Local SEO for Your Spa or Salon: How to Get More Leads from Local Organic Searches

A large part of your optimization strategy will rely on local SEO. Today, more people than ever are using their phones to search for local businesses while they’re out and about. That means that if you want to get found, you’ve got to put in the work. A proper local SEO strategy will ensure that you can get higher rankings and better leads without having to pay for all of your advertising and marketing efforts. 

As a salon or spa, you’re in the business of service. Therefore, part of building your local reputation could come from linking up with other related service businesses in the area, creating referral programs, and so forth. 

Keyword research is important, but not all-encompassing 

When most people think of SEO, they think of keywords. You will need to optimize your content with local keywords by researching what’s popular, what searches people are performing, and how your competition is ranking. However, today’s search engine optimization is about a lot more than just having the right words in the right places. Search engine indexers and consumers alike want substance. They want to know that you are a reputable, trusted authority on your industry or product/service. 

If you have all the right keywords and none of the authority, everyone’s going to notice (or more likely, not notice) your business in the search rankings. Consider what competitors are doing and learn about different parts of the optimization process that you can add to your to-do list. 

Crafting your reputation and brand authority

Speaking of reputable, you have to prove that reputation and sense of authority in every single piece of content that you create, every interaction that you have, and so forth. Take the time to read up on SEO best practices and find out the value of long-form content, as well as where you can use shorter pieces, and more. 

You should have a dynamic SEO strategy that includes local optimization, reputation building, and more. And speaking of reputation now is a great time to check for reviews and testimonials from your clients. Make sure that you respond to any negative comments or reviews that are left and get them resolved quickly-- that will garner big reputation points for you. Spas and salons are notorious for keeping satisfied customers for decades and more people are opening up about those experiences on various review sites, including social media. Capitalize on that to help build your reputation. 

Google Business Profile and other business directories 

Formerly Google My Business, your Business Profile needs to be filled out completely, optimized properly, and taken full advantage of by anyone who wants to succeed with local search. The ranking for this will impact your local SERPs (search engine results pages) directly and could cause you to lose (or gain) valuable reputation points. This is also where you can start the process of streamlining your name, address, and phone number (NAP) so that it’s consistent across all instances of your business online. 

There are plenty of local business directories out there where you can post your business information, share content, network, and more. These are great places to get listed so that you can build your reputation, but make sure that you’re choosing reputable directories and not just submitting a listing everywhere. The more credible listings your business has online, the more reputable it will be in the eyes of the search engines. 

Do an SEO audit and optimize everything

A new SEO strategy is great, but what about all of your existing content? You don’t have to scrap it if that’s what you’re thinking. Some of it might very well have run its course. However, you can usually do a little tweaking to repurpose or revamp your existing content to ensure that it’s SEO-friendly and ready for local search. To do this, you can conduct an SEO audit. Although it sounds like it might be complex, it’s a fairly simple process. You’ll just be going through all of the existing listings and content that you have online and adding keywords and optimizing them properly. 

This is something that you could outsource to a third party or use a software platform to streamline and verify. Remember that you’re not just going back and adding keywords—you’re also updating content, checking for relevance, replacing content that’s “too”: too short, too long, too complex, too fluffy, etc. Your content needs to be spot on in terms of accuracy, reliability, usefulness, and quality, as well as hitting the mark with local keywords and phrases. 

Check on-page and off-page content 

As a business, you have more than just a website online (or you should). Therefore, when you’re going through the process of optimizing for local search, you’re going to need to check more than just your website. Also known as on-page optimization, it will make an impact but only for those who are looking for your website specifically. 

Off-page content like directory listings, reviews, social media, and other instances of your business online should all be optimized for local search, too. There is a growing trend for spas and salons to get involved with TikTok marketing, so you can even have some fun giving your business the glow-up that it needs when you’re executing your local SEO strategy. 

When the leads start coming in, are you ready to field the calls?

At Smith.ai, we know you are busy with your salon or spa. You don’t need to spend your time on marketing that can be done much more simply than you might have anticipated. Of course, you do need to make sure that you have a 24/7 answering service in place from the start. When you choose the virtual receptionists from Smith.ai, you’ll get that along with assistance for lead intake, scheduling, live website chat, and more. 

Plus, we can even help you launch your outreach campaigns or improve your outbound sales efforts if you need a little help there. To learn more, schedule a consultation or reach out to us at hello@smith.ai to discuss how our virtual receptionists can help your salon or spa. 

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