more traffic than ours from this keyword.

I feel like the issue here may be that there’s no mention of “strategy” in our post, whereas competitors mention it multiple times.

Our post doesn't mention "strategy"!Our post doesn't mention "strategy"!

To solve this, I added a short section about local SEO strategy.

The section I added to the postThe section I added to the post

I also asked ChatGPT to add “strategy” to the definition of local SEO. (I’m probably clutching at straws with this one, but it reads nicely with the addition, so… why not?)

Getting ChatGPT to help ;)Getting ChatGPT to help ;)

Result? The page jumped seven positions from the bottom of page two to page one for the related keyword:

Result = higher rankingsResult = higher rankings

Related keyword 3: “How to do local SEO”

Most of the competing pages were getting more traffic than us for this keyword—albeit not a lot.

However, I also noticed Google shows this keyword in the “things to know” section when you search for local SEO—so it seems pretty important.

Google seems to indicate the importance of this subtopicGoogle seems to indicate the importance of this subtopic

I’d also imagine that anyone searching for local SEO wants to know how to do it.

Unfortunately, although our guide does show you how to do local SEO, it’s kind of buried in a bunch of uninspiring chapters. There’s no obvious “how to do it” subheading for readers (or Google) to skim, so you have to read between the lines to figure out the “how.”

Again, the information is unnecessarily buried in our guideAgain, the information is unnecessarily buried in our guide

In an attempt to solve this, I restructured the content into steps and put it under a new H2 titled “How to do local SEO”:

This looks much better after restructuring!This looks much better after restructuring!

Result? Position #7 → #4

Result = higher rankingsResult = higher rankings

No. Nothing in SEO is guaranteed, and this is no different.

In fact, I optimized our SEO pricing guide for related keywords on the same day, and—although traffic did improve—it only improved by around 23%:

23% traffic improvement to our SEO pricing guide23% traffic improvement to our SEO pricing guide

Sidenote.

You might have noticed the results were a bit delayed here. I think this is because the keywords the post ranks for aren’t so popular, so they’re not updated as often in Ahrefs.

For full transparency, here’s every related keyword I optimized the post for and the results:

Related keyword 1: “How much does SEO cost”

Each competing page got more traffic than ours from this keyword, with one getting an estimated 317 more monthly visits:

When I clustered the keywords by terms in Keywords Explorer, I also saw ~70 keywords containing the word “much” (this was around 19% of all keywords in the Content Gap report!):

Lots of searches for keywords containing "much"Lots of searches for keywords containing "much"

These were all different ways of searching for how much SEO costs:

Examples of keywords containing "much"Examples of keywords containing "much"

The issue here appears to be that although we do answer the question on the page, it’s quite buried. There’s no obvious subheading with the answer below it, making it hard for searchers (and possibly Google) to skim and find what they’re looking for:

To solve this, I added a H2 titled “How much does SEO cost?” and added a direct answer below.

Section I added to the postSection I added to the post

Result? No change in rankings for the related keyword itself, but the page did win a few snippets for longer-tail variations thanks to the copy I added:

Example featured snippet won thanks to the new sectionExample featured snippet won thanks to the new section

Related keyword 2: “SEO cost per month”

Nearly all competing pages were getting more traffic than us for this keyword, with one getting an estimated 72 monthly visits more than more us.

The term clustering report in Keywords Explorer also showed that people are searching for the monthly cost of SEO in different ways:

Lots of searches for keywords containing "month"Lots of searches for keywords containing "month"

This is not the case for hourly or retainer pricing; there are virtually no searches for this.

I think we’re not ranking for this because we haven’t prioritized this information on the page. The first subheading is all about hourly pricing, which nobody cares about. Monthly pricing data is buried below that.

Example of me burying important information yet again :(Example of me burying important information yet again :(

To fix this, I moved the data on monthly pricing further up the page and wrote a more descriptive subheading (“Monthly retainer pricing” →“Monthly retainer pricing: How much does SEO cost per month?”).

I also changed the key takeaways in the intro to focus more on monthly pricing, as this is clearly what people care about. Plus, I simplified it and made it more prominent so searchers can find the information they’re actually looking for faster.

How I improved the introHow I improved the intro

Result? The page won the featured snippet for this related keyword and a few other variations:

Result = many snippets wonResult = many snippets won

Related keyword 3: “Local SEO pricing”

I found this one in the term clustering report in Keywords Explorer, as 16 keywords contained the term “local.”

Lots of people are searching for local SEO pricing in various waysLots of people are searching for local SEO pricing in various ways

Upon further inspection, I realized these were all different ways of searching for the cost of local SEO services.

