Local SEO takes you out of the big pond and into more manageable waters. Being visible in local search results means any Tom, Gill or Sally searching online for services can find and visit you!
Focusing on local SEO is vitally important. Studies show that users click 67.6% of search results (excluding PPC ads ).
Keyword Research
Keyword research is the practice of identifying keywords pertinent to your local SEO strategy. This process is crucial as local SEO aims at increasing visibility among those living near your service area through search results.
There are various free and paid keyword research tools available; Ahrefs is one popular option which allows you to track keyword performance over time as well as provide features such as related keywords, questions searched for and trend analysis.
As part of local keyword research, it’s essential that businesses gain a clear understanding of the services they offer. This can be accomplished by reviewing services listed on their websites or through Craigslist, as well as visiting Craigslist itself. Furthermore, using SpyFu or another similar tool, take a look at your competition’s website in order to identify keywords which work well and may be worth targeting for your own business. Once you have an exhaustive list of appropriate terms you can incorporate them into content creation for optimized website performance and search.
On-Page Optimization
To increase local search rankings, it’s essential that your website content is optimized for its target audience. This includes everything from title tags and meta descriptions through right-clicking a page and selecting “View Page Source.” To do this, right-click any page and choose “View Page Source.”
At the core of local SEO lies matching content to searchers’ intent; users often utilize queries based on location – for instance “pizza shop in Brooklyn”.
Your content must include these keywords, but be careful not to overdo it as Google may penalize your website if too many are overused. Therefore, conducting keyword research before beginning writing can help create content that is both informative and relevant – key components in ranking high in local searches.
Local Citations
Citations is one of the key components in local SEO and helps Google identify whether your business is legit. Citations is considered one of the top three ranking factors when optimizing for local search.
Citations can either be structured or unstructured. Structured citations are found on online directories like Yelp, Instagram, Facebook and Tripadvisor and typically include your NAP along with customer reviews that play an integral role in local search rankings.
Unstructured citations refer to any mentions of your NAP outside online directories, such as news articles or blog posts. Although unstructured citations may be harder to come by than structured ones, they have the potential to have more of an effect on your ranking because competitors find it more challenging to replicate them and more likely will reach your target audience.
Link Building
Building and maintaining high-quality local links can be one of the greatest challenges of Local SEO. To increase local rankings, businesses must target link opportunities relevant to their niche or geographic market.
To achieve this goal, it is vital to identify potential partners and approach them directly. These could include websites, review platforms or local business directories. By creating relationships with these websites and forging backlinks with them, your local SEO ranking can improve exponentially.
Find local sponsorship opportunities. One way of building these links is through reaching out to local bloggers or influencers and inviting them to write blog posts featuring your business with links back. Doing this can increase its exposure in the community as well as boost sales; in addition, consumers will likely trust you more if other local businesses support it.