15 Simple and Proven Surefire Tips from the Experts to Improve Your Local SEO

by Guna Nadar - 5/23/2020 2190 Views

Local SEO can be a daunting task, as it is a highly competitive area with numerouslocal businesses aiming to get on top of the rankings.

Local SEO Tips

According to Hubspot, Over 64% of marketers actively invest in search engine optimization. It is no big deal to get your local business indexed on Google for local SEO, but ranking high for the right keywordsrequires a lot of effort.

Local SEO isn't easy as it used to be earlier. With a lot of developments in Google's local SEO metrics and analytics, it is best to look into the local SEO strategiesthat your competitors are doing and have an edge over them.Nowadays, reaching to the top of the search engine result pages requires a strategic approach to deliver more value and engagement to the users. But if you get the rightLocal SEO Tips, you can step ahead on your success and climb up the SEO ladder.

Here are some of these proven Local SEO Tips from the experts to reach your online marketing goals.

1. Create/Update Your Google My Business Account

According to a research by comScore, "Address and location are the primary pieces of information sought by local searchers.” The local users depend on your business listings for any information connected with your small/medium business. Hence it is important that your business is found quick and reliable for the searcher. Google My Business (GMB) account helps by serving the information swift. Google My Business allows you to enter your name, address and phone number, an informative business description, add your website link, hours of operation, photos etc.

Local SEO Tips for Google My Business (GMB)

Make use of your Logo as the avatar.
Add product or service photos, interior and exterior photos of your business. Use only high-quality images, as blurry or pixilated images will look unprofessional.
GMB has a useful section for bulk uploading, to make update your information easily and keep your local business organized, if your business is location in more than one location.

Why Is Google My Business Important?

Setting up the Google My Business (GMB) page for your local business can help you get featured in ‘Google's Local 3-Pack.'Google uses this method to spectacle the top three results for local SERP results.Google usually makes use of the user's location tomake the searchappropriate to the location from where the user submitted the query. And the fact is, these ‘Google's Local 3-Pack' appears above the regular organic search results. For this reason, Google My Business is critically important for your local business. Here are a few other benefits to have your business on the Google My Business listing–

Your potential local customers can reach you easily, when your business is available on Google's Local 3-Pack, which results in more sales!
Helps your website to rank better, overcoming all the location barriers.
When customers see your business listing on Google search results, they get a feeling that your business recognized by Google, and they know that your business can be trusted.
You can provide better customer support by managing your listing, showcasing your business through videos, photos and responding to reviews appropriately.
More customers are likely to visit your Website through your GMB listing.

Google’s Local 3 Pack

2. Create/Claim Local Listings

Local listing creates excellent citation value for your small/medium business, and communicates a strong positive ranking signal to the search engines. There is Google and many other 3rd party websites thatlets the local companies to list their business. It is important to list your local business in these major global, regional directories and local directories, as the Google botsgo to these websites to obtainrelated data of a particular business. Hence local listing is vital for Local SEO, as these citations can help build authority and credibility for your local business. Most importantly, they drive relevant traffic to your website."Make sure you have an accurate and up-to-date listing with Google My Business. Upload photos as well as information about your location, phone number, hours and a description of your business.” - KalinKassabov, Forbes.

Local SEO Tips for Local Listings

Ensure that all the information mentioned about your local business is accurate and up-to-date.
First, create your Google My Business account and then continue to create the listings in other third party directories like Yelp, Bing, Yahoo Local,Citysearch, Manta, etc. This will get more citations for your local business.
The listings must look natural.

Why Are Local Citations Important?

Mentions of your business Name,Address and Phone number online increases the chances of the online visibility of your local business, as Google and other search engines deploy them when gauging the authority and reliabilityof your business, and display them on the SERPs. Therefore it is important to have a stable and consistent profile for your local business, as it influences your rankings and customers. Here are a few other reasons that state why consider Local citations as part of your Local SEO tips -

Local Citations Improves your Local SEO, as it persuades Google about the genuineness of your business. Hence, the more places your local business is cited, the higher are the chances of ranking on the SERPs.
Invites Reviews – Most customers have the habit of writing reviews online. When your localbusiness is cited by majority of the directories, your chances of getting reviews are high.
Citations help create a presence for the local businesses in the niche they belong to.

3. Get High-Quality Local Backlinks

Backlinks are an important ranking signalfor search engines. To take advantage of this strategy, you must invite the other local entities to link to you. But always keep in mind that, only links from reputable and locally-optimized sources generates the most juice, as it adds value for the readers. You can also use internal linksfrom various blog content sources that is associated with your city pages.

