Imagine you run a bike shop.
Searching “bike shop” on Google will yield a lot of results. There is an abundance of bike shops available.
In the list, big companies usually take the prominent places. In the region where I am located, three well-known bike stores appear in the top five organic search results for this particular phrase.
Despite being a small business, my local bike shop is more successful than the others and it is the first result that appears on my search engine when I look for a bike shop.
Why?
Google pays a lot of attention to where a person is searching from, and the owner of my local bike shop was aware of this and took certain measures to make sure his shop was seen by as many people as possible in my area.
So how can you take advantage of local SEO?
Let us discover by taking a peek at something that is crucial for local search engine optimization.
What is local SEO?
Enhancing the visibility of local firms, particularly those with a physical premises, on search engines is known as Local SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Businesses can enhance organic web traffic from searches done by nearby customers by adhering to local SEO guidelines.
Search engines take into account cues like regional content, interpersonal organization records, connections, and references to give the most pertinent nearby outcomes to the client to assemble data for nearby pursuit.
Businesses can use local SEO to make their products and services visible to people in the area who are searching for them.
11 Effective Tips to Boost Your Local SEO
1. Register your business with Google Business
Establishing a Google Business profile (formerly referred to as a ‘Google My Business’ profile) is a relatively quick process that only takes a few minutes and is one of the most effortless strategies to boost your visibility in local search engine results.
When you create your profile, you give Google your business location. Google sends a card to the specified address containing a PIN that is used to validate the position of the company.
The address you provide Google with must be a physical address where people can actually go to and receive services or purchase products in person. Virtual office addresses generally aren’t accepted.
Once that procedure is finished, you should expect your business to show up on the “map pack” Google displays in response to local searches for your type of service within two days.
Depending on how many other businesses in your local area have linked up with Google My Business, you may even be the highest-ranking!
If you own a company with multiple branches, you should also list them on Google Business (and if you have a number of locations, you can add them all at once).
Tip: Give Google all the local information it needs
It is critical to give Google all the local data they need when constructing your Google Business profile, including the type of business, services and merchandise you offer, as well as your operating hours.
The more details you give Google, the more variables it can take into account – and the more probable it is to show your business in local search results and map packs.
When you input the data, Google will rate how thorough your business listing is – make an effort to reach 100% completion.
2. Ensure you’re using the right local keywords for your products and services
It is essential that the explanations of your goods and services on your webpage correspond to what people are actually looking for in your region.
It is pointless to refer to “automobiles” continuously on your website if people in your area are actually looking for the term “cars.”
In order to prevent these types of mistakes, you ought to employ a search engine optimization tool such as Semrush or Ahrefs. These tools help you determine the most sought after search terms for businesses like yours in the vicinity and how challenging it would be to achieve a high rank for them in the local area.
By employing a keyword research tool, it could be revealed that there is a greater demand for ‘New York Plumber’ than ‘Plumber New York’ in the local area.
It could be harder to get a higher ranking for “New York Plumber” than for “Plumber in Queens NY.”
This data can be employed to discover your optimal keyword – a phrase that accurately depicts your services while also having the possibility of succeeding in search results (check out the video below to observe how this is usually achieved).
Video guide: how to perform keyword research with Semrush
Once you have pinpointed a beneficial regional keyword, you can tailor your material and craft your local SEO plan around it.
What is a keyword difficulty score?
Search engines typically treat links to a website as an endorsement, provided that the links are authentic and located on reliable websites.
Gaining more of these ‘votes’ can result in a better search engine ranking.
Consequently, SEO tools assess the quantity of connections that lead to sites that are already doing well in searches and primarily compute difficulty rating based on that.
The majority of these instruments give a difficulty level rated on a scale of 100, with a higher score meaning it is more challenging.
For example, “New York Times” would have an incredibly high difficulty rating since there are already millions of websites linking to its website.
3. Ensure your location is referenced in key parts of your site
You should make sure that your home page and any other important pages containing information about your product and service reference your location in four key places:
It is also beneficial to include the location in the website address when it is applicable.
For example, if you ran a chain of curry restaurants, with locations in three parts of London, I’d suggest creating three separate pages with three separate URLs, for example:
www.mycurrysite.com/brixton-curry www.mycurrysite.com/walthamstow-curry www.mycurrysite.com/hampstead-curry
It is essential to be aware that each page ought to contain extremely different content. This is due to the fact that Google does not favor replicated material and can reprimand websites with a large quantity of it in search engine results.
It is important to consider how large of an area to cover when deciding where to place your reference.
For certain companies, especially those that offer goods and services in a very special area, it may be a good idea to use a hyper-local strategy- that is, to focus on the city or town that they are based in as their primary keyword.
For those who have less competition for their services, or who wish to reach out to customers in a bigger region, it might be beneficial to include the name of a county or state in critical sections of their website.
Doing research on the keywords you’re targeting can be helpful – as mentioned above!
4. Submit your site to high-quality local directories
Putting your websites in well-respected local directories can make a big difference in your ranking in search engine results.
Google initially looks through the directory entries, and if the directory is reliable, it can put the directory entry in a prominent spot in the search results.
