Google reports that 46% of searches on their platform are seeking local information. This indicates that people want to visit businesses they can trust, and quality ratings and reviews will increase your chance of turning those searchers into visitors and customers.
Local SEO can help your business connect with potential customers without paying for advertisements or word-of-mouth promotion, while at the same time eliminating their need to seek your company online via mobile devices.
Keywords
If you want to achieve success in local search results, using relevant keywords is crucial. These should include terms that your customers would search for when trying to locate your services and products; for instance if your target audience is searching for shoe sole options in response to different weather conditions then creating a blog post on this subject could help make an informed decision about which sole type best meets their needs.
On your website, it’s also essential to display the details of your business – name, address and phone number (NAP) in plain text for search engines to index. Furthermore, location pages on your site can help optimize them with relevant keywords for even greater impact.
Attracting more customers means being visible in Map Pack results and organic “blue link” listings. Benchmark your performance using a rank tracker and measure results over time to stay ahead of competition while keeping customers satisfied.
Backlinks
Backlinks are essential components of local SEO, providing search engines with confidence signals about the value and importance of your content and showing that you’re connected with the local community. As such, it is imperative that you build quality links from reliable sources within your region.
One way of doing this is to approach local publications, like newspapers and online communities. Reaching out will allow you to offer to write an article or blog post that fits with the publication, then provide them with the link.
Establish local links by getting listed in local directories and resource listings. Search Google for specific local keywords to locate these websites; the pages with the highest rankings generally feature many citations from local businesses – another way is submitting your website into local business directories.
Mobile-Friendly Site
Mobile-friendly sites are essential to local SEO, with more searches taking place on mobile devices than ever. Google penalizes sites that are not mobile-friendly and users become frustrated when sites can’t easily be navigated on a small screen.
Businesses reliant on phone orders or appointments know that having a mobile-friendly website can make the difference between winning customers and losing them. Consider adding a click-to-call button and an interactive map feature which can open in their preferred GPS application on mobile.
Make sure your titles and meta descriptions are short for mobile use; these can be seen both on SERPS as well as search results pages and should contain your keywords concisely. Also avoid pop-ups or any distracting elements which can become irritating on mobile devices – these should instead lead to your website’s main pages having all relevant information readily accessible with clear calls to action.
Reviews
People searching for local products and services want to know whether the business they’re considering is legitimate and provides quality goods/services; that is why reviews play such an essential part in local SEO. Reviews can be displayed on Google Business Profile and elsewhere online and help search engines determine if you are the best solution for a given query.
Studies have demonstrated the significance of review quantity and quality on local SEO rankings. Reviews are an integral component of “reputation management,” which determines where businesses appear in Google’s local interfaces such as packs, finders and maps. Reviews help build trust signals with customers as they provide social proof that you are who you claim to be; new research suggests businesses with more positive reviews tend to rank higher than their counterparts with fewer positive reviews.