Are you looking to optimize your business and website for Local SEO?
Local SEO helps small businesses to increase their product and services reach by targeting the local audience and customers. Today most of the users are using the search engine to find the nearest gas station, restaurants, stores, and more. That makes it important for every business to optimize their website and business for local searches.
Optimizing your business for local SEO helps you to increase its visibility in the search engines, helps you to rank on the tops, and diver more customers to your store and website. Whether you have a law firm, a medical clinic, a restaurant, a grocery store, and more this article is meant for all the business owners looking to improve their local SEO.
If your website is not optimized for local search then its sad to say but you are losing more than 60% of potential customers and traffic on your website. That means if you don’t have your business registered online then its the best time to do it.
You can create a location-specific website and sell your products online and you can register your business with GMB (Google My Business) and other online business directories.
In this article, we will help you to discover the tip to improve your local searches so that your business attracts an abundance of local visitors.
If you are looking to know various SEO tools in 2020 then check our blog on 28 Free SEO Tools In 2020 To Optimize Your Website Performance And Ranking
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO is one of the important aspects of SEO that allows you to increase your business and product visibility among local audiences. Business optimizes their website for local SEO so that their website can be visible in local search results.
For example, if a user is searching for terms like “restaurant near me” or “law from near me” and your business lies in the same area and location, then your website and your business detail should appear in the local search results.
Tips to improve your local searches SEO
1. Optimize Your Google my business account
Improving your business profile in google my business account automatically helps you to increase your visibility in local search results. If you don’t have your business account on Google my business then you first you should create an account on Google my business.
Fill in all the details into the dashboard. Always provide accurate information that can help google as well as user to find your business. Provide up to date number, address, hours of operation, the payment method you accept, your product, service, and more.
Once Google verifies your business then the search engine will start displaying your website in the local search results. But to be on the top you need to focus on other activities that we have mentioned below.
- Updated your information if you change it
- Reply to your customer reviews
- Publish the post and engage your audience by announcing a new event offer and more
- Include images in your GMB profile.
2. Encourage user to write a review about their experience
Reviews and ratings play a crucial role in making your business visible on the top in local search results. Because Google always prefers to offer the best results to its users. Review and ranting help google to understand your product and service quality. It also helps them to identify how authentic and effective your business is.
Only a few savvy customers prefer to write reviews about their experience. If you wish to get reviews from your customer then you need to encourage them to write a review. Whenever a person purchases from your store you can ask them to write a review. You can offer them a small incentive like a 10%discount on the next purchase and more.
If you have users email id then you can send a post-purchase email with attractive incentives. If a customer is complaining about your service and product then handle them professionally by replying to their comment.
3. Include location in your website
If you want your website to be visible for your local audience in SERP, then it is important to include your location in the website. Creating a location page makes it easy for the search engine to display your website for users using location-specific phrases and keywords.
Your location page should include your company or business name, phone number, address, store timing, parking information, and more. Providing information about your store on the location page makes it easy for the user to know more about the facilities and service offers by your business.
If you operate in multiple areas then create a separate location page for each area and avoid using the same content of the different location page.
4. Research and Use Local Keyword
If you want to rank your website for local searches then it is important to find and include the keyword that relates to local users or used by local audiences. Google Keyword Planner is one of the most efficient keyword research tools that will help you to discover location-specific.
It allows you to filter keywords depending on the location and offers keyword or search terms that are used by the local audience. You can make use of these keywords in your content to produce location-specific content.
5. Optimize your website title, URL, description, and heading
There is no doubt that your website title, URL, description, and content plays a major role in making your website visible for local searches. Whether you are creating a web page for a specific location or content, you need to ensure that it contains all the high volume keywords that are used by the local audience.
Not only that but make sure your web page URL, title, and description are optimized with location-specific keyword that you obtained from Google Keyword Planner. Remember google considers each web page fo your website as an individual page so you need to make sure that each web page is optimized. Don’t use the same keyword on different pages instead make a list of location-specific keywords and use it for different content.
6. Make use of online directories
To optimize your website for Local SEO you should focus on creating online business directories of your business. There are various websites like Yelp, My business listing manager, MapQuest, Factual, and more that allow you to create online business directories.
Make sure while creating business directories you enter correct details. Avoid common mistakes like spelling mistakes, address without suit number, missing number in the phone details, and more. And make sure all the details about your business is the same on different business directories because these type of activities help you to improve your Local SEO.
To make your online business directory submission more effective you can use your URL and create a backlink while creating your profile. And you can also write a short description about your business, product, and services.
7. Use same name, address, and number on different platforms
When it comes to Local SEO then your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) play a crucial role in search engines as well as users. Most of the business commits a common make by not updating the changes they made to NAP. If you want a search engine to display your website for location-specific search term then you need to have your business NAP consistent all-over places.
Pay attention to your avenue, suit numar, and small elements of your address, so that google crawler gets authentic and specific information about your business. Providing these small details about your address increases the chances of your website appearance.
For example, If a user is searching for the best restaurant in 14 avenues CA then there are more chances of your business website to appear in the search results as well as in local searches.
8. Optimize your website for Mobile Friendliness
Mobile and local searches have very strong connections. Most of the local searches around are carries out on mobile devices that mean your website should be optimized for mobile devices. You need to ensure that your website loads quickly on mobile devices.
Make sure your CTA (call to action buttons) is visible on the mobile devices. You can focus on improving your website UI/UX design so that your website is easily accessible on mobile devices. As desktop users are shifting to mobile devices you should focus on all the small aspects that can improve your website navigation and accessibility on mobile devices.
You can use bigger fonts to highlight your product and services (your website purpose). There are various tools like Mobile-friendly test, Pagespeed Insight, and more that can help you to check your website speed as well as mobile-friendliness for mobile devices.
9. Focus on creating the the the local content
If your website is targeting a local audience then it is important to create local content that solves user’s problems. Creating general content can attract a wide range of audiences, but if you want to optimize your website for local searches then you should focus on producing location-specific content.
For example, if you are having a law firm that serves in the San Francisco bay area then crates content that offers solutions for problems faced by business and people living in San Francisco. You can use the area name in your content with all the details that can relate your content with the local audience and area.
10. Build Inbound links (high-quality backlinks)
Getting high-quality backlinks from other website improves the business authority and helps you to optimize your website and business for Local SEO. Your content plays a major role in getting backlinks for other websites.
Sponsorship and partnership is another effective way to get high-quality backlinks from an authority website. Reach out to websites that relate to your business and offer them resources that can persuade them to give like back to your website.
Guest blogging is another effective way to improve your inbound links. You can host small promotional events that can help you to build relationships with other businesses and influencers. Reach out to your partner and check whether they can include your business directory or give a link back to your website.
Make use of social media influencers and ask them to give a link back in return you can promote their content or videos. If you want your website and business to appear on top in local searches as well as in the search engine results then you should focus on inbound linking.
