8 Ways to Optimize Your Local SEO

Local SEO is essential for small firms who operate locally rather than nationally. While national SEO places more of an emphasis on ranking for queries conducted across the nation, local SEO prioritises showing up in the SERPs in specific locales. This strategy makes sense when you need to be a brand that caters to local leads and customers in specific.  Optimizing your local SEO will result in an increase in website traffic, leads, and conversions by making techniques more pertinent to your local user base. Consider this focused approach as a strategy that will enable you to more effectively compete with bigger, better-funded national companies. By concentrating on particular local SEO activities, you may compete with large businesses who frequently optimise for a wider variety of keywords and rely on brand recognition rather than a value offer to generate traffic.  With this article, we seek to emphasize on 7 practices or ways by which you can win in the Local SEO space where local customers will love your brand. So, if you want to know more, here goes.  

Create a GMB (Google My Business) Account 

Before understanding the 7 ways, the first thing to do would be to create a Google My Business account to let Google know that your local business exists. It is only then that the SEO can be done and work.   Ensure the following to optimise your Google Business Profile: 

1. Create a Google My Business account and confirm the ownership of the business. 
2. Offer truthful and current information. 
3. Include your logo, business hours, accepted payment methods, the goods or services you offer, and several photos. 
4. Encourage your clients to review your company online. 
5. When receiving customer feedback, be sincere. 
6. From the Google My Business dashboard, publish posts (announcing items, events, and special offers) on your company profile. 

Once you follow the basics above, here are the 8 important ways in which you can keep optimizing for local SEO and get more leads locally.

1. Get constant feedback from satisfied customers

We have already mentioned this before, but still, here is the detail. When you get customers to leave positive reviews about your business, you not only increase your presence on Google My Business, but also motivate more people around you to buy from you. According to the 2017 BrightLocal Local Consumer Survey, 85% of shoppers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.  Here are some ideas on how to get customers to post reviews: 

• After the sale closes, ask for a personal inspection. 
• After a user has made a purchase, invite them to leave a review by sending them an email or text message (but only after verifying it through an internal survey to ensure you don’t find any dissatisfied target customers). 
• Respond to ongoing reviews in a professional manner, thank reviewers, and address complaints about unflattering reviews.

2. Produce content based on regional news and events 

Nothing will catch the attention of your local clients like content that talks or is directly related to a local issue.  Several tactics consist of:

• Creating blog posts based on local news items, events, or activities
• Making movies about neighbourhood non-profits or topics your firm supports
• If you provide services to several areas in a region, setting up location-specific webpages with excellent local content on your website.

Consider the case of a neighbourhood real estate company. For each of your locations, you can make a separate page where you can showcase hyperlocal content about current affairs or adjustments to the neighbourhood real estate market. Using this method, you might also improve your ranking for any particular place. 

 3. Make your website mobile friendly

According to a 2018 Stone Temple study that compared last year’s mobile and desktop models, the move to mobile is happening sooner than expected. In contrast to the decline in overall desktop visits from 43% in 2016 to just 37% in 2017, visits to mobile sites increased from 57% to 63% in 2017.   Another 2017 study by Acquisio found that local search traffic can be hugely profitable, with a staggering 75% of all mobile searches with local intent actually resulting in an offline store visit within 24 hours.  This goes to show that in order to be competitive in local SEO you need to optimize your website for mobile devices (and really for good SEO period).   Here are some guides to help you: Aim for fast website load times (no more than three seconds) 

• Use a larger, legible font size 
• Express only the information you need and use graphics and content that is rarely used (there is very little room to fill a mobile screen!) 
• For a good UX, make sure the UI is clean. 

 4. Target Local Keywords 

Your keyword selection should be appropriate for local clients. It is only logical, isn’t it? You may limit keyword searches based on geography in Google’s own Keyword Planner to get an idea of what search terms are most popular where you are. This enables you to compile a list of locally applicable keywords to focus on. Once you have them, you should use them in the copy, URLs, and meta content of your website.    In your material, also mention tourist attractions and hotspots that are unique to the area. For example, mention “eat near the Space Needle” or “walking distance from the Space Needle” on your website if a restaurant in your neighbourhood serves dinner in downtown Seattle. 

5. Use a site-specific “About Us” page  

If your business has multiple locations in an area, a location page is required. These pages must contain at least the following information. 

• Shop opening hours 
• Name, address and contact details 
• Custom description 
• Review 
• Promotion 
• Possibility to park 
• Each location page has a link to Google Maps 

          Be careful if you have multiple sites as each page must have its own unique content.  If you only have one location, it’s important to create an “About Us” page that highlights relevant local information. For example, if you own a flower shop, an About Us page is a great place to describe your company’s involvement in providing flowers for a parade in your city. 

 6. Use online business directories to your advantage

Sites such as Yelp, Foursquare, MapQuest, and YellowPages, are some examples of online business directories. They are many.  Adding your business name, address and phone number to this directory will increase visibility while improving your local SEO.  The following fundamentals should be in your company listing: 

• Name of the company (insert some original company names here!) 
• Phone and address information 
• A webpage that points back to yours 
• A detailed description of your company 

Ensure that all directories should use the same ones.

7. Prioritize connection signals (Get High-Quality Backlinks)

Link signals rank first and second in importance for local pack (or snack pack) results and localised organic results, respectively, according to Moz’s 2017 Local Search Ranking Factors study. Backlinks leading to your website are known as link signals.  Obtaining links is essential for improving your local SEO, but their calibre is also crucial.  Here are some pointers for obtaining backlinks of good calibre: 

• Create engaging content for your website so that others will want to link to it. 

• Blog as a guest on trustworthy websites with a high domain authority 
• To obtain local influencers to link back to you, communicate with them via email or social media.

8. Create a separate and dedicated webpage for each product or service you offer 

While it may be tempting to group all of your suggestions on one big page, don’t do it. Instead, provide each unique item or service you offer a separate page.  Since search engines usually don’t see your brand as an authority in a niche, your local SEO juice won’t be as effective if you put everything on one page. This reduces your chances of ranking.  Use location-based material for each page if your company has multiple locations but no distinct items or services. 

Conclusion 

SEO is always changing. Although you can’t foresee when Google will make changes to the SERPs for local searches, you can be prepared for them. As a result, it’s essential to constantly check local SEO. You can ensure that your business gains from successful local searches as well as a solid foundation for when new SEO capabilities are offered by putting these 8 simple ideas into action. Additionally, you might want to think about hiring a small business managed SEO provider or conducting a local SEO audit if you don’t have the time to make these improvements.