Do you feel like you’re always a few steps behind bigger businesses with bigger budgets? As a local business, dominating your local market is crucial to your success, but it doesn’t happen magically overnight. It takes consistent hard work and a well-thought-out strategy—and that’s where local search engine optimization (SEO) comes into play.
Local SEO is a digital marketing tactic that involves optimizing your online presence to increase visibility in local search results. By mastering local SEO, you can attract more traffic to your website, increase foot traffic to your physical location, and boost your bottom line.
But where do you start? With so much information out there—from self-proclaimed SEO gurus to free and paid tools—it can be overwhelming to know which strategies to use and which to ignore. That’s why we’ve put together a comprehensive guide to help you understand and master local SEO.
In this article, we’ll discuss the key components of local SEO, from optimizing your website and Google My Business listing to building local citations and generating positive reviews. We’ll also share expert insights and best practices to help you stay ahead of the competition and build a 5-star reputation.
Why is Local SEO Important?
In 2022, 98% of consumers used the internet to find information about local businesses. This means that if your online presence is not optimized for local search, you could be missing out on a significant amount of potential business. And how do you optimize your online presence for local search? With local SEO strategies, of course.
Let’s take a look at some of the specific ways local SEO benefits your business.
1. Increased relevant traffic.
Local SEO helps your business rank higher on search engine result pages for keywords associated with your business, attracting more relevant traffic to your website. The higher your business ranks on the search engines, the more likely potential customers are to discover your business—potentially customers that are actually interested in what you have to offer.
2. Boosts conversions.
As we just mentioned, local SEO leads to more relevant traffic, and more relevant traffic leads to more conversions. When people find your business through local search, they are more likely to make a purchase or visit your physical location because they are actively looking for the products or services you offer.
3. Improves brand awareness.
Finally, local SEO can help improve your brand awareness within your local community. By optimizing your website, Google My Business page, and other local directories, you can increase your online visibility, and ensure that your business appears in relevant search results pages. Over time, as more people discover and interact with your business online, your brand awareness within your local community will grow. This can lead to more word-of-mouth referrals and repeat customers, which is essential for the long-term success of your business.
How Does Local SEO Work?
At this point, you’re probably wondering: How does local SEO work?
Local SEO depends on Google’s usual ranking factors that apply to all websites. These include having quality content, relevant keywords, a mobile-friendly design, good user experience, and high authority and credibility.
How does this differ from general SEO? When it comes to local search, Google adds some specific factors to determine which businesses should appear in the top results.
1. Relevance
You need to have accurate and detailed information about your business, such as your NAP (name, address, and phone number), website, hours of operation, services, products, and reviews. The more relevant and up-to-date your information is, the better your chances of ranking high.
2. Distance
Google uses your business address and proximity to the user to determine if you’re a good match. If your business is located in the same city or neighborhood as the user, you’ll have a higher chance of ranking well.
3. Prominence
Google’s algorithm looks at various signals of prominence, such as the number and quality of your online reviews, your social media presence, your backlinks from reputable sources, your local citations and directories, and your overall brand reputation. The more prominent and trustworthy your business is, the more likely you are to attract clicks and visits from users.
Now that we’ve covered the main ranking factors of local SEO, let’s look at the two types of local search results that your business can rank for.
1. Map Pack Results
These are the top three local listings that appear under the Google Map in the search results. They are highlighted with pins and badges, and usually show the business name, address, phone number, open hours, website, reviews, and photos. Map pack results are the most visible and clickable results for local search, and therefore, the most competitive.
2. Organic Results
These are the standard web pages that appear beneath the map pack results, and they can be either local or non-local. Organic results are ranked based on their relevance and authority, and they can also appear for long-tail keywords and niche topics. However, organic results are less appealing to users than map pack results, and they may have lower click-through rates.
So, to sum it all up, if you want your local SEO efforts to be successful, you need to optimize your online presence for relevance, distance, and prominence. By doing this, you’ll win Google’s affection and climb to the top of the search results.
Local SEO Keyword Research
Most local SEO guides and resources will emphasize the importance of conducting keyword research to kickstart your efforts—and for good reason. Finding relevant local keywords is critical for your SEO success. Here are some tips to help you compile a list of keywords to target.
1. Use Google Keyword Planner.
Google Keyword Planner is a free tool that allows you to find relevant keywords based on your location, service area, industry, and search volume—it’s a fantastic resource. The tool provides you with important metrics like search volume, competition level, and suggested bid for each keyword. This will help you avoid wasting time chasing after rankings for unattainable keywords.
