When you are doing digital marketing for any of your products or services, then it is very important to optimize your website very well. You need to target the right audiences because they will become your main source of revenue generation.
If you are seeking to increase your ranking in local searches, and want to get more customers, then you have to follow the right process of optimizing your site for local SEO. According to data, in the past two years, 71% of consumers have reported increased local business spending.
In this post, we will help you by giving information about optimizing your website and how you can improve your search results.
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO is a strategy that helps in optimizing your website to increase traffic, leads, and brand awareness. Through local SEO practices, your business will be more visible in local search results on different search engines. Businesses must focus on creating local content, optimizing their social media profiles, and building correct citations for websites. Local SEO specifically targets searchers in a particular geographical area.
It is mostly valuable for a street-side business that offers products and services to its customers, face-to-face in an office, and in stores such as hospitals, hotels, boutiques, stadiums, clinics, gyms, and other professionals. Local SEO is ranked based on more specific and localized factors.
Importance of SEO
SEO is a crucial part of digital marketing that aims to provide users with more reliable organic search results. Local SEO has become more important when it comes to making brands highly visible to customers who are already looking for a product or a service. According to data, Google receives 8.5 billion queries a day, so your website should be shown on the first page.
By optimizing your website for search engines, you can easily reach a wider audience and potentially acquire more sales. It is important because many people use search engines to find local businesses and services.
You should give useful information such as:
- Contact number
- opening and closing timings
- location
- Ratings of Company
The customer can see your services and can easily plan a visit.
How Local SEO Works
Managing and optimizing your business website is an important aspect of every successful SEO strategy. You have to claim your free business profile so it will be possible to be visible in the local pack or Google Maps.
The next step would be creating valuable and original content for your website. Content creation is one of the important tasks in SEO which needs to be done with great concentration and in the right format. There are many forms, such as blogs, videos, podcasts, and many more. Good content will help you generate high leads.
Local citations include your name of the business, address, contact number, and website on third-party sites. Local citations can easily drive more engagement toward your website.
How to Optimize Website for Local Searches
Understand the basics of local SEO
In simple words, we can understand that local SEO is a technique for optimizing a website to rank high in the local search results. Optimizing your web pages for your business is an essential part. This tool is helpful for local businesses that serve in local areas.
It allows them to connect with local potential customers, who are searching for the product or service they offer. If they rank high in the local search results, they can easily increase their brand visibility website traffic, and qualified leads.
Create a Google My Business Profile (GMB)
The main step in optimizing your website for local SEO is making a Google business profile. This tool allows you to set up profiles that include basic information about a business like their name, address, timings, and other major information.
For example, if someone makes a local search of “Best restaurant near me”, Google will show local 3 packs at the top of the organic results. This 3 pack will include 3 relevant Google Business Profiles, along with local options on Google Maps.
Maybe your business already has a profile, which is set up through Google Maps. Then, in this case, you can claim it by providing proof of ownership of your business. From there, you can fill out information to get your profile into local search results.
Build NAP Information
NAP is an important element in local search optimization that consists:
- Contact number
- opening and closing timings
- location
- Ratings of Company
NAP information is a vital aspect of local SEO that is included in your online profiles. It helps in allowing users to contact you and convert them towards you. For local search results, you need to ensure that all NAP information is correct and consistent.
Don’t list confusing and conflicting phone numbers on different sites and don’t write your address differently on your site. If Google found any conflicting information, it would not understand which page is correct, that’s why it would not rank you as high in search results. Make your landing page for the GBP profile clear, concise, and engaging with a clear call to action.
Positive Reviews
One thing that can definitely drive users to buy products or services is seeing good reviews. You can talk positively about your company, but before making any purchase they check your company reviews. However, when a potential customer praises your service and product, then for sure it convinces others for your products to acquire them. For this reason, you can focus more on achieving positive reviews and feedback from local customers. Simply, ask them to leave their comments and feedback whenever they buy something from your website or physical store/office/shop.
Target local keywords
Keyword targeting is also one of the ways to optimize your website for local SEO. It is an integral part of any website optimization campaign. Different keywords are suitable for multiple audiences. The best practice for local SEO is to focus more on local keywords that can match your domain easily.
An example of a good local keyword must be “book supplier in Alaska”. This keyword has both the industry and location that is highly relevant to any business that sells books in Alaska. You can also do the same in selecting relevant keywords for your business.
For example, if you have a business of book supplying in more than two areas, say one in Chicago and another one in Houston, you can choose keywords for both pages like “book supplying services in Chicago” and “book supplying services in Houston.”
Design a mobile-friendly website
Most people use their mobile phones for anything on Google. Seeking this trend, you must design your website accordingly. If you made your website design mobile-friendly then it will boost your local search rankings.
