How to Optimize Forex Websites for Local SEO

But what if this approach is not completely wholesome? And the simple reason is that about 46% of all daily searches on Google are by people looking for information on local products and services. 

If you start typing “forex companies for” on Google, most of the autocomplete suggestions indicate that local forex traders are actually performing localized forex searches. 

Are you wondering how to perform well for local searches? We are sharing quality tips on how to do local SEO marketing. Read on.

The Importance of Local SEO for Businesses: How to Reach More Local Customers

Why do people perform local searches? It’s often because they are looking for a service or business that is close to them. That removes the inconvenience of long wait times for products to be shipped. It also means that they can visit the place in person. 

People searching for businesses near them means that they’re ready to buy the products or services. About 88% of people who search for local businesses on their smartphones end up visiting a related store within a week. Additionally, consumers may be more inclined to trust local forex businesses than far-flung establishments.

Local SEO is therefore highly important for forex businesses. With a localized forex website, your business stands a chance to acquire traffic with a high chance of converting. 

If you’re running advertisement campaigns in different jurisdictions, you can optimize the performance of ads by sending people to highly personalized and localized landing pages. You can foster trust by showing your potential customers that you are not just an international business and that you actually have products tailored for the local forex market. 

As you start a forex business and slowly build up traffic, try to recognize where most of your customers come from and consider undertaking local SEO to better cement your hold and expand your reach in that market. 

SEO Optimization Tips for Local Businesses

Be on the lookout for the following tips as you attempt local SEO: 

Choose the right keywords

Local searches are highly specific and personalized. So don’t assume that people will be using the same keywords to find your business locally. You will need to find the right keywords that will lead to more discoveries of your services and content. 

Don’t narrowly focus on finding keywords that already exist for local forex. Consider that 15% of searches every day are new.

Optimize for voice search with long-tail keywords

Over 40% of voice searches that occur on a mobile device have local intent. Consequently, you need to think of performing well for voice searches. 

The first thing that you can do well is to focus on long tail keywords, as the average length of voice searches is 29 words. Secondly, your target search phrases need to have localized keywords. 

Create a truly mobile-friendly website for local forex trading

With nearly 30% of mobile searches relating to a location, you need to deliver a truly mobile-friendly website. You will need to go beyond offering a website that is responsive to the user’s screen. A truly mobile-friendly website is as intuitive to use on mobile as it is on desktop. That means having fewer steps to perform the most essential actions, making information easy to find, and ensuring that pages load quickly. 

The Top SEO Strategies for Local Businesses

Let’s consider some strategies you should use to improve your chances of ranking in search engine results pages for local search phrases:

• Create local service pages and content

Website localization entails tailoring your website experience based on the user’s location, language, and even culture. The main goal is to make it simple for your audience to understand and sign up for your services. 

As part of your strategy, you can identify your top target markets. While you can create different domains for each jurisdiction, it may require extra effort to build the domain authority of each separate site. The approach used by most forex websites is utilizing their main domain while dynamically serving the appropriate content based on the user’s location as determined by the IP address. 

After localizing your service pages, you should also create content appropriate for your target region by finding out what local businesses are talking about or their main pain points. You can go as far as providing preferred modes of payment in each jurisdiction.

• Build local links

Any backlink is like a vote of confidence for your website. If you’re trying to rank in a particular geographic area, it’s therefore paramount that your website earns local backlinks from websites in that target region. They will serve as a better endorsement of your website’s quality, trust, and relevance for local search rankings. 

• Generate customer reviews

Earning reviews from traders in your target region can enhance your website’s visibility in local search results. If you have a Google My Business listing, it can boost your rankings on the snack pack. Collecting positive reviews also improves your website’s reputation. 

• Earn local citations

Local citations include any mentions of your business’s name, address, and phone number (NAP information). The mentions can be either partial or full.

Increasing local citations should be part of your local SEO strategy. You can focus on what you can control by listing your NAP information on social media pages and online directories in the area. Ensure the NAP information is consistent across all platforms to protect your local SEO rankings. 

Search engines also monitor mentions and sentiments on third-party websites. Your strategy can also include earning brand mentions on local websites by getting them to talk about your products or services, and other newsworthy things you did.  

• Claim your Google Business Profile (GBP) listing

Claiming your Google Business Profile means getting listed on Google. With a profile, you can showcase your business photos, store hours, reviews, and services. 

