Hamilton SEO Success Guide
Hamilton businesses could all benefit from Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). SEO matters because it controls where your business appears in Google and what search terms your business appears in.
SEO can also help you to appear for regional search terms that matter to you and your business, such as searches that include your region combined with your focus, for example “Hamilton plumbing” for plumbers.
This means that with SEO, you can drive targeted visitors to your website that results in better leads and helps you achieve your business goals.
So how do you succeed at SEO in Hamilton?
We’ve analyzed and researched exactly how Hamilton businesses can succeed at SEO and compiled it all into this one page for you to freely use. At the end of this article, you’re going to understand exactly how to get to the top of the search results for your Hamilton business and drive more valuable traffic through to your website.
In this guide we will go over:
- How to tailor your website to Hamilton’s search results.
- How to utilize your name, address and phone number to increase authenticity and improve your local SEO.
- How to show people you are a reputable Hamilton business.
Include Hamilton in your title
There’s no better place to reflect your Hamilton focus than the title of your page. A page’s title is used by Google to understand the topic of the page. Because of this, incorporating Hamilton into your page’s title is critical to ranking well for those regional search terms. Keywords closer to the beginning of the page’s title will have a greater impact on how well the page performs in the search results for that keyword so aim to incorporate Hamilton into the start of your title without sounding too much like spam or in an unnatural way. Having Hamilton in your title also makes the focus of your page clearer to readers as well, meaning more valuable traffic will flow through to your website.
Tailor your meta description to Hamilton
Your meta description won’t have a direct effect on your SEO but it will affect how many people click on your search result through to your website. The meta description is your only paragraph available to convince readers to click on your search result so take your time to perfect it. To effectively target Hamilton users, tailor your meta description to match who you’re trying to target. You can do this by mentioning your Hamilton based relevant landmarks or Hamilton specific achievements you have earned, such as “#1 Nike shoes seller in Hamilton” or “Hamilton’s largest fridge reseller”.
Compare these meta descriptions, which one do you think would be more likely to be clicked by a Hamilton visitor?
“Large supplier of running shoes and rugby boots, visit our store to find your perfect fit.”
or
“Hamilton’s largest supplier of running shoes and rugby boots, visit our store based on Victoria Street in Garden Place to find your perfect fit.”
Not only does this strategy increase the authenticity of your message but it also shows people you are exactly what they are looking for.
Include Hamilton in your headings & page content
Much like your title and meta description, weave Hamilton into your page’s headings and content. For your content, aim for 2000+ words that’s written with a Hamilton focus in mind, what we discussed for crafting your meta descriptions applies to your page content as well. Not only does this increase your page’s focus on Hamilton, but it also helps show that your page’s content reflects your title. Title coherence, meaning that the topics & keywords of your page title is representative of your page, is an important SEO ranking factor.
While it’s important to integrate Hamilton into your content, avoid overusing the keyword. Overuse, especially where not appropriate, can lead to your website looking like spam and negatively affecting your search rankings. Aim for a 2-3% keyword density and always make sure that your language is natural.
Think beyond Hamilton
Hamilton isn’t the only regional keyword you can leverage to improve your local SEO. Think about what other regional search terms could be relevant to your business and incorporate them into your page. A few examples are:
Suburbs
- Chartwell
- Claudelands
- Frankton
- Te Rapa
Popular Streets
- Victoria Street
- Anglesea Street
Popular Locations
- The Base
- Garden Place
- Hamilton Lake
- Hamilton Gardens
As these regional search terms are so specific, including them into your pages can help you:
- Rank well in search results that are perfect for your business but low in competition
- Help communicate your website’s authenticity for Hamilton through showing you have detailed knowledge of the region.
Include Hamilton in your URL
A simple but effective trick to give yourself a minor boost for a search term is including it in your page’s URL. This trick can be applied to your local SEO by including Hamilton in your URL, for example if you were selling shoes, your URL could be websitename.com/hamilton-shoes
Always include more than just the word “Hamilton” in your URL, try to also incorporate another keyword that reflects the topic of your page.
Integrate your name, address & phone on every page
Often referred to as “NAP” (Name, Address, Phone number), we cannot stress enough how important and effective including this 3-hit combo is on your website. The easiest way to show people that you are a real part of Hamilton is by communicating who you are, where they can visit you and what number they can call you on.
