Local SEO refers to the set of practices focused on optimizing a website to rank for a local audience. The internet provides businesses with endless opportunities to reach out to the entire online world. However, it’s not profitable or wise to launch a nation-wide or international online marketing campaign when your target audience is actually located near your shop or business. To serve local customers, you need to develop a sound local SEO strategy.
Some of the activities focused on local SEO include optimizing the web presence for your address, city name, etc. There is no other way you can attract local customers and find them online. As a small business, you cannot afford to lose your local audience to your competitors. Therefore, start working on optimizing your site for local traffic. Here is what you can do to start an effective local SEO campaign:
Optimize for Google My Business
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You can’t miss out Google My Business if you want to leverage the power of local SEO. Google loves to support and verify content that meets users’ expectations and solve their problems. Google My Business is Google’s tool that supports your business to meet Google’s requirements. It’s important that Google is able to verify your business. To optimize for Google My Business, create and verify a Google My Business page and encourage your customers to share their reviews. It is advisable that you respond to online reviews in a positive manner and take criticism as an opportunity to improve.
Remember, Google only allows real business owners to create their My Business Page. If you are working with a digital marketing agency, make sure you have some kind of agreement with them to secure your future marketing efforts. Besides, always use the address, business name, and phone number that you have been using for your rest of online marketing campaigns.
Optimize Your Website
Various relevant elements of your site should be optimized for local SEO. For example, when we talk about content, every new post will add to your existing indexed pages; every piece of content you publish on your site is a chance to get found online and improve your rankings. So, don’t forget to optimize your content for search engines and local audience by incorporating high-volume keywords into your meta, header, descriptions, URL, and body.
Create Local Content
Google now uses sophisticated techniques and tools to provide the most relevant and useful content to its users. Creating content just to fool search engines is not going to work anymore. Whether it’s content marketing or any other SEO-related campaign, focus on writing content that could attract your local audience. Writing about local events and news is an effective way to grab the attention of local customers. Content is a great tool to create a profitable and sustainable local SEO strategy. Besides, content will help your business to be a local authority.
Make Sure Your Website is Mobile-Friendly
The success of your local SEO efforts largely depends on how well your website performs on mobile devices. 4 out of 5 users initiate local searches using their mobile devices. If most of your potential customers are locals, invest in your website and make it as good as it is for desktop users. Make sure your site offers a seamless experience when people browse it on their smartphones to find locations, search contact information or look up reviews. Make things easier for your local users by making your site perfectly responsive.
Optimize Citations, Local Directories
When it comes to local SEO, consistency is of prime significance. Verify that your citations are consistent and comprehensive across data aggregators. Using wrong phone number, abbreviations, misspellings, etc. can create problems and affect your local SEO results. If Google finds it difficult to determine whether or not your information is correct, it may not rank your site in SERPs at all. Moreover, duplicate listings should be removed. Being a member of the chamber of commerce will help you with your SEO efforts.
Conclusion
There are a number of other local SEO techniques and tools that can help you rank better for local searches. Think strategically and continuously improve the way you cater to your local online audience.
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