You must meet certain criteria in order to have local listings. For instance, you may need to have a physical business premise where you offer services to customers. 

Now, this may not be applicable to all forex businesses. But in case you provide any services in person, a GBP profile even means that customers can find you on Google Maps and get directions to your office. A proper Google Business Profile optimization will ensure a large number of customers. 

• Perform social listening

Social listening entails finding out what people in your target region are talking about in relation to forex trading services, or what they are saying in relation to your business. For instance, you may quickly find out that users in a particular geographic region are complaining about not having a website in their preferred language. You can respond to this and positively impact your local search traffic and rankings in local search results. 

• Localize your social media profiles

Not every piece of content will resonate with users from all geographic locations. In some regions, you may need to go the extra mile by also localizing what you post on your social media pages or by having a different set of social media pages altogether. With a more targeted following on social media, you’ll drive more qualified traffic to your website and capture more forex leads. 

The content may be localized based on language, tone, or slang. Your social media posts can reflect what’s trending in the country, regional events, or news.

Creating a Local SEO Strategy for Your Business

A good local SEO strategy lays out all the actions you need to take to attract more local traffic. This strategy should comprise the following crucial components: 

• Target Audience: You will need a critical understanding of who your target audience is, what they want, what they know, and why they should choose you. 
• Keyword Research: You will need to conduct local keyword research to form a solid foundation of localized keywords that you will use when building your service pages and producing tailored content. 
• On-Page Optimization: This component of your strategy describes all the on-page local SEO techniques you will use such as localization and translation.
• Off-Page SEO: This component will entail everything that you do on your site in order to improve rankings, such as obtaining backlinks and brand mentions.
• Monitoring and Analytics: Not everything you will do as part of the strategy will work. Plan how you’ll monitor your progress, and measure results to know what works best. 

How Much Does Local SEO Cost for Websites

Different variants will determine how much local SEO will cost. For instance, local SEO pricing will differ depending on whether you’re hiring individual local SEO experts or an agency or handling the activities in-house (which may be more costly). 

An independent local SEO strategist may charge an hourly rate that will depend on where they are located and their skills. For instance, local SEO experts in developed countries may charge as much as $80 per hour. 

The range of tasks a local SEO expert may perform as part of their local SEO services may be limited. For instance, while they can perform technical analysis, they may not create the local pages by themselves. You may need additional expertise, driving the cost up.

Working with a local SEO company can cost between $1,500 to $5,000 per month, based on the project scope (how much needs to be done). The local SEO agency may adopt different pricing strategies, from hourly pricing to providing local SEO packages with fixed deliverables.  

So, how much does local SEO cost with ForexSEO? We recommend having a minimum budget of about $3,000 per month to truly leverage the power of local SEO services. 

Maximizing Your Local SEO

If you want to supercharge your local SEO efforts, the most important decision that you can make is to work with a local SEO service provider. 

In the forex niche in particular, doing local SEO is more intricate as the business may not necessarily have a local office serving clients in person. Techniques like claiming a Google Business Profile may be out of the picture. 

As a matter of fact, your website and SEO approach may need a complete overhaul. For instance, it may be necessary to perform website internationalization, which is a more intricate process that requires creating a website infrastructure that is easily adaptable to other markets, geographic areas, and languages. 

For a local SEO campaign to be successful, it may also become necessary to work in different languages that you’re not familiar with or with contractors from countries that understand the dynamics. 

The Benefits of Local SEO Services for Local Businesses in Modern Niches Like Forex Trading

In a modern niche like forex trading, it may not make sense to perform SEO locally as the focus is more global and there may even be no physical business locations. Why should you still work with local SEO services? 

Focusing on a specific location may be a way to differentiate your business and stand out in a highly competitive market. Gaining the familiarity of a local business can help you build your credibility and trust. As local SEO services will be focused on proving their worth, they can help drive the right organic traffic, leading to higher-quality lead generation that will consequently improve your ROI. 

Local SEO can even help a business expand the range of services and products available in a particular region by taking advantage of the local marketing dynamics and legal atmosphere. 

What SEO Solutions Are Crucial for Local Forex Traders

Here are some crucial local SEO solutions that you should consider getting as you engage with a local SEO agency or contractor: 

• Local link building 

Local search engine optimization should entail building links that appear as natural as possible to avoid any Google penalties. The agency can produce authoritative content that websites link back to editorially. Links may also be generated through guest posting or link insertions. 

