Are you struggling to drive traffic to your site locally? If that is so you are not alone every second local business go through this phase.
That’s why I made this comprehensive guide to provide you with every single detail about optimizing your site for local searches.
58 percent of companies still don’t optimize for local searches, so it’s the best time to jump in and establish your brand successfully in local geographical areas.
Let’s dive deep into this guide, and find out what local SEO is and how it works.
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO is a strategic approach to optimize your website’s online presence to increase its visibility in local geographical searches.
In simple words, it’s a technique for attracting people whenever they search for a nearby particular service or product.
About 46 percent of Google searches have local intent, emphasizing the importance of local SEO.
Why Is Local SEO Important?
Think of it as you are the business owner of brick-and-mortar stores who aims to target people nearby, local SEO is an effective strategy to appear in local searches and increase foot traffic.
Most of the searches online start with “near me”, because people use GPS-based apps to get their answers and services faster.
A study by RankRangers reveals that 29% of all Google SERPs contain local packs and Google says 79% visit stores on the same as they search for.
A few years ago, I worked with the small business of apparel on the SEO project. They have a pretty good following on the Internet but they are unable to attract customers. After analyzing I found that their website is optimized for local searches.
After optimizing their site and adding all the key information like phone number, address, hrs of operation they saw a significant increase in traffic.
I am sure now get the point, what I am trying to say. This shows clearly why local SEO is important.
If you still don’t think about local SEO or optimize your site locally, it means you are missing out huge number of traffic.
How To Do Local SEO?
Set Up Google Business Profile:
Google business profile also known as Google My Business is the first step in optimizing your site for local SEO.
It’s a free service provided by Google for users to go and find nearby companies’ names, addresses, locations, and email addresses.
In simple words, you have to list your site or company in Google’s local search database so that whenever a person searches it appears in the SERPs.
For listing you have to follow the main three steps.
- Create your Business Profile
- Verify it on Google
- Optimize your listing
What do I mean by optimizing your listing? There are some important points that you have to note when you are claiming for GMB.
Start with the name, add your company or brand name, add the logo of your brand, write a clear and concise description of your business and ad, and lastly add your business phone number and email.
Make sure all the information you add is accurate and you are not misguiding anything. Wrong information leaves customers or visitors in disappointment.
Regularly update your information and also add the secondary contact number and links to your social media.
GMB also had a feature of posting that is posting short blogs or photos. You could take additional benefit from this by publishing blogs about your business updates, upcoming events, sales, reviews, quotes, etc.
A study shows that businesses having a list of high-quality images on GMB listing are likely to get 35% more clicks. Add photos of your business location, and satisfied customers that entice people and make them share positive reviews.
Claiming for GMB is essential for your business if you want to show up in local search results otherwise there is less chance to get traffic locally.
Find the Right Keyword For Local Search:
Keywords are the master and game changer for any marketing strategy. It’s a real headache for those who don’t know how to search for keywords and what aspects should consider while choosing a keyword.
But don’t worry after reading this thoroughly, you got to know all the essential points and are ready for this.
Keywords are the specific search terms that people use to find particular information, products, and services online.
For example, if someone searches for “best coffee shop near me” that means he most probably intended to visit and check that site.
It’s a general perspective about keywords, now come to the main point of keywords for local SEO.
Keywords specified for local searches contain location-specific terms that help in generating traffic from the location search area.
You should have a complete keyword strategy to lean on before implementing any marketing strategy.
First, you have to find high search volume keywords with low competition to rank for.
For example, if you are a photographer in Chicago you could also have an additional keyword list like this.
- Photographer Of Chicago
- Wedding photographer in Chicago
- Photographer with low cost
- Name (Chicago)
As you can see the keywords used by already ranked photographers.
Luckily, there are many keyword tools (Google Keywords Planner, Ubersuggest, Moz Keyword Explorer) available, so you can use and find all the relevant keywords.
Just like this, I enter the primary keyword and it shows the most relevant keywords with all the additional insights.
Website Optimization For Local Search:
Now, you have to set up your website for local SEO. You have a complete keyword strategy and you know whom to target and what to rank for.
There are some specific elements that differentiate local SEO from other regular SEO and you should know how to optimize them.
First of all, audit your site through an SEO analyzer and find the issue your website is having, in case you don’t know how to analyze use site audit tools.
This helps you to find areas of improvement and gives you tips to solve those issues. Now take a step forward and follow the steps written below.