Local SEO Tipsto get high-quality backlinks

Create high-quality content on your website, so that it attracts others to link to your content.
Guest blog on local websites with high domain authority.
Connect with the local influencers, and ask them to link back to your website.
List your website in local or online directories to get a strong backlink.

Why Are Backlinks So Important?

Backlinks are one of the best Local SEO tips to consider, as they are powerful enough to skyrocket a page from the bottom ranks to gain pleasing ranks.The number of backlinks is asign of the popularity of a website. Moreover, Google gives more credit to websites that has a considerable number of quality backlinks, as it deems the website to be more relevantthan the other results. Backlinks will always continue to be a vitalGoogle ranking factor. Here are a few other reasons to consider –

Backlinks are the means through which the Google Spiders find your page. This paves way for faster indexing and higher ranks, typically in a short duration.
Quality backlinks are considered as Google's reputation tool, as they direct the local searchers in the right direction of the result for their search query.
Backlinks boost credibility for your local business. Also, your website gets more referral traffic.

4. Get Business Reviews from Real Customers

Local SEO Tips Business Reviews

A research states that an average customer reads at least 10 reviews, before trusting a business. Getting real customer feedback is of immense important, as it get you free marketing. They are a local ranking factor, and allow your listing to stand out from the competitors.You could offerdiscounts to your customers that leave a positive review about your business, as reviews can reap better results than any other local SEO strategy. The online searchers usually see the five stars and understand that yourbusiness is highly recommended. Reviews signal to the search engines that, you have a quality business which is relevant to consumers.

Local SEO Tips to get Business Reviews

After the close of a sale, you can ask for a review in person.
Request customers to write a review by sending a post-purchase email or text message to write a review.
Always, thank the positive reviewers, and address any complaints.Respond in a professional way.

Why Are Reviews Important For A Business?

A research study has mentioned that about 92% of people initially check the online reviews before making a buying decision. With so much of scams out these days, customers want to be assured about the services or products they get.Reviews have become a reference point for these buyers, as it gives them necessary assurance to choose you over competitors. Irrespective of your marketing efforts, people will always tend to believe what is mentioned about your rather than what you say. Here are some good reasons to consider reviews as a great Local SEO Tips –

Reviews helps you understand your customers better and improve customer service by efficiently resolving the issues and creating a positive experience.
Customer review sites offer Credibility and Social Proof for your business.
Improves your website rankings.
Positive reviews from customer create brand awareness for your local business.

5. Be NAP Consistent

For search engines to serve your local business as a result for the local searcher, make sure that your Local business Name, Address and Phone number (NAP) is consistent across the web. As any case of NAP inconsistency, can negatively impact your online presence. "Some of the most common forms of inconsistency come when there are variations. You must make sure that everything across all listings is EXACTLY the same.” John Rampton, Forbes.

Local SEO Tips for NAP Consistency

Use the exact wording and details about your business name, address and phone number across every listing, including the social media profiles.
In case, if your business name includes LLC, Co. or Inc., include them too.
Pay attention tohow the suite numbers, street, avenue or road names are written.

Why Is NAP Important For SEO?

It is important for a brand to be NAP consistent, as it can have a direct impact on the consumer perception about your local business. NAP is essential for a local business that looks to rank organicallyfor the local search carried out by a potential prospect. They create a positive or negative experience of your brand. Here is why you must consider havingNAP consistency as one of the Local SEO Tips –

Your Business Name, Address and Phone number is used by the search engines to decide which listings to show for the Geo-Targeted Search.
Inconsistent NAP data is sure to put the customers at inconvenience. There are chances that they might travel to a wrong location, or contact a wrong business number. This might lead to frustration, and break your brand. Being NAP consistent is important to retain your customer trust.
Consistent Nap will help the customer move ahead the purchase journey, whereas incorrect data can make them fall off that path.

6. Quality Local Content

Writing quality content that drives traffic to the website is a challenging task for many business owners. Without quality content, there will be positioning of your website will be ineffective, with very few visits and leads. Google offers great value the contents that are extensive and exhaustive. "Sadly, much of the content being published is simply not worth linking to. 75% of it is getting zero inbound links. So forget the ‘more is better' approach to content if you want links. Go with quality instead. Your content will generate links only if it is truly exceptional—'remarkable,' as Seth Godin would say.”— Brian Sutter, Forbes.com

SEO Tips for Quality Content

Write unique blog posts around local news stories, activities, or events
Create location-specific webpages on your website,with high-quality local content.
Avoid plagiarized contents.

Why Is Local Content Important?

