We all know how important SEO is for business. Buying behaviour of consumers has changed in recent years. Now before making any purchases people first search it online for various reasons like to compare the price, to know specifications, or to find any discount and offer about that particular product or service. This has made SEO an important element for any business.
Businesses that rank higher in google search are having more sales and conversions. To rank higher an effective SEO strategy is a must.
Now the question arises what is local SEO? Local SEO is a search engine optimization tactic that can help your business to be more visible in search results for a particular location or area.
If I am looking for a dentist, then obviously I will prefer a dentist in my area as I don’t want to travel too far, right? This is where local SEO comes into play. When I search for dentists, Google will show me the list of dentists in my area. The dental clinic which has optimized its local SEO will get more patients.
Agencies like Adtric Solutions provide cost-effective local SEO services to businesses who want to stand out against their competitors for local searches.
According to Search Engine Journal, “83% of local consumers use Google Search to find information about local businesses and 90% will make a purchase within one week of their initial search”.
From the above stats, we can say with certainty that businesses can not ignore local SEO.
From the above, it can be seen, I have just typed the keyword ‘pizza’ without specifying any location. Still, the search engine showed me the restaurants serving pizza from my nearby location.
How To Optimize Your Business Website For Local SEO
Various steps are included in optimizing the website for local SEO. Read below to know more.
Optimize Your Home Page And Metadata
Your homepage should clearly state what is your business, what you do and where are you located. This information should be mentioned in your title tag, heading tag, and description tag. Optimizing these tags helps the search engine to understand your business and location.
Add Your Business Address In The Website
Add your contact information on the website to help search engines to understand where your business is located.
- If you are operating in one location, then put the address in the footer and contact page.
- If you operate in multiple locations then create unique pages for different locations. Don’t try to put all locations on one page because that is not helpful for local SEO.
- On each location page, embed a Google Maps showing the location of your business.
Add Location-Based Structured Data
Structure data, also known as schema markup, is a semantic vocabulary of tags (or microdata) that you will add to your website to help search engines to understand your website better.
It is easier for search engines to identify the location of your business when you add location-based structured data to your website.
Make Your Website Mobile Friendly
Most of the local search comes from mobile devices. According to studies. ”77% of users use a mobile device to search for local businesses and services.
So it’s necessary to make your website responsive that can adapt to any screen size. It is also an SEO ranking factor.
Mobile-friendly sites are easier to navigate that can significantly reduce bounce rate and consumers will stay longer on your site.
Create Google My Business Page
Get your business listed on Google My Business. It is a free listing and you can create different GMB pages for different locations.
In GMB you have to add
- Your address with the pin
- Phone number
- Business hours
- Call to action button
- Information about your product or services
- Images related to your business
You need to regularly edit and update your GMB so that your customers can find the right information. Encourage your customers to review and respond sincerely.
These steps will help to optimize your GMB page and boost visibility.
Check Nap Citation
NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone Number. The NAP must be listed in the same way on every platform including your GMB and websites. Consistent NAP creates trustworthiness for your business.
Build Business Citation
Business citation building means adding your business to local and national directories. The NAP entered in every page must be the same as the Google My Business page. This will help in optimizing local SEO. This will take some time but gives good results. If you can not do it yourself take the help of a local SEO agency.
Set Up Social Media Signals
Social media signals pointing to your location can help to achieve your local SEO strategy. If you don’t have a Facebook business page then create it now because it can help you in local SEO ranking.
Optimize Your Site For Local Keywords
Finalize a list of keywords that are relevant to your local customers. Now plan content and SEO strategy for these keywords.
- Develop content targeting these keywords.
- Optimize your website for the keywords.
- These keywords should appear in your meta content, copy, and URLs
Do Off-Page SEO
Optimizing the website is one strategy but not sufficient. You need to do off-page SEO regularly to achieve the desired results. Quality backlinks pointing to your website helps in building your website’s authority.
You can acquire quality backlinks by doing
- Guest posting
- Blog posting
- Article posting
- Influencer marketing
Benefits Of Local SEO
Many great benefits come when you optimize your website for local SEO. Now everybody has phone and internet access which makes local SEO much more effective and lucrative.
Now let’s discuss how you get benefitted.
- It increases the visibility in local search results. When people search for ‘near me’ business then your listing will appear.
- More visibility helps your business in getting more traffic, especially local traffic. As consumers can locate your business while searching online they end up coming to your website. Hence it makes your business popular.
- More traffic means more conversion. Local traffic has a high probability of conversions. More traffic and conversions again help you to rank better.
- It helps you to save on the advertising budget. When you optimize for local SEO people automatically notice your business and you don’t need to spend a lot of money on banners, pamphlets, and advertising.
- It helps you get more new customers and retain old customers resulting in more profit.
- When you get more traffic, customers, and conversions your business reputation increases.
- Optimizing your website helps you to gain an advantage over your competitors.
Conclusion
Local SEO is a very important strategy to grow your business. It is especially important for businesses that are physically present and serving specific regions, cities, towns, and states. A good SEO strategy can get you closer to your customers as they can find information about your business easily and quickly. This can lead to more traffic and sales.
Leave a Reply