Local Search Engine Optimization
Google realized after conducting trillions of searches that people searching for specific businesses often want results close to home; for this reason, local search rankings now take location into account.
Keep your business’s NAP (name, address and phone number) consistent online – this is one of the key components to successful local SEO ranking.
Keyword Research
Google Keyword Planner can be an invaluable tool in improving local SEO by helping you select relevant keywords for each location, filtering by search volume. This feature can especially prove invaluable for businesses with multiple locations as it can identify keywords with high search volumes that relate to their target audiences.
Step two of improving local SEO should involve making sure that your NAP (name, address and phone number) information is consistent across online directories and search engines. Furthermore, adding local keywords in titles tags, meta descriptions, image file names and alt texts as a way of increasing local SEO can only benefit. Ahrefs provides tools that help determine on-page SEO health.
On-Page Optimization
Search engines take into account various on-page factors when ranking websites locally, making optimization of content with local intent a key strategy to ensuring top results in local searches. It is key that keywords specific to that area be included where possible in order for it to rank well and achieve top placement in searches.
To do this, study your competition’s websites and identify their keywords. Once this has been accomplished, create pages dedicated to each product or service your business offers.
Use tools such as Ahrefs to discover which terms and phrases are searched most often in your locality, then incorporate those keywords into your website content for improved local SEO. Also make sure all information on both platforms matches.
Off-Page Optimization
An effective local search engine optimization strategy requires an awareness of both on-page and off-page signals – this includes website content, Google My Business profiles information and citations – in order to ensure success.
Utilising the keywords you identified through keyword research as a basis for your content marketing strategy is a good starting point, however focusing on keyword stuffing won’t get you very far.
Instead, your content must be informative, engaging, and readable to attract outside links and search engine interest, helping your business rank higher organic searches – leading to more traffic and revenue for you business. Listing your business on popular online and local directories is another effective way to increase its visibility – be sure that its name, address, phone number and website NAP remain consistent across platforms!
Local Citations
Citationss help search engines verify the identity and relevance of businesses to users, particularly for small local companies providing products and services. This is particularly beneficial to smaller firms that serve local clients.
Local aggregators like Yelp and Yellow Pages provide businesses with a great platform to list their information; however, niche directories may also prove beneficial when targeting niche markets.
Online reviews are another integral component of local SEO, as 72% of customers cited them as an influencer when making purchase decisions. Small businesses can utilize several tools to encourage customers to leave reviews such as offering incentives or using platforms which make reviewing easier; this can increase local search engine optimization as well as customer acquisition for their local business.
Social Media
Businesses that operate physically within a particular service area can take advantage of local search engine optimization (LSO). Like SEO in general, LSO helps increase a business’ visibility on search engines’ unpaid results – also known as natural or organic results.
Additionally to optimizing your website for local searches, you should also optimize your social media profiles for local searches. Make sure that your NAP information is consistent across platforms – some social media platforms even enable geotagging of posts and stories!
To boost local SEO, it is necessary to optimize website content, claim and update Google My Business profiles, create robust citation networks, and rank higher on regular Google Maps results as well as the ‘local organic’ results pages.