This implies that if you are having difficulty getting a high position in the search engine results for a specific website address on your website, you may still be able to be seen through the search results of other websites.
You might also benefit from receiving a backlink, which can increase your visibility on search engine results.
Thirdly, you will increase the visibility of your business to anyone searching those directories.
It is vital to only provide your website information to excellent directories. Not all directories are trustworthy, and if you give details of your site to the wrong ones it can influence your rankings in an adverse way.
Important: be consistent with contact details
It is extremely significant to be totally regular when entering your company’s contact information into any internet directories – always input them in the same precise manner.
Engines search for consistent citations of a business’s name, address, and phone number (NAP). If different information is repeatedly seen, this could cause a warning sign to be raised in regards to the business’s legitimacy, thus negatively impacting its visibility in search outcomes.
5. Perform a local SEO audit.
Once you have the basics mastered, it can be tempting to stop pushing yourself. However, SEO is an ongoing and intuitive process. Rather than simply halting at that point or randomly trying out modifications without a plan, it is beneficial to conduct an all-encompassing evaluation to determine where your website is and what needs to be done to reach your objectives. A local SEO audit may include the following:
- Google My Business Audit – How does your Google My Business appear in the SERPs? Is the information accurate?
- Google Search Console Audit – Is your site crawlable? Does it have any errors that would hinder indexing?
- On-Page SEO Audit – Does your site accommodate all the on-page SEO elements that help ranking?
- Citation Audit – Are all of your citations correct in the top business directories?
- Competitor Analysis – How does your site match up with your competition’s? Are there any gaps that you need to close? How do you match up in terms of inbound links, content, design, and positioning?
- Website Audit – How well is your website performing?
6. Improve your internal linking structure.
Even though it is advantageous to have external links that lead to your website (which I will go over shortly), altering the way you internally link will also increase your SEO rankings.
Why does internal linking matter? It does the following:
- Supports website navigation
- Assists with information architecture and website hierarchy
- Distributes page authority and ranking power among pages
If you’d like to enhance your internal linking system but don’t know how, examine Kissmetrics’ The Seven Commandments of Internal Linking for Superior SEO.
7. Optimize URL, title tags, headers, meta description, and content.
When it comes to creating content, each fresh blog post adds an extra page to your website that can be used to target a specific geographic search term, thereby increasing the chances of being displayed in the search engine results pages.
For every piece of content you develop, be sure to enhance it for search engine optimization by including frequently searched keywords in the internet address, title, header, summary, and main text. If you are having difficulty creating content that is tailored to a specific location, you may want to think about showcasing customer triumphs and analyzing their experiences.
It’s a good idea to include as many details as possible when you create assets related to your business, especially for each location. Doing this will help you maximize the results of searches for business nearby.
8. Add location pages to your website.
If you possess more than one physical store, make separate location pages. Pages that focus on the location of your business give people your name, address, contact number, opening and closing times, a description that is specific to your store, directions on how to get there and where to park, details on any offers, and comments from customers who have had a good experience.
It is critical that you do not copy the same content across various location pages. Produce an About Us page that is particular to the place your single-location business is located at. You can score extra points by incorporating a Google Map on your location page(s) on your website.
9. Create local content.
Google is becoming increasingly more sophisticated, allowing content creators to create more for their readers and less to satisfy search engine algorithms. It’s beneficial to concentrate on local or trade news rather than general themes to draw in a local crowd, even though writing about general matters will draw in a large crowd.
Act as a leader in your sector by highlighting local business events, updates, personnel, and other informative material on your blog. Consider creating content for the beginning of the funnel that goes beyond just what your company offers.
As an example, if you are a security business in the vicinity aiming to bring in clients who are unfamiliar with the area, create a useful resource to help them become more familiar with the town. A map of organizations offering services in the area or a schedule of happenings across the city could both be beneficial for your target audience and have highly pertinent local indicators on the page.
10. Ensure your website is mobile-friendly.
Searching both locally and on mobile devices are closely related, as 61% of all Google searches occur from mobile devices.
Some of the typical activities people may do on your website from their cell phone are to read reviews, obtain directions to your place, and look for contact information. Mobile searches for things located nearby have accelerated by 250% since 2017.
Design your website so that it is easy to use on mobile devices for your potential clients and existing customers.
11. Get inbound links with relevance and authority.
Incoming connections offer great chances to improve your nearby SEO – each inbound connection tells Google you are a genuine business, and they can likewise help increment your area power. Here are a few ways to get inbound links:
- Sponsorships or Partnerships
- Guest Blog Posting
- Scholarships
Begin with the people you know, such as the Chamber of Commerce, business improvement districts, permitting offices, professional organizations, merchants, suppliers, makers, and other related organizations.
Think about underwriting a webinar or gathering, orchestrating a social occasion, elevating something nearby you appreciate, and creating associations with well-known individuals and influencers. Also, practice being at ease when contacting partners to find out if they can list you on their partner list.
That’s it!
I wish you have gotten value from our manual regarding local SEO! Use a checklist to direct you when improving your website for local search results.
