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Would you like to boost your driving school enrollments? Of course, you would! Implementing local SEO is the absolute best way to do that. But what is local SEO and how can it be used to boost your driving school enrollments? That’s what we’re going to talk about today. But first, we will go over what local SEO is and then take it from there.
What Is Local SEO?
Local SEO involves using specific tactics and techniques to optimize a website. This process is done to increase traffic and brand awareness from the people performing any given search for a local business. Local SEO could include using local keywords, claiming a Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business), and building NAP (name, address, phone number) citations, just to name a few.
Local SEO Statistics
- 46% of all Google searches are local
- 89% of people perform local searches on their smartphones a minimum of once a week
- 56% of people perform local searches on their smartphone daily
- 72% of people performing a local search will visit a business within five miles
- 76% of people performing a local search will visit or contact said business the same day
Nine Local SEO Tactics to Boost Your Driving School Enrollments
Here are a few industry best practices for utilizing local SEO for your driving school. We are giving you some local SEO tactics, but each one will require you to dive a little deeper and learn all you can about that step to make sure it’s implemented correctly.
1. Local SEO
Google uses different criteria for ranking local search results than it does for other search results. Those criteria include the location of the person performing a search, NAP citations, claimed Google Business Profiles, the keywords that are used in that GBP, online reviews, the keywords used in those reviews, the number of “check-ins” the business at that location receives, how many shares they have on social media, and that businesses Google Maps star rating.
Therefore, a business that wants to rank highly on Google should concentrate on implementing and improving on all these ranking factors if they want to achieve higher rankings.
2. Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business)
Claiming and actively managing your Google Business Profile are some of the most important things you can do to increase your rankings. Here is what you will need for a Google Business Profile.
- Optimize your GBP.
- Publish posts on your GBP.
- Seek and encourage customer reviews for your GBP.
- Build citations in local directories.
- Add business-related images with alt tags to your GBP.
There is a lot more to the Google Business Profile process and it’s extremely important that you do this right. So spend some time learning how to do this correctly or hire a professional to do it for you. Yes, it’s that important!
3. The Google Map Pack
The Google Map Pack, also referred to as the Local Pack, is the set of three local business results with a map of their locations that shows at the top of any given local search results page. For example, if someone were to search for “driving school in Tampa,” Google will show a Map Pack at the top of the search results page with the top three Tampa driving schools.
4. Optimize Your Website for Local SEO
There is specific information that should be included on your website if you want to rank higher in the search engines.
- Add a Contact Page and include your name, address, clickable phone number, and clickable email address.
- Include a map of your location.
- Customer reviews and testimonials.
- Add schema markup for local businesses.
- Add a blog to your website.
- Use meta titles and descriptions.
5. Create Social Media Business Pages
Create social media business pages and fill them with valuable content. Then link those pages and that content back to your website.
6. Mobile-Friendly and Fast Loading Digital Assets
Make sure your website, content, and all your digital assets are mobile-friendly and that they load quickly. If they aren’t, you will lose customers who don’t want to scroll around just to see your content and those who don’t want to wait for a page to load.
7. Internal and External Linking
Links help show the search engines what your website and content are all about. Internal linking is simply linking related pages within your website to each other. External linking is when other websites link to yours. This indicates to the search engines that people favor your website and content. Kind of like a popularity contest. And the bigger and more popular the websites that link to yours are, the better. Just make sure the links you get are industry related.
8. Optimize Online Directories
The more you can get your business name and website out there, the more brand recognition you will have. And the more popular your website is, the higher it will rank. A great way to gain exposure is to include your business and website in as many driving school online directories as possible. You can start by searching for “online directories for driving schools” and that will provide you with loads of online directories you can use.
9. Local SEO Audit
Performing a local SEO audit will provide you with a wealth of information on what you can do to improve your local SEO and other valuable information you can use as well.
What’s Next?
A great option to boost your local SEO presence can be to get your business on local driving school listings. DriverZ’s “Best Driving Schools” initiative aims to do just that.
Depending on the city in which you operate and other selection criteria, you may qualify to be placed on your local list. Giving your prospective students as many chances to find you as possible is an important step toward driving enrollment.
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