Are you a startup, medium or enterprise-level business? Or perhaps a marketer dedicated to helping brands blossom and businesses to thrive! You might just be a step toward attaining incredible results if you invest in local SEO.
In this piece of content, we explore what local SEO is and some of its best guidelines that can help any brand and business reach its targets more easily.
What Local SEO Really Is!
Local SEO is an SEO facet that focuses on optimizing a business for local search results. Local SEO allows a business to appear in local searches more often whenever specific keywords are used. Local SEO is relatively a new SEO practice but has proven to be reliable for both small and large businesses.
Almost every business considers it as a pathway to reaching out to more customers and leads. One of the major reasons why local SEO is popular today is the ever-increasing local searches globally. Statistics show that 89% of people search for a local business at least once a week. To substantiate, findings show that over 46% of searches on Google are local.
Surprisingly, 88% of consumers who make a local search finally visit a store in less than three days. With that, any marketer should add local SEO to the current digital marketing trends list. Local SEO is a powerful solution that can help any business across the globe grow and stand out.
It can bridge the gap between businesses and customers and usher a brand to new marketplaces. This in the long run helps a business to fetch more customers. So, what are some of the best local SEO strategies for businesses.
7 Reliable Local SEO Guidelines for Innovative Marketers
1) Understand Search Engine Algorithms
With the fact that search engine optimization ushers a business or brand into the online realm, it’s hard to outperform competitors without working SEO practices. Yet, SEO practices are highly influenced by search engine algorithms.
Search engines like Google, DuckDuckGo, and Bing usually roll out updates that determine website rankings. Websites that meet such guidelines enjoy an incredible limelight whereas those that fail to adhere are left behind.
Understanding search engine algorithms offers a competitive advantage to SEO professionals. These are ranking factors that help a website or GMB profile to appear in local organic search results. It also helps a marketer strategize on how to rank higher in searches and reach more customers.
Google updates like Hummingbird, mobile, and core updates were game changers and still continue to influence SEO results globally. Abiding with such rules helps curate user experience which is fundamental to ranking highly on Google. Tip- Follow Google updates to improve searches with a geographical intent.
2) Perform a Local SEO Audit
Many marketers are realizing the importance of local SEO and are investing in it. This makes search more competitive. With that, start by performing a local SEO audit. Consider a local SEO audit as an evaluation process for running a successful local SEO campaign.
First and foremost, analyze your website or GMB profile. Check how your Google My Business profile appears in searches. If it has all the relevant information and an appealing picture, then it has a greater chance of attracting the right audience.
However, if your website or GMB profile is inauthentic and unattractive, you should consider a change. Besides that, perform a competitor analysis to understand their strengths and weaknesses. This will also help you identify opportunities.
3) Experiment with Tools
Yes! SEO requires marketers and SEO professionals to experiment a lot. What worked for your brand five years ago may be irrelevant currently. Also, what worked for another brand may not be applicable in your case.
With that, try out SEO tools and new practices to identify what works for you. Among these; you can consider Google Analytics, Google Search Console, SEMrush, Moz, and WooRank. These tools offer actionable insights that can help a business site rank better in local searches.
Additionally, any innovative marketer must ensure to update SEO knowledge more often. That’s because the SEO realm is ever-evolving and lagging behind only affects SEO competencies.
4) Optimize Google My Business Listing
A GMB profile is a short description of your business or brand. A professionally curated GMB profile can help a business attain better visibility on Google. It is precisely a tool that enables you to manage and optimize your business profile on Google.
With it, you can add your business information for example name, address, and phone number. Such information allows prospects and customers to easily find your store. Also, they will stay updated with your offerings.
Also, optimize online directories and citations. Collectively, these tactics can help improve sales, profit margin, and brand awareness. On the other hand, consider optimizing your content. Quality and optimized content stands out and compels online users to take the required action.
Practices like using meta descriptions, header, and high-volume keywords in the titles allows content to be optimized for “near me” searches. Tip- Create and verify your Google My Business profile and optimize it dimensionally.
5) Optimize Site for Mobile Devices
We live in a digital age with an ever-increasing number of internet users. However, 92% of internet users access the internet using mobile devices. Moreso, 82% of modern consumers use smartphones to conduct local searches.
With that, it’s wise for a marketer to keep mobile in mind while improving local SEO results. Modern shoppers find it convenient to interact with brands using mobile devices. However, unoptimized GMB profiles and websites affect outreach.
As a marketer, try to assess your website load speed and navigation ease. Mobile-friendly sites make it easy for customers to engage with brands. More so, they provide a seamless experience.
To monitor your local SEO better, set and monitor key performance indicators. Such metrics are ideal for tracking SEO performance and improving marketing campaigns. Tip- set marketing metrics depending on your business type and goals.
Also, test your content performance through customer feedback. You can decide to request customer opinions to understand the efficacy of your local SEO efforts.
6) Improve Internal Linking Structure
Link signals such as linking domain authority and quantity have proven to influence ranking in local searches. But linking domains should be more relevant to your target location. Inbounding links play a vital role in boosting local SEO results.
These links inform search engines like Google that you are a trustable and legitimate business. Some of the best mediums for improving your linking structure include sponsoring events and considering partnerships and guest posting.
These could be excellent ways to gain valuable backlinks from local sites. Also, considerations like blog posting can help build professional networks and improve partnerships.
7) Get Social
Ensure to get social whenever possible as this is fundamental in improving brand awareness. Unlike before, there is currently a range of ways a marketer can promote brands or services. Social media is among the most leveraged mediums today.
Whether you decide to invest in social media marketing or to personally promote your brand on social platforms, these efforts can improve a brand’s local search results. Social media efforts generally enhance a brand’s reach.
They can also allow customers to find a brand more easily. Here, marketers can consider SMO (social media optimization) to stand out. Also, create powerful and interesting posts. Platforms like Instagram and Facebook are great avenues for improving brand awareness.
They allow marketers to provide product descriptions, leverage hashtags, and also cross-promote on channels. Besides that, they can provide links (business websites) to enhance organic traffic.
Similarly, marketers can utilize social media for partnerships and collaborations with influencers and professionals.
Local SEO for Businesses
Local SEO as a digital marketing solution is ideal for any type of business across industries. Although SEO is relatively expensive for small businesses and startups, they can surely rely on local SEO to grow and thrive. Local SEO offers a competitive edge by helping a business page stand out in local searches.
That is usually guaranteed with the help of keywords. Identifying the right search terms that customers use helps an SEO professional create tailored content. It’s only more targeted content that can push a business to the right audience.
So marketers must conduct keyword research to identify search terms that work for a brand or business. Also, enter the correct information and optimize GMB profiles for local searches. Find ways of interacting with customers for example recognizing and rewarding them.
Conclusion
Local SEO is an excellent option when it comes to reaching out to local customers and beating the local competition. With the fact that running a business in the modern era is quite competitive, it can ideally push more customers and potential buyers toward your local store.
Not only that, it makes a brand more popular in both local and national searches. Additionally, harnessing local SEO helps a brand to cultivate stronger roots within a niche. Among other benefits of local SEO is that it can help a business fetch more reviews and remain the first option for consumers.
This piece of content details some of the best local SEO guidelines that any innovative marketer can leverage to build and sustain bands. They will also help support other digital marketing programs.
Author Bio – Jessica Robinson loves to write interesting and knowledgeable blogs regarding business management, education and life to satiate the curiosity of her lovely readers. Currently, she is serving as a content manager at the ‘Speaking Polymath’. Every piece of content that she writes demonstrates her immense love and passion for her profession.