A huge amount of local mobile searches leads to an in-store purchase. You can’t get much better buyer intent. This is only one of many reasons why small businesses need to opt for local SEO. When you go local, your only competitors are other businesses in the same region. You can avoid the struggle of competing for the top search rankings at a national level. Local SEO is only effective if you get it right.
Publish Local Content to Boost Local Search Results
If you know anything about local SEO, then you have probably heard the phrase that “content is king.” There’s no doubt that content can be a powerful tool that your business should be using to boost local search results. There’s a simple way to do this.
Adding some local content to your site can help to increase the number of high-quality leads that you can get. As well as building some brand authority and awareness, integrating targeted SEO keywords with local modifiers could give you an edge in organic visibility in your local market.
Start Building Local Backlinks
Building up some local backlinks helps to cement your business within the community, provides some organic visibility, and can help to build brand trust.
The easiest way to start building up these local backlinks is to submit your site to high-quality local directories. You will often find opportunities like this with the Chamber of Commerce or trade association. Look out for popular, trusted local directories in your area that may also build visibility for your business in local search results.
You can also build backlinks by getting your business mentioned on local news sites, with local events, from other local businesses, and more.
Maintain NAP/Citation Consistency
NAP stands for name, address, and phone number. It’s important to make sure that your NAP matches across all listings, including Facebook, Google My Business, Yelp, and your website. Making sure that all this information is identical across each platform makes sure you get the most out of your new SEO efforts.
Reference Your Location throughout Your Website
Reference your location strategically throughout your whole website. This can be achieved by putting your site through an SEO audit and by organically placing your business’ location in places like:
- Headings
- Site copy
- Title tags
- Meta descriptions
- Site footer
Do not go overboard when you do this, but adding them in a way that reads easily and supports user search intent can be a good way to boost local search results. Something as simple as adding your city or neighborhood, if it is unique or prominent, works well. You could also try adding your location within a URL for pages when appropriate for a little boost there too.
Use Schema LocalBusiness Markup
Adding Schema markup to your website is a good idea whether you’re doing it as part of these local SEO improvements or with SEO in mind generally. This code helps search engines to understand your website better and can let them display more information, such as ratings, pricing information, and so on when appropriate within the search results.
Schema LocalBusiness is a structured data markup code that you can add to your business’s website that makes it easier for websites to identify what kind of business you are and what you do. The code tells search engines and users more about your business location and can have positive implications for your business when it comes to getting local search results.
Build Online Business Reviews
Start to think about building online business reviews. Recent statistics have shown that the majority of shoppers aged between 18 and 34 trust online reviews as much as they trust personal recommendations, while most consumers say that online reviews have influenced their purchase decisions. This means that if your business doesn’t have recent reviews, you could be missing out on customers. Having good online reviews, especially the recent ones, shows that others have used and vouched for your business, adding social proof and improving your local search results.
Optimize For Mobile
Mobile-first indexing means that Google uses the mobile site as the main site for indexing. This is because the number of search engine queries from mobile devices continues to grow every year.
It makes sense that optimizing your site and GMB listing for mobile-first indexing will be good for local SEO too. You can ensure that your site is fully responsive to adapt for mobile devices, but you should also think about the smart implementation of Call to Action (CTA) buttons on your site and GMV listing to improve user experience. Google has published that 60% of smartphone users have contacted businesses directly using search results, such as the click to call option on GMB.