According to the data, provided by Google, over 58% of Internet traffic comes from mobile devices across the world, and now Google is also deciding the ranks of the sites based on their mobile format.
So, make your website mobile-friendly, otherwise, your website won’t rank very high. There are many ways in which you can make your website mobile-friendly, just by implementing some of the responsive design. Choose your design wisely so that all the important elements can fit easily into that design and must be clearly visible to users. That way, users will have a positive experience on your site no matter which device they use.
Benefits of Optimizing for Local SEO:
Generate traffic to your website
Around 46% of people rely on the Internet for searching any services and products near them. People vary from local communities to outsiders, who are looking for recommendations. By optimizing for local search, your website gets organic traffic from users, who are going to walk into your store or planning to come. And lastly, high web traffic can result in more conversions like subscriptions, and sales.
Build trust and maintain credibility
If you want to increase your website traffic, then you need to strengthen its base, which is trust and credible content. Many customers will check our company’s website before visiting manually. So, you need to stand out differently from competitors and gain customer’s trust. Content related to local search and link building helps establish your business’s place in the community.
Increase ranking of search results
The main work of search engines is to provide high-quality, credible, and relevant search results to all users. When you opt for the best local SEO practices for your websites, you send an invitation to the algorithms that your business is reliable and trustworthy. As a result, the algorithms can rank you higher on the local searches.
Provide full information to target audiences
In this digital era, people first search on their smartphones about the products and then make any decision to visit a store or avail of that product. So, you have the chance to provide your customers with everything they need to know about your business. Optimizing your business’s Google My Business profile actively plays a vital role in convincing customers to do business with you.
Increase your brand awareness
Local SEO helps local businesses to increase their brand value, brand awareness, and recognition in the market. Local SEO is more relevant to customers. By optimizing web pages for local search, businesses can easily connect with highly interested customers who are looking for their products or services.
Local SEO Ranking Factors
Maintaining Google business profile
When a customer needs information about something, he/she starts googling it. They collect information from various websites and then make a choice. You should establish your online presence and stand out differently from your competitors. Customers will be able to find the name of your business and other information such as:
- Contact number
- opening and closing timings
- location
- Ratings of Company
A Google My Business profile allows you to manage and stabilize your online presence across the entire Google platform. If you claim the ownership of a Google My Business profile, you can access and edit all of the information that appears in your listing, from the business timings, or locations of any ads.
By controlling information on Google Maps, you have the privilege to show more and more relevant information in Google Maps or Google Search. When customers search for your business online, they can easily get all the information.
Maintaining the relevancy
Relevancy is a significant factor in all types of SEO practices. You need to set up targeting keywords and precise topics so your potential customers can find what they are searching for. There are many ways to ensure that Google associates your business with relevant keywords.
In such ways, you need to list your business under the correct categories in directories, keep your description and content according to your business with relevant keywords, and create content based on your business’ expertise.
Acquire Proximity
Acquiring proximity means that your business is close to its users. This is one of the main factors that separate traditional SEO from local SEO. Customers usually do local searches when they want to avail of services from businesses that are near them.
There are almost three types of searches, which define your proximity to Google about users that are geo-modified, non-geo-modified, and near me.
Geo-modified searches, use the name of the state, city, neighbour city, or sometimes pin code in the search term itself. Non-geo-modified searches, leave out all these location details from the search. Lastly, the near me searches specify nearby results by adding the words ‘near me’ or ‘nearby’ to the search. Creating local content and link building are some of the ways that can help in demonstrating your proximity to users.
Tools for Local SEO
Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner is a free keyword research tool provided by Google to Google Ads customers. You can use Google Keyword Planner to find different keywords for your businesses and campaigns. You can extract information about keywords like monthly research volume per location and device, forecast statistics, and views. It is the most successful tool for listing the keywords.
Semrush Listing Management Tool
With the Semrush listing management tool, it becomes easier for you to add and update data about your business to the most prominent directories. Once these listings are live, you can also track and update them to ensure that they are accurate across all the platforms. Through their data distribution feature, you will be able to share your business information on social media platforms as well.
Grid my business
Grid My Business shows local pack ranking positions for a keyword in the area around your business. It is free and useful for understanding if and where local searchers are likely to see your business or not.
Keywordtool.io
It is a versatile tool that allows you to filter by city. It is quick, simple, and less expensive. Since it can locate similar terms and doesn’t require a current local listing, it is an excellent place to start your business. This tool is ideal for those who are new to localized keyword research. It can benefit both small firms and companies with a digital strategy.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you now have a broad understanding of how local SEO works and how you can optimize your website. It is an effective way to boost your visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs). It also helps in generating more website traffic and conversions. Local SEO lets you focus more on local areas and reach out to the customers who want to connect with you.