Not only is NAP critical for showing you’re an authentic business, but it is also a very strong booster for local SEO.
There are a few guidelines to follow on how to best incorporate your NAP, it all basically boils down to:
- Keep your name, address (not a shared address, not a P.O box) and phone number unique.
- Make sure all the information is correct and you’re using real details.
- Keep it all consistent.
Include your NAP on every page of your website. It’s recommended to include it in at least your footer, Contact page and About page if applicable.
Add local information to your social media
Setting up social media with your local information adds credibility and impacts your search result rankings through social signals. Much like your website, include your name, address and phone number on every social media profile you have and make sure it’s all correct, unique & consistent.
It’s also important to create a link relationship between your social media profiles and your website. Make sure all of your social media has a link through to your website, and make sure the vice versa is the same where your website has a link through to your social media profiles.
As for what you do on social media, being active on your social media profiles is a huge benefit not just to your SEO but your marketing strategy as a whole. For some businesses this might be hard to achieve, at the very least make sure your social media profiles are branded and all of the details are filled out appropriately.
List your business with Google My Business
Google My Business is a massive factor for local SEO and will drive your ability to succeed in SEO for Hamilton. Google My Business essentially manages your business front within Google; it puts you on the map and provides contextual information such as your opening hours, address, phone number and website.
Setting up your business in Google My Business isn’t complicated; all you have to do is make your account, claim your business and verify you’re actually who you say you are. The verification process is simple, you’ll receive a postcard from Google in the mail which is sent to your business address with a code and you enter that code online to become verified. Once your business address is verified, you can fill in the rest of your details and then you’re all set.
Making sure your details are correct and consistent with your website & social media is very important to reap the full benefits of your business listing. If done correctly, having these local factors will solidify your business’s relevance to Hamilton in the search results.
Google My Business also helps provide other insights that are beneficial to your local business including how many people have searched for your business and how they’ve engaged with your business listing such as visiting your website or making a phone call.
Get reviews for your business
Once you’ve established you are a real local business your next focus should be proving that you are also a reputable and trusted member of the Hamilton community. The best way to achieve this is by leveraging your business listing in Google My Business through reviews.
Reviews on your business listing helps to show authority, authenticity and most importantly social proof. A strong set of positive reviews helps your website’s local SEO as Google favors sites that are well rated.
The easiest way to get reviews is to ask for them. Encourage reviews locally and make it a part of your marketing strategy. The most difficult part of this is asking for reviews at the right place and time but as a general rule of thumb only ask for reviews after you have already built a relationship with your customer. Make sure you’re asking in a genuine way; avoid heavily templated and impersonal approaches as those will often be ignored or infuriating for customers.
Get links from other Hamilton focused websites
Getting reputable Hamilton businesses or business directories to link from their website to yours further drives your local authority and reputation. We could talk about the inbound links, also referred to as back links, all day but what you need to know is that inbound links show Google that other websites believe you’re an authority on the topic. If the website linking to you is also a high authority and a quality website, then that link has an even greater value for your website.
There are plenty of ways to get websites to link to your own but the most effective method is creating quality content that people actually want to link to and building genuine relationships with other website owners.
For low hanging fruit, another easy method to get relevant links through to your website are Hamilton business directories. What business directories are relevant to you is dependent on your business but a few good Hamilton business directories are:
Optimize your SEO
As you would expect, a very important part of doing well in your Hamilton search results is having good SEO across the board. Everything above won’t matter enough to make a difference if the rest of your SEO efforts are horrible. This is why it’s important to make sure every facet of your SEO is the best it can be. We’ve already written a lot about how you can improve your SEO including an article on how to get more traffic with SEO, but the very general focus points are:
- Creating quality titles and meta descriptions that fit the character limit.
- Create good quality content that uses headings effectively.
- Optimize your images to be less than 250KB and website’s loading times to be less than 3 seconds.
- Make sure your website visitors have a good user experience.
- Get quality links to your website and link through to quality websites.
Wrapping Up
You’ve already learnt a lot from this article about how to succeed at SEO in Hamilton, but sometimes going at it alone can be tough. We love to help Hamilton businesses succeed at SEO and can help you implement a winning strategy that works for your needs.
We know our way around Hamilton and understand how to achieve results for our local businesses, contact us to learn more.
