Making your business appear on a search engine is becoming very important nowadays. At least for those businesses which are having a brick-and-mortar presence now. That business should adopt the local SEO services to increase the visibility and searches in local SERP pages. Local businesses have many prospective customers who are looking for your products and services.
Optimizing your local business has become more than essential nowadays. It is crucial for generating leads and sales and reaching your target audience.
Now let us first understand the basics of Local SEO.
What is local SEO?
Local SEO is the process of improving your visibility in local search results. Mainly that business that has brick and mortar presence.
The three main pillars of local SEO are proximity, relevance, and prominence. By using the local SEO practices, you can improve the organic traffic from searches performed locally.
Search engines rely on local content, links, citations, and social profiles to provide the most relevant local results. Businesses use the local SEO to place their local products and services in front of local prospects looking for similar products or services.
How can you optimize Your Business For Local Searches?
Working on local SEO can be daunting and time-consuming. But if you do it properly, then you can achieve great results for your local business-
Optimize Your Business for GMB
Google my business listings are a free tool and the best way to promote your local business. Create a well-optimized GMB profile by filling in all the information correctly.
How to work on the GMB profiles-
- Create and verify GMB page
- Create and post on GMB pages
- Encourage your existing customers to share reviews on your GMB.
- Give response on reviews, even if they are negative reviews.
Create Engagement on Social media
Creating a well-optimized social media profile is also very important fr local SEO. Google gives more importance to the content shared on social media. Google is giving more priority than ever before to the social media post for local businesses. Also, make sure to share your GMB page on social media channels. It will help in increasing the branding of your business.
Create Business Profiles on the Other Local Citations Websites
Increasing your local ranking in google is not possible only with the GMB listing. You also have to start listing your business on various local directories and business citation websites. Posting on other high authority citation websites will increase the business’s credibility and help appear in the local packs of google.
Maintain NAP Consistency
To get on rank in local Search pages, make sure to post the same information about your business on all the citation websites. Maintain your NAP which means, name, address, and phone number. It should be consistent on all business listing websites. Only then will your chances be high of appearing on three packs—also, setup the NAP on your website and post the same on citation websites.
Have Proper Internal Linking
Internal linking is very important for SEO. It helps in getting to the orphan pages. Make sure to add proper and relevant internal linking. It will boost your SEO ranking in SERPs. Internal linking is important because:
- It supports the navigation of the website.
- Pass the ranking and page authority among various pages.
- Maintains website hierarchy.
Make sure To Add Location Pages to Your Website
Suppose your business has multiple locations. Then it is essential to create the location pages for every site. The location page should have information about the address, name, phone number, store opening hours, products/services, business descriptions, testimonials, etc. Don’t keep the same content on location pages. If you are serving a single location, create only one about us page and share all information there. It would be best if you add a google map on all location pages.
Create Local Content
Create the content for users and not for the search engines. Write about the local news or the industry news to bring a local audience to your website. If you promote the local news, local information related to your business, and some other informational content, then you can master it in your industry.
Make Sure to Create a Mobile-Friendly Website
Most of the local searches are on mobile devices. So make sure to create a well-optimized mobile-friendly website that supports multiple devices if the user finds your website on top results and goes to your visit. But they can’t find google layout or website loads very slowly on the mobile device.
They will bounce back from your website. You will lose a customer and also ranking in google.
Optimize the Meta Data
Optimize your web pages for search engines. Use the high-volume keywords in the meta title, description, and content of the web page.
Adding proper metadata creates a well-optimized webpage. Also, make sure to complete the metadata differently for every page. Use more local keywords in your metadata to get your business on rank.
Create Local Links
Link building is still is very important even for local Seo. Inbound links are compelling for boosting your ranking in local SERPs. Create excellent and authoritative backlinks using different SEO techniques. A definitive link will tell google that you are a legitimate business. Backlinks from an authority website will also boost your DA. Don’t get links from low authority websites and create spammy links.
Encourage Reviews
Reviews are very important for your local business. Every potential customer can become your customer if they find positive reviews and ratings from your existing customers. It created trust in the new buyer about your products and services. Therefore, make sure to encourage your customers to post reviews about your business. The more positive reviews and ratings you have, the more new leads you can generate.
Conclusion
Now, as you know, local SEO tips and tricks don’t delay and start implementing local SEO for your business because local Seo is essential for local companies. Local SEO will not just boost your rankings. But it will also build your brand, increase traffic and generate leads.
Ashish is the CTO and Co-founder of Cibirix. He has more than 15 years of experience in digital marketing and loves to write about different types of content in the industry.