What You Need to Know About Local SEO - SEO - Ideas, Tips, Techniques & Tactics

local seo

Local SEO helps businesses of any size increase online visibility by optimizing Google Business Profile listings, building citations in local directories, and earning positive online reviews. Consumer research shows more shoppers now prefer local and small businesses as their go-to option, creating an opening for these companies to expand.

Keywords

Keywords are at the core of local SEO, telling search engines what your products or services are so they can match you to consumers searching for similar solutions. The goal is to surface both core keywords and location-specific modifiers through research, and one quick way to do that is typing your main target words into Google and noting the autocomplete suggestions.

Local keyword research feeds both your website pages and PPC ads, so you attract buyers who visit in person or online and leave competitors behind.

Start by listing every product and service your business offers, then pick keywords that describe each. Add location modifiers like city, state, or town to narrow results. Ubersuggest and SEMrush help with both general and location-specific keyword searches.

On-page optimization

On-page optimization tailors your website content and meta tags so they rank for search queries tied to a specific location. Schema markup is part of this work because it helps search engines understand your content and your business.

One cornerstone of on-page optimization is your NAP (name, address, and phone number). It should appear prominently on every page and match what is listed on your Google Business Profile.

Citations matter for local SEO as well. Building mentions of your NAP across online directories and tools like Yext helps you rank higher in local searches. Your NAP should also appear on service area pages and contact pages.

Link building

Local link building follows the same white-hat principles as national SEO but focuses on local-specific keywords and your service area. Collecting reviews on consumer directories like Yelp, Foursquare, Thumbtack, and Angie’s List adds review signals that boost local search rankings.

Writing a blog about topics relevant to your industry is a reliable way to build local links. It shows your expertise, builds trust with consumers, and grows referring domains for higher local rankings.

Submitting articles about your company or new products and services to local news websites also produces high-value links from users already interested in your brand.

Reputation management

Reputation management is a cornerstone of local SEO. It covers promoting positive reviews, earning high-profile endorsements, and publishing helpful web content, along with tracking competitors and building reports that show your value as a digital marketer. Tracking can focus on search rankings, new links, traffic, and conversions depending on client needs.

BrightLocal offers free local SEO tools for watching competitors and seeing which strategies work for them, including their content creation, backlink sources, and citation profile. Tools like LocalRank Flux show ranking fluctuations and changes.

Citations are the inclusion of your business’s name, address, phone number, and website (NAPW) on third-party sites like business directories and review platforms. They help Google verify that your NAPW information is accurate, which is an integral part of local SEO.

FAQ

What is local SEO?

Local SEO is the work of increasing a business’s online visibility for searches tied to a specific location. It includes optimizing your Google Business Profile, building citations in local directories, and earning positive online reviews.

What are the main parts of a local SEO strategy?

The main parts are keyword research with location modifiers, on-page optimization (including NAP consistency and schema markup), local link building through blogs and news sites, citations across directories, and reputation management such as reviews and competitor tracking.

Which tools help with local SEO?

Ubersuggest and SEMrush help with keyword research. Yext helps build citations. BrightLocal offers free tools for tracking competitors, and LocalRank Flux monitors ranking changes.