Local SEO is a powerful strategy to help you rank higher in search engines and attract more local traffic. It’s one of the best ways to get new customers and improve your bottom line.
You may be surprised to learn that ranking in local search isn’t as hard as you might think. You just need to follow a few simple tips and tricks.
Keyword research
Keyword research is a crucial part of local search engine optimization (SEO). It helps you identify keywords that are relevant to your business, and it allows you to optimize your site for those terms.
First, you need to conduct keyword research for the services your business offers. This can be a difficult task because many businesses don’t think about all of their offerings.
However, by brainstorming and listing all of the services you offer, you can maximize your presence for queries your customers are searching for.
You can also use your list as “seed” keywords when you’re looking for additional service ideas. One way to do this is to plug a competing business into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer, then look for URLs that map to services in the Top pages report.
Next, you should perform a competitive analysis on these keywords to find out how much competition they have and how well they rank. This will help you determine which keywords you should focus your efforts on and which ones you can skip.
On-page optimization
Local SEO involves optimizing your online presence to attract more customers to your business. It includes strategies such as leveraging Google My Business, citations, and reviews to gain visibility in local search results.
While these factors are beneficial, they’re not the only on-page optimization factors that influence local SEO. On-page elements like keyword density, URL structure, header tags, and title tags are also important for ranking higher in organic search results.
Consistency is key here: make sure that your name, address, and phone number (NAP) are the same everywhere you’re listed online. This consistency also helps crawlers and bots connect the dots between your business profile, website, and other citations.
Another important on-page element is local schema or structured data markup. This helps Google understand which pages on your site are relevant to your service keywords and where they should rank in local search results.
Link building
Local search engine optimization (SEO) is an effective way to get your business in front of potential customers. While it takes time and effort to get results, a strong link-building strategy can make your site the best local option for certain search terms.
Almost all local SEO experts agree that links are a crucial factor in boosting your rankings. And Google has confirmed that relevant, high-quality links improve your ranking.
In order to build quality local links, you’ll want to target sites that are topically and geographically relevant to your local market. That means you’ll need to do some prospecting research.
For example, you may be able to find links to blogs and publications about your city or region. You can also reach out to local news outlets and ask them to write about your business.
You can also connect with charities that have a local focus to see if they have opportunities to give back and promote your business. This could be through donating money or goods, donating time to a fundraiser, or even writing about the cause on their website.
Social media
When done well, social media can have a big impact on your local SEO rankings. Creating a social media strategy that leverages content and best practices from both SEO and marketing can help you gain high-quality search results and build your online followings for greater engagement with customers.
In addition, social media posts and comments can be a helpful link-building tool. Including URLs to your content in social media profiles, comments, and posts can prompt users to click on them and visit your website.
Moreover, ensuring your business information is consistent across all platforms can help you boost local search. This includes making sure all your business information, including your NAP (name, address, and phone number), is correct on every platform.
You can also improve your local SEO by promoting reviews on review websites, such as Yelp and Google Places. These reviews are important for local searches because they show your credibility as a brand and improve your rank.