For any local business, it is important to create personalized quality content, so that the audience can feel connected. The content must increase awareness, demonstrate why your brand is better than others, and foster sales. Content is a great way to build a strong Local SEO presence for your brand. You can also build trust for your brand among your local audience using content. Quality content generated using appropriate local keywords, will help your brand rank better in the SEO, apart from this, following are a few more reasons that demonstrate as to why you must consider quality local content as your local SEO tips –

Quality content creates positive experience, by capturing your audience's attention compelling them to come back for more.
Your local business can gain dominance on the social media with quality content.
Local businesses can generate leads, and influences conversions. High-quality, consistent content helps connect with your audience and gives them necessary information to make a purchase decision.

7. Mobile Friendly Website

Local SEO Tips for Mobile Friendly Website

Researches state that a potential user, who is looking out for local brands is likely to perform a searchon his mobile device instead of desktop or laptop. Anyone can search by just a couple of taps on the small screen. Google prioritizes mobile-friendly websites. Hence if your website is not 100% mobile friendly, there are chances that your competitors might overtake you soon.

"The slower your sites load, the more visitors and revenue you will lose out.”

Local SEO Tips for Mobile Friendly Website

Your Website must have a quick load time, not exceeding three seconds.
Make use of easy to read fonts.
Convey only the information, and avoid crowding with images.
Make use of intuitive UI for a great UX experience.

Why Your Business Needs A Mobile Friendly Website?

Just about everyone across the globe uses a mobile device. There are about 1.2 billion people using mobile devices to gain access to the web, accounting to over 80% of the internet users. For this reason, it is necessary to consider having a mobile friendly website as one the Local SEO tips or it might be detrimental to your business. A few other reasons why your business needs a mobile friendly website –

It is recommended by Google to have a Responsive Web Design, as it is the best way to reach the mobile and tablet users. This case is very true, when the mobile users search for local services from their devices.
Responsive design adjusts to the screen size of multiple devices.
Your audience might leave if your website is not mobile responsive. There is a chance of 61 % that they will find a different website.
Overly use of smartphones, has resulted in the decrease of use of desktops for browsing the internet. Therefore, having a mobile friendly website will attract many more customers for your business.

8. Optimize your Onpage Factors

Before you begin to promote your local business website across various online channels, ensure that your website is up-to-date and abides by the Google Webmaster guidelines. So, optimize all the on-site elements like - page titles, Keyword in H1, Keyword in title tag, Keyword in URL and Meta descriptions. Make certain that you include one or two keywords and your business name to allow the customers performing local searches to find you.

Local SEO Tips to optimize your website

The Meta titles and descriptions must appear enticing and natural, hence avoid stuffing of keywords.
Include your city and state in your content, this allows both visitors and search engines to know where you are, and rank accordingly.
Create multiple landing pages for the same location with slight variations, and optimize your homepage around the primary location.
Analyze the competitors in your area to figure out what keywords they are using to attract the web traffic.
Create a reasonable amount of high quality content on your website.

Why On Page Optimization Is Important?

On-Page SEO is the act of optimizing the webpages, to increase the rankings of the website among the search engines, and earn relevant organic traffic. Apart from publishing high quality local content, on-page SEO should include, Optimizing the HTML tags, headlines, and images. On-Page optimization, involves enhancing the variousfeatures of the webpage, which when put together, improves the website's visibility. Here are a few good reasons to consider On Page Optimization as one of the Local SEO tips –

Search engines rely on text and HTML to determine what a page is about, and index this perceived information. Though each search engineuses its own algorithmto rank the pages, Google and Bing rely onseveral factors to decide on prioritizing the results.
If your page is not offering the essential information, it might not rank well in the search results, and your competitors might outrank your website.
You could potentially rank each page for different keywords, competing with other sites within your industry.
Unique keywords in title tags and Metadescriptions can help your pages improve on the click-through rates and rank higher.

On-Page-SEO-optimization

9. Use Location Specific Pages

If your business has presence in more than one area, Location pages are a must. AlexMembrillo, Forbes states that "Think about your target audience and how their physical location factors into how they're likely to find you. If your business has multiple locations, get granular by creating landing pages for each of those locations that include business details, hours, address and embedded maps of your location.”These pages must convey the following information,

Name, address, and phone number
Store working hours
Personalizeddescriptions based on the location
Testimonials
Discounts/ Promotions
Parking availability, and
Google Maps linked to each location page
Unique content for each page based on the location.

Local SEO Tips for Location Specific Pages

The Local SEO page should have a Title of less than 60 characters
The URL should have only less than six words
The headings - H1, H2, H3 should be short and sweet
Character limit allowed for the Meta description is 156 characters
Keyword must be used on the page for at least two to three times

Why Are Location Specific Pages Important?

