Local SEO is crucial for smaller businesses who operate at a regional level, rather than a national one. Local SEO is more focused on appearing in SERPs for a particular location, while national SEO is more concerned with ranking across the nation. This strategy focuses on marketing your products and services to local customers and leads.
Optimizing local SEO will increase website traffic, leads and conversions, as the strategy is tailored to local customers. This focused strategy will help you compete better against national brands with unlimited resources. Focusing on local SEO tactics will help you to compete with larger brands who rely more on brand recognition than on value propositions.
Here are 10 top ways to make your local SEO successful.
1. Create a Google Business Profile
Optimizing Google Listing is the best way to get a higher ranking on Google Maps and gain visibility in Google Search Local results. To access your Business Profile and make these changes, you will need to have a Google My Business account. After you have entered all the information requested in your Google Business dashboard, it will appear in Google Search Local results, Google Search Knowledge Panel and Google Maps.
If you want to optimize your Google Business profile, make sure that:
- Create an account for Google Business, and verify the ownership of your business.
- Information that is accurate and current.
- Include your logo and hours of operation as well as acceptable payment methods. Also, include images of the products or services you sell.
- Encourage your customers to leave reviews on your business website.
- Customer reviews deserve a sincere response.
- Google My Business Dashboard allows you to publish posts (announcements of products, events and special offers) on your Business Profile.
2. Review Happy Customers Regularly
It’s not just about optimizing your Google My Business profile, but also encouraging more local customers buy from you.
Here are some tips on how to encourage your customers to leave reviews.
- After a sale, ask for a personal review
- Send an email or text to customers asking them to leave a review after the purchase (but only if you have screened your customers via an internal survey, to make sure you are not approaching unhappy customers).
- Thank reviewers for their feedback and address complaints from unfavorable reviews.
3. Optimize for Voice Search
Voice Search is expected to grow quickly in the next few years. local search must optimize for the way people speak to their devices as opposed to typing out their queries.
In essence, customers are more likely to use long-tail keywords for voice search than they are when searching with a regular browser. You’ll need to adapt your SEO to match the conversational tone. You’ll also want to consider the standard question starters: who, what, when and where.
Optimization for voice must also consider the user’s intent, since these searches are usually performed when a user is looking for a specific information. When they ask Alexa for help converting tablespoons to cups while baking, they expect a fast and helpful answer. When a customer asks about your business hours via voice search, you should have this information readily available.
4. Local News Stories and Events can be used to create content
It’s hard to get your local customers to pay attention to you if you don’t create content that speaks directly about the issue in their area.
Some strategies include
- Write blog posts about local news, events, and activities.
- Create videos to promote local charities and causes that you support
- Set up localized pages on your website if you cover different areas of a particular region.
Let’s say you’re a local real estate business. Create different pages for each location where you can showcase hyperlocal content based on local news or real estate market changes. This strategy can also help you rank for each location.
5. Optimize your website for mobile
The Stone Temple 2018 study, which compared 2017’s desktop vs. mobile trends, found that mobile adoption is happening faster than expected. In 2017, mobile visits to websites increased from 57% to 63%, while desktop visits decreased from 43% to 37%.
A 2017 study by Acquisio found that local searches are particularly lucrative. 75% (of all mobile searches) that have local intent result in offline, in-store visits within 24 hour.
This proves that your website must be optimized for mobile in order to play a role in local SEO.
You can achieve this by following these tips:
- Make sure your website loads fast (no longer than 3 seconds).
- Easy to read fonts in larger sizes
- Avoid using images or copy to convey more than you need.
- UI that is intuitive will provide a great UX
6. Local Keywords: Focus on the Local
Keywords should be relevant for local customers. This is only logical, right?
Google’s Keyword Planner allows you to filter keyword searches by location, so that you can get a better idea of popular search terms in a particular region. You can then create a list with local keywords that you want to target. Once you’ve got them, make sure they appear in the meta content, copy and URLs of your website.
Include mentions of landmarks or hotspots specific to your region in your content. If your local restaurant offers dinner downtown in Seattle, you might include on your website references such as “dining near the Space Needle”, or “just a few steps away from the Space Needle”.
7. Use location pages or a “About Us Page” that is specific to your location
If your business has multiple locations in a particular area, location pages are essential. These pages should include the following information, at minimum:
- Store Hours
- Name, address and phone number
- Individualized descriptions
- Testimonials
- Promotions
- Parking is available
- Google Maps is attached to every location page
When you have several locations, you should create content that is unique for each one.
It is important to create an “About Us”, which focuses on relevant, local information, if you only have a single location. If you own a florist, for example, the “About Us page” is the ideal place to highlight your shop’s role in providing flowers for parades or events in your city.
8. Use Online Business Directory
Websites like Yelp and Foursquare are online business directories. MapQuest, YellowPages and MapQuest are also examples. There are a lot more.
These directories will not only help you to be found, but they’ll also improve your local business SEO services.
The company list must include the following basic elements:
- Name your business (here are some creative ideas! )
- Address and telephone number
- Backlinks to your website
- Your business description should be detailed
All directories should have the same standards.
9. Focus on link signals (Get high-quality backlinks)
According to Moz’s 2017 Local Search Ranking Factors Study, links signals are the top- and second most important factors both for local pack results (or snack packs) and localized organic results. Backlinks are links pointing at your website.
To boost local SEO it’s important to have links, but the quality of those links is also crucial.
You can get high-quality links by following these tips:
- Create quality content for your website so that others will link to it
- Guest blogging on high-domain authority sites
- Use social media to engage with local influencers and encourage them to link to you
10. Create a dedicated web page for each product/service you offer
Avoid lumping all your products and services onto one page. Instead, give each product or service a page.
Your local juice won’t be as strong if you put everything on one page, because search engines don’t tend to view your brand as a leader in a specific field. This reduces your chances of ranking.
You can use location-based copy if you have a single business with no different products or services but multiple locations. As an example, ” Dental Marketing ” will become ” New York dental marketing ” or ” Buffalo Dental Marketing “.
Local SEO is more important than ever
SEO changes quite rapidly. Google is always changing its SERPs, and you never know what new features it will add for local search,. It’s important to stay up-to-date with local SEO. Implementing these 10 items will help you to ensure your business is not only able to take advantage of local searches, but that it also has a strong foundation for when new SEO features come out. If you do not have the time to make these changes, you might want to consider a Local SEO Audit or a Small Business SEO Service Provider.
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