- Create Webpages For Target Keywords
- Add your Business Details
- Add Markup Schema
- Optimize Your Site For Mobile
Create Web pages: for each keyword, or you can add 2-3 keywords but avoid keyword stuffing.
This would be the landing pages so whenever a person clicks on that keyword it links back to the main landing page.
Add your business details: Include your company’s current address and exact location. I would suggest creating a separate page or block for this to showcase your all locations if you have more than one branch or site.
You must have a dedicated page for contacts to list your business name, contact number, links to your social media handles, etc. This will help your visitors to find information related to your brand easily.
Schema Markup: You’ll want to ensure that Google interprets your all information accurately. For this schema markup is necessary. It is a common language search engines use to understand what your website is.
Make sure the schema markup is accurate so Google will better understand what kind of your website is.
Optimize Your Site For Mobile Users: Ensure your website is mobile-optimized for a better user experience. Google and other search engines prioritize mobile-friendly sites, especially for local queries.
Build NAP Citations:
A NAP citation is the space where your business name, contact number, address, and email address are mentioned.
NAP citations are the most crucial element of local SEO and account for 7% of the algorithm of local search.
In addition, local citations help to build credibility and trust. Let’s see what former Google John Muller says about citations.
Just because a company name is mentioned somewhere doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good or bad for the company. I’d see those mentions more as advertising — if you think people are going to see it and explicitly search out your business, then that’s great.
Here is an example of a listing of citations.
For sure, Google is the biggest source of information but sometimes people also use other sites like Yelp, Yellow Page, and other popular business directories for direct results.
So, it’s recommended to get listed on these business directories also to drive massive organic traffic.
Content That Gets Backlinks:
Content is the backbone of marketing strategy and also an essential element of local SEO. You must hear about the importance of content a thousand times before that.
So, create content like blogs and articles for your website that contain valuable information about your product or service.
Local SEO content contains text, images, and videos that will be shown on your website, landing pages, and your Google business profile.
Now, come to generating backlinks. Getting backlinks is tricky but if you create information-rich rich valuable content the chance of building links is high.
You must create city-specific landing pages but not everyone searches by your city name, so try to add neighboring cities also to attract more traffic.
Content ideas for Local SEO you can create content on these topics.
- New products and services
- Guides about your product and services
- Local news and events
- Interviews
Reviews:
As a small business owner, you know the importance of an online reputation and strong online presence. It’s a key to attracting visitors and turning them into potential customers.
One of the most effective ways of building trust and brand reputation is getting reviews as much as you can from your customers.
About half (57%) of the people read reviews before making purchases. Reviews are the third most important factor in Google’s Map Pack Results.
You can say reviews are a powerful tool for influencing people and impacting your local search ranking. But remember reviews are the ranking factor but affect indirectly on ranking.
Entices the visitors in a way that encourages people to leave positive and detailed reviews. For example,
People love to give reviews if they like the product or services. Yelp and TripAdvisor are also famous platforms for reviews but Google reviews have more worth.
Create a shareable link and follow-up email that reminds customers to leave reviews whenever they make a purchase.
At some point, you might get negative reviews, they harm your brand reputation but handling those comments politely and positively can turn them into positive ones.
Tracking Your Performance:
The last step is to track your performance after implementing the strategy and optimizing your site. Measuring the local SEO efforts like visibility on Google Maps, Google search, in the local pack, and SERP features is crucial to improve your strategy.
Use Google search console and find which keywords are driving traffic and which are dead. Analyze your site thoroughly, and find issues that cause your site to lose backlinks or reputation.
Refine your strategy by considering those results.
FAQs:
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO is the practice of optimizing your website to rank higher in local search results. It includes various factors business name, address, contact number, and email, etc.
How long does it take local SEO to work?
Local SEO takes three to six months just like regular SEO. But it also depends on how to optimize the elements of local SEO and implement the strategy.
What are the most important elements of local SEO?
Well, every element of Local SEO is important but some require special attention.
- Optimize Google Business Profile
- NAP citations
- Reviews
- Local Keywords
- Build Reputable Links
Local SEO: Final Thoughts
Local SEO is a powerful yet cost-effective way to increase traffic and attract potential leads.
Hopefully, this guide will be helpful for you and you are clear now what is local SEO and how to do it.
But, remember it’s only one of the strategies but without doing On-Page and Off-page SEO you can’t get the results and rank on the top.
Read this guide thoroughly and follow the steps mentioned above I will guarantee you get your intended results.
Btw, have you ever tried any of the Local SEO strategies, if so what results did you get?