Examples of how people are searchingExamples of how people are searching

I think the problem here is although our post has some data on local SEO pricing, it doesn’t have the snappy figure searchers are likely looking for. Plus, even the information we did have was buried deep on the page.

So… I actually pulled new statistics from the data we collected for the post, then put them under a new H3 titled “How much does local SEO cost?”

New section I addedNew section I added

Result? Small but notable improvements for this keyword and a few other variations:

Results = improved rankings across many related keywordsResults = improved rankings across many related keywords

Related keyword 4: “How much does SEO cost for a small business”

I saw that one competing page was getting an estimated 105 more monthly organic visits than us from this term.

When clustering by terms in Keywords Explorer, I also saw a cluster of nine keywords containing the word “small.” These were all different ways of searching for small business SEO pricing:

Lots of people searching for small business SEO pricing in various waysLots of people searching for small business SEO pricing in various ways

Once again, the issue here is clear: the information people are looking for isn’t on the page. There’s not even a mention of small businesses.

Our post mentions nothing about this :( Our post mentions nothing about this :(

This is good as it means the solution is simple: add an answer to the page. I did this and put it under a new H3 titled “How much does SEO cost for small businesses?”

New section I addedNew section I added

Result? #15 → #5 for this related keyword, and notable improvements for a few other variations:

Results = improved rankings for many related keywordsResults = improved rankings for many related keywords

Related keyword 5: “SEO pricing models”

This related keyword probably isn’t that important, but I spotted it looking through the Content gap report and thought it’d be pretty easy to optimize for.

All I did was create a new H2 titled “SEO pricing models: a deeper breakdown of costs.” I then briefly explained the three common pricing models under this and re-jigged and nested the rest of the content from the page under there.

New section I added, with existing content nested withinNew section I added, with existing content nested within

Result? #5 → #1:

Result = higher rankingsResult = higher rankings

Final thoughts

Related keyword optimization isn’t about shoehorning a bunch of keyword variations into your content. Google is smart enough to know that things like “SEO” and “search engine optimization” mean the same thing.

Instead, look for keywords that represent subtopics and make sure you’re covering them well. This might involve adding a new section or reformatting an existing section for more clarity.

This is easy to do. It took me around 2-3 hours per page.

Got questions? Ping me on X or LinkedIn.



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Leverage Search Intent & Boost Your Visibility With These Expert SEO Strategies

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Leverage Search Intent & Boost Your Visibility With These Expert SEO Strategies

Struggling to rank for your target keywords? You’re not alone.

The SEO landscape is more complex than ever, with search intent evolving and SERP features constantly changing.

So, how do you make sure your content aligns with Google’s evolving expectations?

Check out our webinar on September 25, 2024: “Navigating SERP Complexity: How to Leverage Search Intent for SEO.”

Tom Capper of STAT will discuss the role of search intent in SEO and how to use it to climb in the right SERPs for your brand.

Why This Webinar Is A Must-Attend Event

Ranking isn’t just about keywords anymore—it’s about understanding the intent behind each search.

We’ll cover:

  1. How intent is nuanced, and many keywords can support multiple intents.
  2. Why the same keyword can have a different intent depending where it was searched from, and on what device.
  3. The differences in SERP features depending on intent, and how this impacts your content strategy.

Expert Insights From Tom Capper

Leading this session is Tom Capper from STAT Search Analytics. 

Capper will dive deep into searcher motivations using first-party research data and provide actionable insights to help you improve your site’s organic visibility.

Reserve your spot and find out more about how these insights can impact your ranking.

Who Should Attend?

This webinar is perfect for:

  • SEO professionals looking to take their strategies to the next level
  • Content managers and strategists wanting to increase the effectiveness of their work
  • Enterprise professionals and digital marketers looking to blend branding, marketing, and SEO for a unified customer experience
  • Anyone interested in search results and consumer behavior

Live Q&A: Get Your Questions Answered

Following the presentation, Tom will host a live Q&A session. 

This is your chance to clarify misconceptions surrounding the intersection of content, search intent, and the SERPs and get expert advice on optimizing your strategies.

Don’t Miss Out!

Understanding search intent is critical to staying competitive in SEO. Reserve your spot today to ensure you’re not left behind.

Can’t attend live? Sign up anyway for the recording.

Get ready to unlock new SEO opportunities and boost your rankings. See you there!

