If you don’t have your local SEO in order, you’ll miss an opportunity every time someone local searches for your products or services online, as 46 percent of all searches on Google are local and thus highlight the importance of local SEO for local businesses.
If your local SEO is not good, it will be difficult for the many people who search for local businesses on their phones to find you. At least once a week, about 89 percent of people search for local businesses on their phones, and 58 percent search daily. Out of those searches, 72 percent will visit a store within a five-mile radius.
1. Optimize your website for local SEO
To start with this local SEO guide, it is crucial to establish a well-optimized website. If your website lacks proper optimization, it will be extremely challenging to improve your position on the SERPs. Evaluate your website’s SEO at this moment to identify areas for enhancement.
In order to achieve local SEO, alongside adhering to standard SEO protocols, you must undertake the following measures:
The first page of SERPs offers the most valuable information and inspiration. In fact, the top three positions alone generate 66.5 percent of the click-throughs on the SERPs! When starting your audit, take into account free tools and analyzers such as the SEO Analyzer. These tools provide a comprehensive assessment of your website’s present condition and suggest optimization techniques.
Afterward, analyze your website by comparing it to the top five articles of each search engine results page (SERP). Take into account various factors such as the types of content, website structure, page elements, and keyword density, using your identified target keywords in the process.
2. Claim your online profiles – especially Google My Business Profile
This next local SEO strategy focuses on your online presence outside of your website. It is not enough to only have a website; you also need to ensure that your business is accurately listed on major review platforms such as Google Business Profile, TripAdvisor, Yelp, and Facebook.
Make sure to consider popular local review sites when thinking step by step to rephrase the given text, but ensure that no new information is added or removed, while keeping the same meaning.
Why should you rephrase the text step by step while keeping the same meaning without adding or removing information?
Local review sites like these often follow Google’s three-pack when it comes to local searches.
Not only does it increase the number of people who will discover your business on these local review sites, but it also enhances your authority by strengthening your backlink profile.
Google Business Profile
A good starting point is to fill out your profile on Google Business Profile, which enables you to control your visibility on Google’s search engine. When you complete your profile and gather reviews (which will be discussed shortly), your ranking will be enhanced.
In addition to displaying a comprehensive overview of your business, such as Seattle Coffee Works, Google Maps also proves to be immensely beneficial considering that 86% of individuals seek the location of a business on this platform.
Any local listings
To find relevant sites for your business and location, search for keywords such as:
- [target location] reviews
- [industry/niche] [target location] reviews
Claim other social profiles to improve local SEO
To effectively plan, it is important to create profiles on social media platforms that are applicable to your target audience.
Make sure to adhere to social media best practices for this local SEO tip. Identify your online customers and regularly interact with them to ensure that your community feels acknowledged and valued. Concentrate on the social platforms that align well with your business and increase your followership on those platforms.
Instead of relying solely on a Reddit profile as a local restaurant, it is more effective to attract potential customers online by establishing a presence on Instagram and sharing enticing pictures of your food to build a following.
It is crucial to ensure that your information is the same on every platform when creating your profiles. Consistency is vital. By creating these profiles, you will increase your visibility to potential customers and give search engines more information about your business, ultimately improving your ranking.
3. Find strong local keywords
One more easy tip for local SEO is to focus on powerful local keywords that cater to a diverse set of search queries from people. For small businesses, targeting keywords can feel overwhelming. When you aim for high-volume keywords, you know you’ll get lost in the competition, while low-volume keywords often generate low results.
4. Perform a local SEO audit
Now that you have a presence on business directories, it’s crucial to have a clear understanding of the environment. This will allow you to assess your competitors’ strategies and make similar or even superior enhancements to your website.
5. Post content regularly
Owning local listings on search engines is similar to managing a blog in that regular content updates are necessary to maintain page freshness and ranking. This includes posting blog entries, articles, videos, social media updates, and soliciting honest reviews from satisfied customers.
To maintain a consistent presence in customers’ minds and ensure that Google regularly indexes new information on your website, it is important to publish relevant content related to your location or the product/service your business offers.
You can include various topics such as local events that are happening soon, updates regarding your company, newly introduced features, and promotions related to your products or services. However, it is not necessary for you to generate all the content on your own.
Clayton explains that an immensely useful approach they have found is to capture local content from their vendors. They consistently gather and display before-and-after photos from local vendors, which not only offers renewing, geotagged content but also enhances their credibility with users, ultimately enhancing their standing in local SEO.
6. Encourage customers to leave reviews
Trivia time! What is the number of consumers who read online reviews for local businesses?
- 40%
- 57%
- 98%
If you chose option number three, you are correct. The majority of consumers read reviews for local businesses. Additionally, 76% of consumers also read online reviews when searching for local services, highlighting the importance of requesting reviews from satisfied customers. However, it is not enough to simply collect reviews; it is essential to also respond to both positive and negative feedback.
