The Ultimate Local SEO Strategy: 10 Simple Steps
Local SEO involves getting visibility within a local market and therefore improving your business’s local rankings. Local SEO is one of the most straightforward efforts that small businesses can apply and start seeing results in a short period.
However, you need to get the local SEO strategy right to optimize your website properly. By ranking high on search engines, your business can reach optimal growth levels. Below are 10 helpful steps to guide you on local SEO strategy.
1. Good Website Structure
The first thing any business should do when targeting keywords or local SEO is to create a great website. A good website will attract a larger audience and allow them to view your products or services easily.
Ensure your website has a great design with an easy user interface so your clients can easily find whatever they are looking for. You should also optimize it for all devices, including mobile phones. That increases your interactions because most people prefer using smartphones for easy accessibility.
2. Keyword Research
Find keywords that describe who you are, what you do, and where you do it within your target location. Do some research to determine which keywords are most popular and which you can most successfully target.
The right keywords will help local people find your business much easier online when looking for your company’s services or products.
3. Page Speed Optimization
A slow page is fatal for any business that intends to find most of its customer base online. If a client tries to access your page and does not find it in the shortest time possible, they will go to the next available page.
Ensure that you optimize your page for speed by having a high-quality web host and only including the necessary items on the website. A good host will keep the page running fast enough around the clock, which is the kind of reliability customers are looking for.
4. Set Up a Google My Business Profile
Google My Business lets you control how people view your page or business on all Google assets, giving it more visibility on search engines. It is, therefore, crucial to set up and optimize your account with the correct information to attract the right business.
Be careful about the description, as it will give people the first impression of your business. Fill in all the necessary information, such as the location, website, contact details, opening hours, and customer reviews. You should also include images to back up the written text and show the clients what you offer.
5. Get Real Client Reviews
There is nothing as important as reviews for any online business. New clients want to see what other people are saying about your business. They use the reviews to gauge your credibility and decide if they wish to work with you or not.
You can get accurate and honest reviews from happy clients by emailing them or asking them to leave a review after every purchase. Use those reviews to show your target market how incredible your services are.
6. Include Location Pages
Businesses with multiple locations should create location-based pages for each area they operate. That helps the company reach out to the various local markets in a way that each market will understand and respond to.
Location-based pages are a great SEO tool to capture local markets because you can create promotions, content, and services that are specific to that market. That sets your business up for success in multiple locations.
7. Optimize Citations and Online Directories
Search engines rely on citations and local listings to verify your business and ensure it relays the correct information to anyone searching for your services. Add your business to various local listings and directories to show your brand’s authenticity.
Do not use different information on different listing sites, as that will confuse people and make them doubt your business’s legitimacy. You should also ensure that you verify your contact information for better citations.
8. Build High-Quality Links To Your Website
Get local directory websites, partners, or industry-related sites to link your business page to help you prove your legitimacy to locals. These are known as backlinks, and they signal to Google that you’re an authority in our industry. If you have already used all the other optimization tips mentioned above, you only need a few links to excel.
If you have a few high-quality links to drive traffic to your website, you can be assured of all local businesses in that area. Reach out to nearby businesses and see if you can form partnerships to support each other in your local SEO efforts.
9. Engage On Social Media
Social media is a powerful tool every business should use to build a community of people who trust and support the brand. After all the optimization, you need to share the link to your website on social media pages relevant to your business.
You should also engage with the locals on platforms that they visit to market your business further and increase visibility. The best way to tap into social media is by regularly posting and sharing your Google business profile and other vital links in your posts.
10. Monitor Your Website Performance
The last step that is crucial to your business is monitoring the performance of your business page after all the efforts to optimize it. That is important because it lets you know what is working and what is not. It also helps you see your progress and know whether you are heading in the right direction.
Tracking your success involves monitoring the traffic to your pages, looking at the keyword visibility, and identifying the top-performing pages. The insights will help you know what you need to do on the other pages that are not performing well. With that, you can apply the findings to your page and ensure the entire website ranks highly on search engines.
Start on Your Local SEO Strategy
While local SEO is fairly simple to understand in concept, it can be tricky if you don’t know the ropes. With the above steps, you can transform your business or your client’s business into one of the best-performing businesses in the local market.
If you’re unsure of how to get started with your local SEO strategy, remember that there are many experts out there who would be happy to help you get where you want to be.
