Use Local SEO Power To Help Jumpstart Your Surfer School

More people are coming to California to learn how to ride the waves, but do they know your surfing school? A San Diego local SEO agency helps you plan and execute an audience-oriented online marketing plan that delivers results.

This guide shares five local optimization strategies that work to help you reach your audience:

• Submit and optimize your Google Business Profile.
• Design your site for mobile use.
• Maximize the local schema markup.
• Focus on E-E-A-T for content.
• Improve and vet your backlinks.

Are you ready to increase your clientele or students? Read the article below! Let’s go!

Watch this video to learn about the Digital Authority Partners approach to local SEO!

1. Submit and Optimize Your Google Business Profile

One of the most common questions business owners ask is why they should sign up for Google Business Profile when they already have a site (or even an app). Doing this offers many benefits:

• Because it is a Google product, profile listings often receive preferential treatment in the search engine results pages (SERPs). For example, you can be part of the local map pack. Your linked ads are above the organic search results.
• It works like an extension of your site, creating more channels for engagement. Here, you can read and answer reviews and comments, post photos and business updates, and provide more information about your services.
• The profile gives more credence to your business, telling your audience that it does exist.
• It helps shorten the sales cycle. Your leads do not have to go through more pages or articles to learn more about your services. Your GB profile allows them to call you immediately with their questions and concerns.

The Google Business listing is a free tool that increases your visibility in one of the largest search engines in the world. Plus, when you optimize your profile, you can rank better in local searches.

2. Design Your Site for Mobile

The global search engine optimization (SEO) market could achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.6% until 2028. By the end of the forecast period, its value is anticipated to be over $120 billion. At least two related factors will fuel this almost double-digit growth: mobile devices and voice-assisted searches.

In other words, your target market no longer spends much time on desktops looking for information. Instead, they ask Google about your classes while driving to San Diego, waiting in line at the bus station, or resting at the truck stop.

To help you compete, a San Diego local SEO agency designs a mobile-friendly site with the following features:

• Only one site version (you do not have a different webpage with unique content for desktop users)
• Page load speed of three seconds or less
• Responsiveness (e.g., it adjusts according to screen size and device, the page reacts fast when pinched or zoomed)
• Accessible even for people with disabilities (e.g., color contrast, dark mode, subtitles for videos, voice recognition, text-to-speech)
• Easy, uncluttered navigation (e.g., booking a class takes fewer than three clicks)
• High-security standards (encrypted connection, SSL certificates)
• Adequate server capacity to handle high traffic
• Compatibility across all devices and browsers

3. Maximize the Local Schema Markup

A Google Business profile already gives you a competitive advantage, but why stop there when you can do more? For instance, a San Diego SEO agency can optimize your page for local schema markup.

Schema markup is a special code you embed on your website. It organizes related data so that search engines, especially Google, can immediately understand the value and relevance of your content.

Markups come in many different types, and some apply to surfing schools. These include FAQs or content, companies, people, and events. However, the most essential of them all is the local schema. This one can trigger placement in the local map pack.

A local map pack is a group of three or four business listings that appear when the queries are geographically related. Think about “surfing school,” “surfing classes in San Diego,” or “surfing courses near me.” (The last one works particularly well the closer the user is in your area.)

The local schema markup fills up a short listing with vital business details such as:

• Name of the surfing school
• Hours of operation
• Phone number
• Address
• Website link
• Directions
• Aggregate ratings or reviews
• Other identifying information, such as whether you cater only to children or also offer gear rentals

With this schema, your site can appear immediately after the ads and before the organic search results. Imagine the potential traffic you get over your competitors!

4. Focus on E-E-A-T for Content

Content may be king, but it will not serve you well unless you know how to optimize it for users and search engines. How do you make sure it works? Follow E-E-A-T for local optimization.

E-E-A-T is an acronym for: 

• Experience
• Expertise
• Authoritativeness
• Trustworthiness

These criteria are vital for your money, your life (YMYL) pages, the content of which can significantly influence a person’s life.

Your surfing school articles are less likely to be in the YMYL category, but following E-E-A-T still matters because it adds more credibility to your claims. It elevates your authority when people take your word for it. Most of all, it improves the user experience, potentially leading to a higher ranking in the SERPs.

To write E-E-A-T content, remember these tips:

• Showcase first-hand experience about your niche. Show original photos of your school, staff, and classes in action. Describe surfing conditions in San Diego accurately. Include a byline in every article.
• Publish reviews and answer comments and concerns.
• Include references and links to support your claims. These could be from experts in the field, academic studies, or other reliable sources.
• Provide additional contact information such as a physical address, phone number, and email address.
• Be transparent about any affiliation or partnership with another organization.
• Check for typos and grammar errors.

5. Improve and Vet Your Backlinks

Also known as inbound links, backlinks are your URLs shared on other people’s websites. They might be adding yours because they found your content helpful to their readers.

In SEO-speak, these link types work like upvotes for your website. The more backlinks you have, the more search engines see you as trustworthy, relevant, and credible. Because the likes of Google and Bing want good pages to be prominent, they reward you with a higher rank.

These off-page SEO strategies can help you build a solid backlink profile for your surfing school. So does broken-link building, a tedious process with great results. It often involves hunting for 404 or error URLs shared on websites and presenting your links as alternatives.

Note, however, that quality should always trump quantity. As your inbound links grow, vet them to ensure they are not spammy, non-valuable referral traffic that can drag your ranking down.

You can learn to vet backlinks by:

• Evaluating whether it is a do-follow or no-follow link. If the other webmasters include a no-follow tag on your URL, you can ask them to change it to do-follow. This way, you can benefit from the site crawl. However, this is not a major issue if the site that links to you is well-known. You can still benefit from the massive traffic and brand exposure.
• Disavowing links from any low-quality sites. Disavowing means devaluing the backlink, which you can do in Google Search Console. However, reserve this for websites you can confirm are spammy, irrelevant, or harmful.

Summing Up

Marketing your surfing school in California requires reliable, effective local marketing strategies to help increase brand awareness, engagement, and traffic.

These five techniques can already jump-start a good online marketing plan. However, it must be an ongoing activity to reap and sustain results. Digital Authority Partners (DAP) is a San Diego local SEO agency specializing in your niche. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you.