Small businesses with a local footprint have difficulty attracting new audiences. Whether it be competition from larger entities or a naturally small potential audience, these brands must fight for every visitor, customer and impression. Organic search engine visibility remains one of the most effective ways for small businesses to generate traffic, but the effort is intensive.

Thankfully, local businesses can target relevant consumers in a variety of niches with a few simple strategies. Improving search engine visibility doesn’t just rely on climbing the ranks of SERPs; to guide you toward a better local search presence, let’s examine what local businesses can do to improve that visibility.

Take Advantage of Google Services

Google absolutely loves it when businesses take advantage of their services – and since Google is the largest search engine you’ll be targeting, it is an absolute must. Elements such as Google Plus and My Google Business pages automatically provide local businesses with more gravitas in search, just by virtue of having their information listed through these services. Whether it be simple and straightforward information like NAP (Name, Address, Phone) or more complex information such as business hours, policies and amenities, pinging servers with this info helps amplify your business’ credibility in Google’s eyes and will improve SEO rankings over time.

Earn Some Reviews

Perhaps the only thing search engines love more than the use of their own services is genuine feedback from the community at-large. If your local business has satisfied customers, then you must pursue a strategy of encouraging them to leave reviews wherever possible. The most obvious and arguably beneficial place to leave reviews is directly via the search engines; people can leave reviews on Google and on your Google business pages quite easily. The end result is that an organic outpouring of positive feedback will improve your business’ standing in local search results, because these search engines will see the feedback as an indicator of quality and authority.

Use PPC Campaigns

When struggling with achieving any visibility whatsoever, local businesses can feel discouraged. Thankfully, you can improve your visibility quite easily – if you’re willing to spend a small sum of money. Search engines offer all brands the ability to target consumers via PPC campaigns, which show up in search results at the top, bottom and sides of each set of search results. You can easily bid for keywords and/or specific search results, design the wording of your campaigns, and have those ads seen by anybody searching for what you’re targeting. Ultimately, it is a great way for new and less visible businesses to quickly achieve visibility without having to wait for organic search engine optimization strategies to deliver results.

Whether it is via organic efforts or paid strategies, local businesses can engage in a number of tactics to improve visibility. Considering that the average local SERP is far less targeted, building an organic presence can be done – but it takes time. If you begin now by pinging servers with reviews, detailed information and utilize the occasional paid ad campaign, you can ultimately enjoy the same visibility as your biggest competitors.