Local SEO is essential for businesses with physical stores or service areas, helping increase website traffic while simultaneously driving sales at physical locations.
Local SEO goes further than regular search engine optimization by taking into account where customers reside and ensuring your information remains consistent across online platforms.
Keyword Research
Keyword research is an essential element of SEO, but for local businesses it becomes even more essential. Local searchers tend to use more targeted and specific terms when conducting their searches; by employing an efficient keyword tool you can ensure you discover the ideal set of keywords for your business.
Also ensure that the keywords you use have local intent. For instance, when someone searches “24 hour plumbing Durham, NC,” they likely want a local plumber to fix a leaky pipe; and search engines will display results of local plumbing companies as well as any relevant businesses.
Google’s search algorithm employs numerous modifiers to filter local search results. These include distance and urgency. Utilizing these modifiers when conducting your searches may increase the odds of receiving featured snippets, answer boxes or carousels on SERP; however they cannot always be relied on since their effect varies according to device and location.
On-Page Optimization
On-page optimization involves tweaking elements of your website in order to enhance its SEO, such as optimising page content or making sure all its meta data is complete and correct. On-page SEO is about producing high-quality page content that both benefits your audience while simultaneously showing Google that your site provides something of value.
Local search is one of the key on-page SEO strategies, using keywords to target user searches’ geographical intent and providing location-specific details on each page as well as ensuring all your NAP data remains consistent across your website and business listings.
NAP refers to your name, address and phone number information used by search engines to display your business in search results. A tool like Ahrefs Site Explorer is useful in checking that all the NAP details on your site are accurate; voice search functionality relies on correct NAP information being included as part of its body text or meta tags.
Google My Business Optimization
NAP (name, address, and phone number of your business) is an integral component of local SEO. To maximize its effectiveness, make sure your NAP remains consistent between your website and GMB listing; this means using the same address and phone number in both crawlable HTML text on the site as well as click-to-call buttons. According to Moz, reviews play an instrumental role in local search rankings – especially authentic customer reviews from consumer directories like Yelp, Foursquare and Thumbtack as well as social media channels like Facebook Instagram and Twitter.
Optimizing your Google Business Profile (GBP) should be at the center of all local SEO strategies. This means making sure it has been claimed, verified and optimized – this includes providing photos, compelling descriptions and other details such as parking/transit info, promotions or testimonials from satisfied customers.
Link Building
Link building is an integral component of any SEO strategy, as it allows businesses to gain backlinks from relevant sites that relate directly to their industry or service area.
Create high-value content that would appeal to your target audience – such as blogs, social media posts or any other form of content marketing – is the key.
Reaching out to your community and providing sponsorships or scholarships can also be an excellent way to build local links. A self-storage company in Dublin built up its local profile by hosting a scholarship for students during the COVID-19 pandemic and even earned coverage in a popular local publication, further raising their visibility.
Local link building follows similar principles as general link building: You want to avoid spammy links and ensure your backlinks appear natural enough for people searching on Google Maps for local search results. Reach out to Array Digital today for more information on how we can assist your local SEO efforts!