If your business functions in various locations, it can become difficult to restructure your marketing efforts. For this purpose, it is essential to create unique location specific pagesand quality local content to help you have better communication with potential customers from the respective area. If you run a local business, try to expand your local reach. Here are some reasons that qualify Location Specific Pages as one of the best local tips –

Using location specific pages can considerably improve your Local SEO rankings, and increase the visibility of your local business online.
When searching for businesses, people tend to search with the location along with the keyword. This will help you to appear in the top of the search results, when people of your area search online. This helps greatly with Local SEO.

10. Utilize Social Media Platforms

Google lists the business based onreputation, distance and significance. These websites are further judged based on the criteria, of number of directory listings, article mentions, backlinks etc. Leveraging the use of social media encourages the users to engage and connect with the audience of your area. These social Media Platforms helps you build a buzz for your local business, and establish prominence. In the Bing algorithm, social signals are used to ascertain quality of content. So, ensure to have a social presence for your local business. There are many social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterestthat gives you an opportunity to rank your site higher.

Local SEO Tips for Location Specific Pages

Make use of the right social media platform for your business, as it will generate the most relevant and qualified traffic
Make use of the most relevant keywords to your business, in the social profile name, page categories, descriptions etc.
Make use of ## Hashtags
Create announcements on social media about any of your upcoming local events
Enhance your website traffic through social media links

Why Is Social Media Important For SEO?

The digital marketing trends are evolving every day, and you must understand that the traditional link building alone will not give the results that you are looking for. In case, if you are only focusing on link building and not social media, then it is high time that you focus your attention on social media. The following are a few more reasons that state why Social Media is an important local SEO tip –

With the right social platform, your brand can get a faster online reach.
Social media invites the right traffic to the website. If someone is engaging with your brand on social media, then it is evident that they are interested in your brand. These leads, eventually convert into customers.
Social media gives out real social signals that come from actual users. Hence, making sure to get your audience engage with your social media pages, content and website will in return help your Local SEO efforts.

11. Leverage the Best Use of Local Keywords

"76% of people who search on their smartphones for something nearby visit a business within a day.” – Google

Choosing the right set of keywords is a game-changer in Local SEO. They increase the visibility of your brand across a variety of local listings. Your keywords must make sense, and they must be relevant to local searches from the customers. One best Local SEO Tips that would be highly profitable for your localbusiness is to include ‘Near Me' keyword naturally to your Meta title, Meta description and content.

Local SEO Tips to choose the right Local Keywords:

To rank high for the local searches, you must first understand what people are searching related to your business. For this, check out your website's Analytics and understand how people are finding your website online.
Understand the language that your customers tend to use when they're performing a local search for a business like yours.
Find industry related keywords and combine them with the geographical term/location denominator to the keywords.
Insert the keywords into your URL structure, Meta descriptions, headers and image alt tags.

Once you perceive what you are ranking for, optimize your website and blogs to rank for other related local searches. Ranking for related local searches means a lot for your localbusiness to reach the potential customers. Why Are Local Keywords Important? The phrases that are used to search by the people are called keywords, and local keywords are an extension of the keywords, which remarks the geographical location. However, Google is getting smarter day by day, and it does not require you to mention the location anymore. This is because, Google can detect your location and give out yourpreferred results.

When your content includes local keywords, there are many chances that your website will get highlighted on the first few pages of the local search results. This way, the customers could find you easily.
To attract local customers, your website must rank high for the local searches. When you deploy the local keywords, you are likely to attract the local customers to your website.

12. Use Schema Markups

"Structured data helps Google display your site with interesting search appearance elements.” There are some important elements on the website, which provides definite information about a small/ medium business that helps the users understand the website properly. Schema markups notify the search engine botsabout that special information. It informsGoogle that particular information is special and not similar to the other contents of the website. Through schema markup can be about – Ratings, Reviews, contact information, Product Prices, etc.

Local SEO Tips on Schema Markups

Visit Schema.org to understand the types of schema markup. Identify the types that best suit your business.
According to schema.org, the more content you mark up, the better. Also, only the content that is visible to people who visit a webpage must be marked up. And not any content on the page with hidden div's or elements.

How Important Is Schema Markup For SEO?

Schema markup helps search engines to crawl and provide precise information to the users, even before they could visit the website. It greatly helps to improve the Click through Rate. Using schema markup allows you to stand out from your competitors and attracts relevant traffic to your website. Here are some reasons that state why Schema markup should be on your Local SEO tips –

Schema markup allows your web page to look better in the SERPs, as it improves the rich snippets exhibited below the page title of your content.
A well-represented rich snippet helps increase the click-through rates. This can support your pages to get indexed easily by presenting the most accuratemetadata.
Though Schema Markup does not help directly with the rankings, it can be one of the best Local SEO tips that assist with the website rankings to reach the top of the SERPs.

