When your business needs to target a specific market, it is important to invest your time and effort in local SEO. Based on your local market’s competition, local SEO usually tends to drive faster results compared to conventional SEO strategies.
Consider the following relevant findings from different studies:
- 40% of local SEO campaigns drive higher than 500% ROI
- 46% of all searches on Google are for local services or businesses
- More than 8 in 10 people conduct ‘near me’ searches on their mobile devices
Here are the latest strategies to optimize your website for local search.
1. Target Location-Specific Keywords
Keywords are at the heart of local SEO. They help connect your potential customers with your business.
Follow these steps to find the right keywords to optimize your content:
- Open Google’s Keyword Planner
- Select the location or marketplace you want to reach
- Enter the primary keyword
- Broaden your search using the suggested keywords
When choosing local SEO keywords, always check keyword intent. Make sure to choose only those keywords that are highly relevant to your business and goals and match the products/services you offer.
Keyword Planner can help you discover the most relevant keywords based on search volume, specifically to target your intended location.
Make sure to consider the natural language that your target audience will use when searching for your offerings in the local market. These search phrases will especially include words such as “near me” or “<location>”. Such terms tend to have lower competition and are capable of attracting highly qualified leads.
2. On-Page SEO
Make sure to target your website content with well-researched local keywords. This includes optimizing different on-page elements including:
- Meta descriptions
- Title tags
- Image alt texts
- Headers
This can help significantly in improving your local search rankings. It is also recommended to create location-specific webpages and content while targeting relevant primary and secondary local keywords.
When well-optimized, your website can rank high in organic results below the local pack.
3. Claim Your Google Business Profile
Every successful local SEO strategy involves a Google Business Profile (GBP) account. Having a GBP account increases your business’ chances of appearing in the sidebar of Google search results pages.
You should claim your GBP profile and flood it with all the relevant and useful information about your business.
- Make sure to create a rich business description, optimized with your targeted local keywords
- Mention your hours of business operation
- Add images of your business
- Include a relevant call to action
Follow these steps to claim your business:
- Visit business.google.com/add
- Search for your business name
- If it is not found in the drop-down list, click on ‘add your business to Google’
- Enter your business name and category
- Fill out all the information prompted by the interface before clicking on ‘submit’
Besides Google Business Profile, you can also create your business profile on Yelp, Bing, Facebook, YellowPages, and MapQuest. This can help boost backlinks and citations, thus enhancing your local SEO results.
4. Encourage Your Customers to Provide Reviews
Reviews have an extremely important role to play in local search. Both the ratings and number of reviews matter and you must make a consistent effort to keep growing the volume and quality of your reviews.
It is recommended to follow these tips to earn more reviews to boost your local search rankings:
- Contact your customers and ask them to leave reviews
- You can reach out to your past customers at different stages whether they have recently made a purchase or did it years ago
- Besides GBP, ask customers to leave reviews on other platforms as well
- Make sure to respond to reviews. If possible, make efforts to correct any negative reviews.
Make sure to thank your customers for taking the time to leave a review. You can also showcase your positive reviews on your website and social media pages. This can help build social proof, trust, and brand reputation.
5. Invest in Responsive Design
Around 82% of mobile searches have local origins. So, you simply cannot afford to ignore mobile accessibility for local SEO. If your website is not responsive, you are missing out on a major part of your potential local web traffic.
Fortunately, it is not difficult to create a website that is mobile-friendly or revamping your existing website to be responsive.
- Your web designing agency can revamp your current website or you can create a new mobile-friendly website
- You can apply a responsive WP theme to your website
- You may use plugins that help optimize your website for mobile-readiness
It is not just enough to create a mobile-ready website. You should also ensure your webpages load fast and your site is easy to navigate. Keep in mind that over half of mobile visitors leave a website if it doesn’t load within 3 seconds.
Additionally, page speed is also an important SEO ranking factor.
6. Earn Local Backlinks
When you have high-quality local backlinks, it can send out a signal to search engines that your website offers highly relevant, valuable, and useful content. When it comes to local SEO, it is important to generate backlinks from local sources.
Follow these tips to earn more local backlinks:
- Search for relevant local events and sponsor them. Make sure to mention your website on the event’s page. Ask local media to mention your website in their write-up.
- Create a content marketing strategy that includes guest blogging with a focus on the local market.
- Create partnerships with local organizations that will be eager to mention your website.
- Engage local influencers to review your business on their social media profiles and blogs.
Conclusion
Your local SEO campaigns can have a direct impact on the volume and quality of traffic you receive on your website. When you have a well-researched and planned strategy, you will be improving your website and brand’s online visibility. It can create a pathway for you to connect directly with your potential local customers. These are customers who are searching for your products/services and are highly interested in making a purchase. Targeting local keywords, claiming your GBP profile, growing your reviews, investing in responsive design, and generating local backlinks can go a long way in strengthening your local SEO efforts. For more information and assistance, feel free to write to us or give us a call at 1(800) 380-6942.
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