No matter the size or type of business, local seo can help increase online visibility for any brand. This may involve optimizing Google Business Profile, submitting citations to local directories and cultivating positive online reviews.
Consumer research demonstrates a trend whereby more consumers are preferring local and small businesses as their go-to option, creating an incredible opportunity for these enterprises to expand and thrive.
Keywords
Keywords are at the core of local SEO, serving search engines with information about your products or services to consumers who search online for similar solutions. In an ideal world, both core keywords and modifiers that relate directly to your location will be discovered through keyword research – one way of doing this could be typing your primary target words directly into Google and taking note of any autocomplete suggestions that come up!
Conducting local keyword research is essential to optimizing your web pages and PPC ads for local search visibility, attracting more potential purchasers who visit in person or visit online and leaving competitors far behind.
Begin by compiling a list of all of the products and services your business provides, then identify keywords to describe each. Add location-specific modifiers like city, state, or town to refine searches to the most pertinent results. Ubersuggest and SEMrush tools provide great assistance for searching both general as well as explicit local keywords.
On-page optimization
On-page optimization is a key element of local SEO. It involves tailoring website content and meta tags so they rank highly for search queries relevant to a certain location, while also including schema markup that helps search engines better comprehend your content and business.
One of the cornerstones of on-page optimization is your website’s NAP (name, address and phone number). This information should be displayed prominently across every page and should match up with what’s found in Google Business Profile information.
Citations is another essential factor when it comes to local SEO, and building these mentions of your NAP is key for ranking higher in local searches. Citations can be created through online directories or tools like Yext; alternatively, make sure your NAP appears in service area pages and contact pages as well.
Link building
Local link building is an integral component of white hat SEO. Based on similar principles as national SEO, but tailored specifically for local-specific keywords and geographic area of service. Collect reviews on consumer directories like Yelp, Foursquare, Thumbtack and Angie’s List as these review signals help boost local search rankings.
An effective strategy for building local links is creating a blog about relevant topics in your industry. Doing this enables you to demonstrate your expertise and increase trust with consumers while also increasing referring domains for higher ranking in local searches.
Submitting articles about your company or introducing new products/services on local news websites will also yield links that have high value, more likely attracting users that are interested in your brand.
Reputation management
One of the cornerstones of local seo is reputation management. This encompasses activities that promote positive reviews, high-profile endorsements and helpful web content, while monitoring competitors and creating reports to demonstrate your value as a digital marketer. Your tracking may focus on key metrics like search rankings, new links, traffic and conversions based on client needs.
BrightLocal offers free local SEO tools to keep an eye on competitors and see which strategies are working for them. One way is to take note of their content creation strategies, where their backlinks come from and their citation profile. You could also use tools such as LocalRank Flux to monitor fluctuations or changes in their rankings positions.
Citations is the practice of including your business’s name, address, phone number and website (NAPW) on third-party sites such as business directories or review platforms in order to help Google verify that the NAPW information provided by you is accurate. Citations is an integral component of local SEO as they allow Google to check whether or not your NAPW data is correct.