By thinking in a systematic manner, you demonstrate your willingness to prioritize customer satisfaction and promptly address their needs.
According to Yara Askar, lead strategist at HawkSEM, reviews also serve to instill trust in customers and convince them that a company is reliable and deserving of their time and money. Furthermore, companies that have a limited number of reviews or fail to respond to reviews miss out on potential opportunities to attract interested customers who would have been willing to explore their products or services.
One way to demonstrate that your website is trustworthy to Google is to actively engage with GBP by posting, responding to reviews, adding images, and updating products/services.
7. Reinforce with repetition
When it comes to local SEO, the key is repetition. It’s important to note that consistency is not only necessary for your NAP details, but also for keywords in metadata and geotagging local images.
8. Improve your rank and credibility with citations
Citations are crucial for local SEO as they enhance the ranking, visibility, trustworthiness, and overall prominence of your website on search engine results. Similar to external link building, citations significantly contribute to informing search engines about your business location and its nature.
If local citations are used correctly, they can enhance your ranking in local searches and increase customers’ confidence in your business.
9. Include content targeting rich snippet placement
Rich snippets are search results that provide more details than just a title and description. Typically, they display as definitions, lists, ratings, images, and reviews. By implementing rich snippets, your local business can differentiate itself from competitors on the search engine result pages (SERPs).
In order to optimize for rich snippets, generate content that incorporates structured data which can be easily interpreted by search engines. For instance, when addressing queries about the best or highest ranked options, presenting information in a list format (bullet points or numbered headings) is recommended. Similarly, if the inquiry is a “what is” question, provide a concise paragraph at the beginning of an H2 section titled “what is X” (similar to how it was done in this article).
10. Leverage Google tools like Analytics, Search Console, and Keyword Planner
Included in our top choices for evaluating effectiveness, audience behavior, and performing high-traffic keyword research are local SEO tools that streamline processes and simplify the identification of areas for improvement.
- Google Analytics: Helps you understand the metrics of your website, such as number of traffic, source of traffic, and conversions.
- Search Console: Helps monitor your website and give valuable insights into your site’s performance in search results, such as where your site ranks, how often your pages are shown in search results, and what search terms people use to find you. It makes performing an SEO audit faster.
- Keyword Planner: Help you find and analyze keyword suggestions, to drive relevant traffic to your website.
ConversionIQ, our proprietary software at HawkSEM, is an additional tool we utilize to assist businesses in achieving high rankings and driving traffic that generates conversions. Through sophisticated keyword analyses, ConversionIQ identifies the most frequently used terms by your converting visitors.
11. Get relevant local sites, area blogs, and news outlets to link to your site
Backlinks have benefits beyond organic search results. They can enhance your local SEO and expand your reach. Carry out outreach campaigns for link-building to have other local websites, area blogs, or news outlets link back to your site.
Begin by contacting local websites and proposing a mutually beneficial arrangement, wherein you provide them with an incentive such as a discount code or complimentary product, in exchange for them including a link to your website.
Normand Chevrett, CEO of CME CORP, a company that specializes in healthcare equipment, logistics, and services, admits that a mistake was made in our approach to local SEO. We failed to recognize the importance of local backlinks and instead focused on obtaining backlinks from national and industry-related websites. Unfortunately, this oversight resulted in limited visibility in local search results and hindered our efforts to connect with the local community.
He further discovered the importance of local backlinks in establishing local credibility and authority.
Our attention should have been directed towards establishing connections with local organizations, healthcare facilities, and influencers in order to obtain pertinent backlinks. Additionally, we have come to the realization that supporting local events, cooperating with local partners, and making contributions to local publications will enhance our local SEO and increase our visibility in local search results.
12. Have an FAQ section on your site with relevant info
By answering all the questions your local customers may have before they contact your company, you can eliminate unnecessary inquiries and pre-qualify leads, resulting in higher conversion rates.
Some of the topics you can discuss include providing information about the location (including directions), areas where services are offered, available products, details about the products, pricing, accepted payment methods, and the policy for returns.
Rephrased: While preserving the same meaning, rephrase the text below step by step. Do not introduce new information nor omit any existing information.
Getting found online can be challenging for businesses, particularly for small ones with limited resources, as they strive to climb the SERPs. However, it is pivotal for the success of your business to prioritize local SEO. With the growing dependence of individuals on search engines and online reviews to fulfill their needs, it is essential to enhance your local rankings to ensure visibility.
Therefore, in order to rank on local search engine results pages, it is crucial to optimize your website, create high-quality local content, obtain citations, and receive positive reviews. In addition to technical local SEO strategies such as citations and web optimization, it is important not to confine yourself.
To establish connections with other nearby businesses, engage in community events and become a member of local organizations. Employ local SEO strategies for B2B if your target audience consists of other businesses.
In order to enhance your rankings, it is necessary to incorporate SEO and social media marketing alongside local SEO, as it cannot be done independently.
