Since Google's algorithm update in 2021, local SEO has become more important than ever before. When you're located near a city or town, it makes sense that your website would be equally relevant: Google ads are shown right on the map on their search result pages! So how do you ensure that your website is getting seen by potential customers? Keep an eye out for services like BrightLocal and Local SEO Guide as quality options for helping to keep up with local search rankings.
In this article, we'll talk about how important local SEO is, and some of the things you should probably be doing to achieve it.
Why Local SEO Matters Today
What we know about the Google algorithm for ranking websites is that the more local pages your site has an impact on, in terms of clicks, impressions and visits, the more likely it is for you to appear at or near the top of SERPs in Google searches. If your website is mentioned on other local sites, or has a contact form that's used frequently, it will benefit you tremendously.
If you're running an e-commerce site, the more local you are in your reach, the more likely it is that Google will notice that and rank your site higher in search results. If you're able to get all this information without duplicating efforts (i.e. you're using Google and Yelp to track it), you should be able to get a better understanding of the data that is currently available to you, and start working on optimizing your local SEO strategies accordingly.
10 Tips for Getting Started with Local SEO
1. Analyze Your Local Position – Find out where your website falls in ranking on Google for local searches. See if there are any areas where you're falling behind, or if there are any keywords that are not covered by your site's content or pages.
2. Know Your Competition – If you're new to local SEO, don't consider yourself the best in town; look at your competition in local search. Focus on keywords that are commonly searched, and have a minimum of 4 to 5 pages of content that relate to those keywords. In other words, you should be providing content that answers the questions your customers are asking – not just making up SEO articles about the latest trends and fashion trends.
3. Improve Your Site's Trustworthiness – Google wants to know that your website can be trusted by your customers. One of the ways to do this is by using Schema markup. Schema helps Google understand the intent of a web page, which in turn will result in you getting a higher ranking in search.
4. Link to Local Businesses – If you're able to take an interest in local businesses on social media, you'll find that they will often reciprocate by linking back to your site from their own pages. Linking back to your website, especially in the form of a blog post, can also do wonders for your SEO.
5. Use Local Search – This works both ways. If you're able to successfully link up to local businesses through social media, it will benefit you to have your business listed on Google as well. For instance, if someone looks up "vegan" restaurants in your city, they may come across one of the many restaurants that are listed in Google Maps and Yelp.
6. Make Local Customer Service a Priority – If you're running an e-commerce website, one of the best ways to get customers is through the sites that are already ranking. If you can offer better customer service than businesses that are established in your area, you may even be able to consider switching to a brick and mortar store in order to gain some credibility.
7. Go Offline – If you have brick and mortar stores or locations, make sure that your business information is visible both online and off. As we mentioned earlier, having your business listed on Google will make it more likely that customers can find you.
8. Update Your Social Profiles – If you are running a local business, make sure that you keep your social profiles up to date with relevant information. It's imperative that the profile information is correct as well, as someone may be searching for you based off of incorrect details in a profile page.
9. Add Some Value – When someone wants to do a search in Google for information on a certain topic, they'll often do so by using quotation marks and specific keywords. If you're able to offer quality content that's relevant to the search terms, you will gain traction in search results.
10. Offer Discounts – One of the best ways to get organic traffic is through discounts! If you're able to offer discounts or promotions on your website that are relevant to local searches, this can lead to increased traffic as well as increased revenue.
Local SEO is a great way to get a leg up on the competition. By optimizing your website in these ways, you're going to be able to find more success with local search traffic than ever before.
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