13. Use Bing Places

Bing Places is Microsoft's version of local business directory, with an aim tocreate free business listings and deliver the best possiblelocal search results.It shares over 2.3% of the search engine market share globally. It gets over 12 billion monthly search requests a month. The significant difference of Bing algorithm from Google is that, it considerssocial signals from third party sources as well.It is easy to add your business on Bing by following a few simple instructions.

Local SEO Tips To Use Bing Places

Fill out your local business profile carefully. Provide with all necessary information about your business. This will help your customers to understand about your business better.
Don't miss out to include your hours of operation and contact information, as it allows the users to know when and how they can visit your business.
Bing allows you to select multiple categories to categorize your business. Make use of all relevant categories. Don't settle for one category!
Earn reviews by requesting people to rate their experience at your business. Don't force them to write positive reviews, instead encourage them to share their experience. This will help build credibility for your local business on the Bing listing.

Why Is It Important To List Your Business On Bing?

Bing is a reliable search engine that you can count on for high-quality content. You can use Bing Places to promote your business, by creating a Bing Places account. This is similar to the Google My Business, allowing yourbusiness to appear on the Bing's SERPs relevant to your user's local searches.

Bing's homepage has an interactive interface and design. And there are only fewer competitors on Bing. The lower the competition, the greater are the chances to climb up the local SEO ladder.
Bing is open about its ranking factors on what your website requires to rank better. The detailed SEO analysis tool that analyzes your webpage, and offers a compliance reportand necessary suggestions to improve the rankings.

Local SEO Tips To Use Bing Places

14.Optimize for Voice Search

"20% of searches in the Google App are now done by voice.” - Google With the advancement of speech recognition technology, artificial intelligence and machine learning, we are all experiencing great chances in voice search. Itis way lot different from the traditional searches. Thesesignificant breakthroughs have instigated the need for adapting to the voice-activated technology.Hence, it is important to optimize your local SEO strategies for the people ask questions. Basically, it involves using more long-tail keywords.

Local SEO tips to Optimize for Voice Search

Make use of local conversational language, preferably long-tail question queries.
Pay more importance to the informative and authoritative content.
Add in "Filler” Words in the Question Keywords.
Improve you website's loading speed. The average loading speed for a voice search result is 3.8x faster.
The longer your content is, the more chances are your chances appearing for the voice searches.
Provide concise answers to questions

How Important Is Voice Search For Your Local Business?

Since the voice recognitiontechnology is getting more accurate and flexible, customers comprehend to use voice commands for local searches.Voice commands are a great method to get local business information when driving or performing a search when your hands are busy.Obviously, asking a question is easier than typing it. Here are some good reasons to consider voice search as an essential part of the Local SEO tips -

Voice search serves the results faster than any other devices.
It allows people to juggle between their works.
Make the daily routine faster and easier.

And most importantly, 62% of users, who regularly use a voice-activated speaker state that they are likely to make a purchase decision through their voice-activated speaker in the next month. Isn’t it a great reason to optimize your business for voice search?

Here is a piece of advice form John Mueller, Webmaster Trends Analyst, on voice search, watch the video to know more.

15. Monitor Your Results

"What gets measured gets improved.” – Peter Drucker

When you start working on the Local SEO, you must set up the essential tools that are required to track your SEO performance.With the Google Webmaster Tools you can have a glimpse of the impressions and clicks of your keywords and understand about the trends. Use Google Analytics to study the organic traffic and see if it is on the up.

Get Started!

Now that you have the Local SEO tips, and an idea of where to start from, go back to Local SEO Tips 1 and begin implementing the strategies you've gatheredhere. You cannot get all of this done in a day, and see instant results. It will take a short while, but the results will be admirable. If you require a comprehensive approach for your business, you ought to work with a digital marketing agency that specializes in Local SEO. It might seem like a lot right now, but place your steps in front of the other and you will surely climb up the ranking ladder!Don't wait any further, take action right away!

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About Guna Nadar

Brief Info about Guna Nadar +

I mostly write technical aspects and not much into creative writing. For the past decade I worked along with top notch SEO & Internet Marketing professionals which naturally lured me into the world of Search Engines. When I am not writing I read from comics to philosophy.Antiques, Fishing, hunting are my passions. Currently I am working on Google Penalty protection and .... more info about the author