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How to Manage Local SEO for Businesses with Multiple Locations

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How to Optimize Local SEO for Multiple Locations

As your business grows, the idea of expanding to multiple locations and tapping into new markets eventually becomes a possibility. And getting to this point can be exciting for business owners– but it’s also a complex process that involves the application of different strategies, especially when it comes to your SEO.

Managing SEO for multiple locations is tricky. You will want each location to show up in local searches and catch the attention of potential customers in its specific area. And this is where optimizing local SEO for multiple locations comes into play.

Understanding the Importance of Multi-Location SEO

Beyond brand consistency and quality products and/or services (which are always important), you have to consider how your new business branches can be found by an increasingly digital consumer market. 

As an SEO expert, I’ve seen firsthand how important a well-crafted multi-location SEO strategy is for businesses, becoming the key to making sure that each location can attract local customers through organic search. 

Multi-location SEO is more than just search engine ranking improvements. It is about connecting with local audiences on a deeper level – ensuring that your business is visible to potential customers exactly when they are searching for services or products in their area. 

  • Improve local search visibility. Optimizing each business location individually with relevant keywords can guarantee that your stores appear at the top of local search results – making it easier for potential customers in specific areas to find and visit your locations.
  • Target qualified local audiences. Customizing multi-location SEO strategies to meet the specific needs and search behaviors of local customers can help businesses attract highly relevant and engaged customers, which may then lead to higher engagement and better conversion rates.
  • Improved search rankings. Earning backlinks from local websites enhances the authority and relevance of each location, boosting your search engine rankings. 
  • Competitive advantage. A well-optimized multi-location SEO strategy sets your business apart from your competitors who may not be as focused on local SEO, giving you an edge in attracting local customers. 
  • More in-store foot traffic. Increased local visibility translates to more people discovering your business’ physical locations, driving more foot traffic, which eventually convert into more sales. 

Create Separate Pages for Each Location

Instead of putting together and stuffing all the necessary information of your business onto a single page, separate pages allow you to highlight specific details unique to each location – from local addresses, contact information, down to the services and offerings available at each site.

While creating separate pages, it is important to:

  • Ensure that all these pages are hosted on a single domain to consolidate your SEO efforts and boost rankings as a whole.
  • Embed a Google Map for each location to enhance local visibility, user convenience, and relevance for local searches. 
  • Target geotagged keywords and mention the specific city or area on each page to establish your business’ presence across multiple locations. 
  • Include complete contact details and create location-specific content to help each location rank well in search results and drive more local traffic and engagement.
  • Make sure that each of the pages have unique, optimized content, and not identical copies. Avoid simply changing just the city and state names on each page to prevent duplicate content penalties, and ensure a more targeted user experience. 
  • Add photos and videos to give users a better feel for each location.

Precise and localized information for each of the pages you will be creating for multiple business locations can help potential customers quickly find what they need, creating a richer and more engaging user experience. This shall improve your chances of ranking highly in search results as well. 

Optimize Google My Business Listings

Each location of your business should have their own Google Business Profiles complete with accurate details – from address details, business hours, contact information, to the correct website URLs for specific business locations. This helps control how your business is displayed on both Google and Google Maps.

By the time you have created variations of GMB profiles customized to each business location, optimizing each of them follows. This involves uploading high-quality photos and videos, creating posts and publishing updates consistently, and managing and responding to reviews actively. 

Of course, it is important that you encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews – and respond to it. This not only resolves issues, but builds trust among users too. It can even help boost local rankings significantly. 

Keeping Google My Business listings detailed, up-to-date, and packed with positive reviews, you promote your business not only for potential customers to find and choose you, but also signals Google that each location is active and trustworthy – which further leads to higher visibility and more exposure in the search results. 

Ensure Consistency in NAP Across All Listings

Consistency is key—ensure your business name, address, and phone number (NAP)  are uniform across all listings. With same business names, it may signal Google that these locations belong to the same business, while the address and phone number will let them know they are simply different branches.

The more accurate your information is across the web, the higher Google’s trust in its accuracy, making it more likely for you to earn a spot in the search results. 

Create Local Business Schema

Local business schema, a type of structured data markup, is a powerful strategy for optimizing local SEO, particularly for businesses with multiple locations. Schema markup is a further addition to your location pages that allows you to describe your business more accurately to search engines as you provide them with detailed information. 

This makes it easier for search engines to understand and display your business in relevant search results. 

Gather Customer Reviews

Reviews are successful indicators of effective business strategies, providing potential customers with genuine, unbiased insights into your business. They influence customer perceptions while playing a role in how Google ranks your business in local search results. Reviews are also great social proof because people generally trust what other customers have to say about your business more than the information that we provide on the listings.

