How to Make Local SEO Work For Your Business
Local SEO marketing enables businesses with geographic focuses (like plastic surgeons, dentists and real estate agents ) to outrank competitors in their area and increase online visibility and drive traffic to their business.
Similar to traditional SEO, a solid local search strategy entails web content, citations, review signals and strategies specifically tailored for local search.
Keyword Research
Keyword research is at the core of any successful local SEO strategy. It ensures that companies optimize their website and online content so it corresponds with search queries entered into Google by users.
Local SEO keyword research differs from general keyword research in two key ways: (1) Local keywords often include geographic modifiers such as city names, neighborhoods or ZIP codes to target customers looking for businesses like theirs in that location; and (2) Search queries are usually more intent-driven for local searches compared to general ones – meaning users have something in mind when conducting their search queries.
Keyword research tools such as Ubersuggest, Google Keyword Planner and Autocomplete can assist in discovering relevant local search terms for your business. Furthermore, these tools enable you to conduct competitive analyses by viewing websites and SERPs of competitors to see which keywords they’re using as targeting strategies.
On-Page Optimization
On-page optimization is a crucial component of local SEO, and requires making sure your content is relevant and user-centric, optimizing title tags, and including appropriate keywords in copy.
Maintaining an active Google My Business (GMB) account and effectively managing it is essential to local search. Here you can update company information, claim listings and monitor reviews.
Review response is another component of on-page SEO that contributes to local search results. Responding quickly and attentively to customers reviews demonstrates your business cares for its customers’ experience, which in turn may help with ranking; Google favors businesses with high reviews in both carousel results and organic listings.
Link Building
Link building is essential in local SEO as in traditional search engine optimization; having an established backlink profile will put your local results higher up the page where more people will click through to your page.
Apart from creating high-quality content that caters specifically to local audiences, you can also look for link opportunities in resource listings and blogs. In addition, doing competitor research to identify websites linking back to competitors is also useful; reach out to these websites in hopes of earning links of your own!
Be mindful when seeking links that offer value to readers while having minimal risk of Google penalties.
Social Media Marketing
Local SEO strategies often incorporate social media marketing as part of their strategies for local product and service promotion, including creating and managing local listings on platforms like Google My Business and Yelp as well as publishing engaging, quality content to attract local consumers.
Traditional SEO (search engine optimization) involves improving all organic search engine rankings; local SEO instead specializes in improving results in specific geographic locations because Google uses factors like GMB listings, citations and reviews to rank local businesses.
Competitor analysis is an integral component of local SEO campaigns. It allows you to gain an insight into what competitors are doing to outshout you, as well as ways you can improve your own tactics. A great tool for this purpose is LocalRank Flux which tracks daily changes to your local search ranking position.
Reputation Management
An impressive online reputation is now more important than ever for businesses of any kind. Every time a consumer needs something in your local area, they use their smartphone to conduct a search – which means every time consumers search on Google they could end up at your site!
Reviews play a large role in shaping consumer decisions. According to Brightlocal, consumers read an average of 10 online reviews before they trust a business enough to purchase from them.
To increase local SEO rankings, it is vitally important to optimize your Google Business Profile and maintain consistency across the web, including NAP citations on review sites and local directories. Furthermore, creating relevant and valuable content for your audience is a surefire way of increasing local rankings.