• Website localization and translation 

As part of the local business SEO services, the website may have to be internationalized. It will consequently make it easier to localize it for different geographic regions. Additionally, some pages may have to be translated into different languages for better local optimization. 

• Local citations

Forex websites can improve their local search visibility by increasing the number of local citations. This can entail submitting the website to different online directories. Here, you can also work with a PR agency or outreach team providing local SEO solutions to increase the number of brand mentions across websites in the area.

• Voice search optimization

Optimizing for voice search entails finding long-tail keywords that are likely to appear in voice searches and incorporating them into existing or new content. One way is to use the location-based keywords in frequently asked questions that improve the customer experience as people can receive answers outside business hours. For example, a popular local search query performed with voice assistants is “what are the forex market hours in my local timezone.”

• Optimizing site maps

It will be paramount to improve the site’s XML sitemap to help search engines properly discover and index the local pages. Revamping the sitemap can help make the website user-friendly by making it easier to navigate.

• Content optimization and auditing

The provider should have the capability to perform a thorough audit of your site as part of their local SEO plan. Local SEO audit tells you what’s wrong with certain pages. Recommendations are then made on how to improve poor-performing pages, such as optimizing them with local keywords. 

The Role of SEO Services in Driving Traffic and Sales for Local Websites

Working with a dedicated local SEO specialist or local SEO firms can increase the number of people visiting your site, and consequently, this means there are more opportunities for lead generation. 

The traffic emanating from local searches may be of a better quality, as many local queries have a transactional intent, signaling that people are ready to acquire services. 

Becoming well-known in a particular geographic area for providing forex trading services also means that people can find you more readily with brand keywords increasing the possibility of more sign-ups.

SEO services even provide cost-saving benefits over the long term, as you can rank for months and even years among the top local search results for a particular keyword.  

The Best Local SEO Companies, Tools, and Services 

Before we sum up, let’s look at some of the best tools and SEO services for local businesses:

• ForexSEO

ForexSEO is one of the leading local SEO marketing firms in the FX space, with previous experience working with big players like FBS, Alpari, FXTM, and others. 

The company has a repertoire of the best local SEO services, including professional audits that help reveal your current local search performance. You can get help with local link-building, content creation, and local SEO consulting. 

Choosing a local SEO company with a firm comprehension of the FX industry and its challenges means less time to get started, fewer mistakes, expert lead generation, and better local SEO campaigns in the long haul. 

• Ahrefs

Ahrefs is one of the leading SEO tools that’s used and trusted by seasoned experts. It offers users a large database that allows it to provide better data on keywords and their volumes.

• Google Business Manager

GBM is the tool you’ll use to make edits and updates to your Google Business Profile, which includes posts, images, videos, reviews, and NAP information. 

• Majestic

Majestic is well-known for its link explorer tools that you can use to discover linking opportunities and audit backlinks. You can assess your competitors’ backlink profiles or sort links based on different metrics, including language and topic. 

• BrightLocal

Built for local SEO, BrightLocal gives you the power to track local rankings, run localized search audits, and generate reports based on different locations.

• Yext

Yext will make it easier for your business to answer questions from local traders. Track reviews, create knowledge graphs, and compile crowdsourced answers all on one platform. 

Working on your website’s local SEO is a worthy endeavor considering that it can bring you more qualified traffic, increase your reach, and improve your trust in a given geographic area. 

In practice, you’ll need localized and optimized content that has a good chance of ranking in local search. You can get started by working with an agency with a firm understanding of the forex market. A full team can deliver better local search results and campaign performance as they are aware of the challenges and can implement proven workflows. 

ForexSEO stands out as one of the best local SEO companies for the FX industry. We welcome you to discuss your project goals with us without any obligations. Get in touch with ForexSEO today.

Andrew Shum

Head of SEO at ForexSEO.com

February 8, 2024

Contact me:

I’m Andrew Shum and I’m a product owner (aka Head of SEO) of ForexSEO.com. I’ve been in the SEO industry for over 6 years and have worked in a variety of industries, from FOREX to ecommerce. In this time, I have learned a lot about forex business and marketing. In this blog, I want to share my experience with you and give you some tips on how to succeed in the forex industry.