2. Research your competitors.
You’ve always got to keep an eye on the competition—and that’s especially true when it comes to SEO. By identifying the keywords that your competitors are ranking for, you can create a list of potential keywords to target. We’d recommend using competitor analysis tools like SEMrush to find your competitors’ top-performing keywords, backlinks, and PPC campaigns. By doing so, you can get insight into what’s working for your competitors and implement similar SEO strategies to drive more traffic to your website.
3. Consider Google autocomplete.
Have you ever conducted a Google search and noticed a little drop-down list of suggested searches? That’s Google Autocomplete, and it’s an excellent resource for finding long-tail keywords (phrases made up of three or more words). When you start typing a query in the search bar, Google will suggest a few related search queries based on what other users are searching for. By noting down these long-tail keywords, you can target specific users searching for those phrases and boost your local SEO.
4. Use Google Trends.
Google Trends is a free tool that provides you with insight into what people are searching for on Google. It allows you to see the search volume over time for specific keywords in different regions, which helps you get into the minds of your local audience. By using Google Trends, you can find relevant keywords that are currently trending in your industry and location. You can also see the seasonality of certain keywords to help you plan your SEO strategy for a specific time of year.
Local SEO Optimization Tips & Strategies
There isn’t one right way to approach SEO. What works for one business might not work for your business. Because of that, you’ll want to test different strategies and review your efforts consistently.
Not even sure where to start? We’ve compiled a list of some of the most popular and effective local SEO tips.
1. Create locally relevant content.
Creating locally relevant content such as blog posts, articles, and social media updates, can be a great way to attract local customers. You can share your knowledge of the local market by writing about events happening in your city/town, using local keywords to attract more visitors, and engaging with your local customers through your social media platform.
2. Get inbound links.
When other local websites link back to your website, it shows search engines that your site is relevant to local searchers. There are a number of ways to get inbound links such as guest posting, local online directories, and local news publications. Keep in mind that you only want to link to quality sites in order to avoid being penalized by search engines.
3. Prioritize customer reviews.
Online reviews can make or break your business. Everyone reads reviews nowadays—in fact, 85% of consumers say they’ve read an online review in the last month, and 88% of consumers say reviews play a major role in discovering a local business. In addition to the impact reviews have on business discovery and purchase decisions, reviews help search engines understand the relevance and importance of your business to your local audience. So, the more positive reviews you have on sites like Google, Bing, Yelp, and others, the more likely your business is to show up in search results.
4. Improve your internal linking structure.
Internal linking is another important factor to consider when optimizing your local SEO. By creating an internal linking structure (linking pages of your website to other relevant pages of your website), you help search engines understand the hierarchy of your website content. And as a bonus, from a user experience perspective, this improves the usability and navigability of your website.
5. Audit and optimize your website.
Auditing and optimizing your website is critical for overall optimization. Auditing your website is the process of going through your site and identifying areas for improvement, such as broken links, pages that load slowly, or poorly optimized content. To optimize your website, you can employ a variety of tactics, such as optimizing your images and videos, making sure your site is mobile-friendly, and ensuring your site’s code is clean and optimized.
6. Optimize your Google Business Profile.
When it comes to local SEO, one of the most important tools at your disposal is your Google Business Profile. Make sure that all of the business information in your profile is up to date, including your address, phone number, and business hours. Additionally, add high-quality photos and videos to your profile to help potential customers get a better idea of what you offer.
7. Engage on social media.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and others can be incredibly useful for boosting your local SEO. By actively engaging with your followers on these platforms, you build brand awareness which helps drive traffic to your website. In order to get the most out of your social media profiles, be sure to include your business’s name, address, and phone number on all of your social media pages.
8. Optimize URLs, title tags, meta descriptions, and content.
Optimizing your website’s URLs, title tags, meta descriptions, and content is also crucial for improving your on-page SEO. Use relevant keywords in your URLs and title tags, and make sure that your meta descriptions accurately reflect the content of each page. You should also create high-quality, original content—like blogs, guides, landing pages, or ebooks—that revolves around your target keywords.
9. Make your website mobile-friendly.
More searches are carried out on mobile devices than on the desktop, which means optimizing for mobile is non-negotiable. A mobile-friendly website is one that is easy to navigate on a small screen, with large buttons and text that can be easily read. A mobile-friendly website will not only improve your SEO rankings but will also provide a better user experience for your customers.
Local SEO Solutions for Small Businesses
Building a stellar online presence may seem like a daunting task, but in today’s digital landscape, it’s necessary. Luckily, you don’t have to do the work alone.
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