Your online presence dominates in modern business strategy and success, and when you rely on the individuals in your community to keep your business thriving, your local SEO is vital.
Knowing how to ensure your business shows up in online search results will help enhance your visibility and make it easy for every potential customer to discover you.
The last thing you want is for your business to be left off the results page.
Not sure how to boost your local SEO rankings and expand your reach every time someone in your community searches for your services or products?
Then you’ve come to the right place.
In this article, you’ll get a better understanding of how local SEO works, why it’s important, learn six powerful strategies to optimize it, explore some of the best SEO tools on the market, and even discover one big thing that can put your local SEO efforts into overdrive (without you lifting a finger!)
How Local SEO Works and Why It’s Important
When it comes to getting your business online, and in front of the right audience, your SEO is easily one of the most important factors.
Local SEO focuses strictly on those users searching for businesses like yours within your area.
This makes it a clear priority for any business that serves its local communities and relies on them for success.
Local search algorithms prioritize results based on businesses that are physically near the user making the request, and those results are curated based on various factors, such as:
- Your relevance to the user’s search topic
- The physical location of your business
- Your business’s online credibility
In order to determine these factors, your business information is pulled from across the web, which may include things like your:
- Social media presence
- Google My Business profile
- Backlinks to your website
- Rating and reviews
With the right local SEO optimization, you’ll make it simple for your target customers to find your business, ensuring it’s showing up in every local search thats relevant to your services or products.
The quality of your local SEO is vital to your business’s success, and with just a few simple steps, you’ll be able to give yours a healthy boost.
6 Easy Local SEO Tips to Include in Your Business Strategy
Online visibility has never been more important.
With so many people jumping to Google to find the services and products they need, your local SEO needs to be exceptional.
The good news is there are several strategies that can boost your local SEO standing and keep you appearing in relevant local searches.
1. Claim and Optimize Your Google My Business
Your Google My Business profile is one of the most influential factors in your local SEO and overall online presence.
Google My Business is a free tool that makes managing your online presence across Google easy.
Essentially, this is your business’s calling card, ensuring Google’s algorithms are aware of your business, giving them all the information they need to include you in search results.
Some vital information you’ll need to include in your Google My Business profile includes your business:
- Name
- Address
- Phone number
- Website
You’ll also need to identify what category your business fits under so that Google can place you within the most relevant searches.
This makes it essential to be as accurate as possible when selecting your category.
After creating your profile, you’ll also need to verify your listing via phone, text, email or video.
To give your profile an even bigger boost, you can create Google My Business posts to promote special offers, update information, or highlight an event.
This allows you to directly connect with your local customers, increasing engagement and visibility while providing value!
2. Create Local Content
Creating new content thats directly tailored to your local audience can give your local SEO an impressive boost.
Not only does this improve your ranking, but also expands your relevance based on each post.
Some of the most popular forms of local content include:
- Blogs
- Landing pages
- Service pages
- Social media content
To make this even more powerful, include relevant keywords that are specific to your location within the content, and mention your business name and location where it naturally fits.
3. Optimizing Online Directories and Citations
The more information about your business that’s online, the better your local rankings will become.
Citations are any mentions of your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) on any other site than your own.
This can include online directories, various internet platforms, and online apps, such as:
- Apple Maps
- Yelp
- YellowPages
- Bing
- Google My Business
When adding your business information to any online space, you’ll want to ensure that every piece of information is accurate and mirrors what’s already online.
If your NAP is inconsistent across platforms, your rankings can take a hit, reducing the rate your business shows up in local search results.
This happens because Google is unable to verify which piece of information is accurate, making each one irrelevant to potential search results.
4. Utilize On-Page SEO & Local Keywords
On-page SEO simply means the optimization and use of keywords on the pages of your website or social profiles.
One of the most important parts of this is curating a list of relevant, well-performing keywords to include throughout the content and copy of your site and social posts.
A word of warning, though; avoid keyword stuffing! Only add keywords where they naturally fit so that Google continues to view your site as a quality option to include in local search results.
These keywords can be included in your websites:
- Metadata
- Headlines
- HTML tags
- Images
Take this even further by including geotags in your images and videos, both on your website and on your social media!
5. Perform Local SEO Audits
SEO audits are a powerful way to verify how your business is ranking on search engines and can give you some insight into where you could improve.
While performing a local SEO audit on your website is certainly one of the most important aspects, you’ll also want to expand it to include other aspects of your business’s online presence, including:
- Your Google Profile
- Your citations
- An analysis of your competitors
- And your google search console
Having a better understanding of how your business is performing and where you can improve can give your local SEO rankings a significant boost, helping you find even more success.
6. Build a Social Media Presence
Social media has taken over the online world and has gone far beyond simply reconnecting with old friends. It’s now one of the most popular ways potential customers discover and learn about your business.
Increasing your social media presence can be a major asset in boosting your local visibility and can help foster strong connections with current and potential customers.
Through the use of well-planned descriptions, relevant hashtags, and geotagging, each post can serve to boost your business’s validity in the eyes of Google.
This not only expands your reach on your social media platforms but also helps your business rank higher all around, increasing how often you’re showing up in local search results.
Powerful Local SEO Tools for 2023
If the six strategies above seem like a lot of work, we have good news for you; there are plenty of online tools to help make the process easier.
Semrush
This is one of the most recognizable SEO tools on the market.
With their robust all-in-one platform, managing and improving your business’s SEO rankings is simple.
Some key features they include are:
- Keyword research
- Site auditing
- Competitor analysis
- and a comprehensive local SEO toolkit
Moz Local
Moz Local gives you the power to view and edit your business listings, ensuring they’re accurate and visible across various platforms and sites.
One of the biggest benefits of Moz Local is its ability to submit your location data to a wide range of online directories, boosting your local SEO and ensuring your business information is consistent across the board.
Some features included in this tool are:
- Instant directory submission
- Distribution reporting
- Review monitoring and management
- Google My Business Sync
BrightLocal
BrightLocal is a comprehensive tool that focuses on local SEO specifically.
It provides a wide range of options to track and optimize your local SEO, with some of the most notable features including:
- Citation tracking
- Reputation management
- SEO audits
- Local listing services
This tool is a great all-around option to help you review and manage your local SEO efforts.
Ahrefs
This SEO tool provides an all-in-one solution thats outfitted with a range of tools to give you a better understanding of your local SEO ranking and provide strategies for you to improve it.
Some of the most beneficial features they offer include:
- Backlinking
- On-page SEO analysis
- Competitor analysis
- Keyword research
Make Local SEO Simple With IMP Digital
Your online presence is an important factor of your business success, and if you depend on local traffic and customers to keep your business thriving, your local SEO needs to be flawless.
Gaining awareness and credibility through citations and online directories and a well-rounded Google My Business profile can go a long way and, when optimized correctly, will help give your SEO rankings a solid boost.
Taking it even further by optimizing your website with high-performing keywords, relevant metadata, geotags, and images is another great way to get your business in front of the people who matter most.
Above all else, including a local SEO audit in your strategy is essential in getting a strong understanding of your business’s current standing and finding areas where you can improve to overcome the competition.
Supercharge your local SEO strategy without the work by partnering with a digital marketing agency like IMP Digital.
With advanced local SEO solutions, from audits to determine the health of your site to custom content development, our team of experts is here to help transform your SEO strategy into a powerhouse to drive local traffic, helping you find success.
Contact us, or schedule a discovery call with us to explore all your options today.