It is then important that you make review collection part of your business practices in optimizing local SEO for multiple locations by encouraging satisfied customers to provide feedback, not just on your GMB profiles, but to other review platforms too.

How to Get Positive Customer Reviews

Getting positive feedback from customers may be tricky, but it is an effective strategy for boosting both your business’ reputation and local SEO performance. Reviews like these will ensure that you stand out in local search results while attracting a steady stream of new customers.

  1. Ask for reviews, especially right after a positive experience. Do not hesitate to ask satisfied customers to leave reviews by asking them directly after a purchase or service. 
  2. Let customers know how easy leaving reviews is. Simplify the review process by providing direct links to your Google My Business, and other review sites that your business is in. QR codes on thank you pages, receipts, or in-store displays can also be effective.
  3. Respond to reviews. May they be positive or negative customer feedback, make sure to respond professionally. This will show that you value their insights and opinions as much, and may even establish relationships with them. When these customers see that you are taking the time to interact with them, they will feel valued and appreciated.
  4. Highlight positive reviews on your website. Showcase the customer reviews on your website, especially for each location. This can further boost your local SEO, and may even encourage other satisfied customers to share their experiences as well.

How to Deal with Negative Reviews

Negative reviews cannot be avoided. Yes, they can be challenging, but they also present opportunities to make improvements on your business, and even demonstrate responsiveness to customer feedback. 

  1. Reply to negative reviews as quickly as possible. Engaging promptly demonstrates a proactive approach to customer feedback and highlights your commitment to resolving issues. This also plays a key role in preserving the reputation of your business, fostering trust with your customers, and signals to search engines that your business values and prioritizes customer relations.
  2. Maintain professionalism. Always respond to customer feedback in a calm, polite, and professional manner, regardless of the tone of the review. Avoid becoming defensive or confrontational, since it may discourage potential customers. Then, from here, address the issue raised by thinking and providing a solution.
  3. Acknowledge the issue. Always begin your response by acknowledging and recognizing the customer’s concern, and expressing genuine empathy. This helps validate their feelings and show them that you actually mind. Do not forget to offer a sincere apology for any inconvenience or difficulty they have encountered as well, regardless of who was at fault.
  4. Encourage positive reviews. Even with negative reviews, continue to encourage satisfied customers to share their positive experiences. Increasing the volume of this positive feedback can help in enhancing your overall rating. And the more positive reviews you get, the less impact any individual negative review will have.

Collect as many testimonials as you can, and respond to both positive and negative ones. Actively doing so shows that you value customer feedback, and are committed to excellent service – further strengthening your local SEO efforts too.

Earn Backlinks from Local Websites

Link building remains to be an important strategy for optimizing local SEO across multiple locations. Backlinks act as endorsements from reputable sources that boost business’ visibility, relevance, and authority in local search results – all of which are important ranking factors. 

Focus on getting listed in local directories and citations. Create listings for each business location, keeping each information complete and accurate, to help establish your local presence within the area. You may also reach out to local bloggers for guest posting opportunities, sponsor community events, or engage with local publications by sharing newsworthy updates about your business. 

Backlinks from local websites drive targeted traffic from potential customers who are geographically close to your locations, increasing the chances of conversions. This local relevance is particularly important for businesses in multiple locations, as it ensures each site gains visibility in its respective area. 

Link Your Social Media

Aside from separate web pages, your different business locations also need their own social media profiles. Actively maintaining these pages can boost local SEO through location-specific content, engagement with local audiences. These profiles will also enable you to run location-targeted ads to reach potential customers in each area. Once you have this set up, remember to link your social profiles to your location pages to increase relevance.

Look at Local Competition

Want to know what’s working? Look at the top-ranking businesses in your area. Use tools like SE Ranking, Woorank, and the like to see what strategies they’re using to rank well in local search. This should give you things like content ideas, backlink profiles, citations, reviews, and other opportunities you can apply to your own location pages.

Key Takeaway

Optimizing local SEO for multiple locations really takes a lot of work – a demanding but rewarding process. If we take this approach with these strategies, it will not only ensure that each location ranks well in the appropriate searches but also build a strong digital footprint for your business. The result is a stronger connection with local customers, increased foot traffic, and ultimately, greater business success.

Implementing this multi-location SEO strategy may actually sound like a tricky approach to expand your customer base and drive growth to your business in the online market. But with these strategies that I have laid out, you can tailor your SEO efforts to suit the multiple locations of your business without spreading your resources too thin.

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