Local SEO is an important digital marketing component for businesses wanting to increase local search visibility. Mobile device usage and a rising number of local search queries have made it even greater in importance. Understanding key components of a successful local SEO strategy, plus taking actionable tips to progress local visibility, are vital considerations.
Following the tips below may help businesses boost their visibility in local search results, attract local customers and boost overall sales on a local level.
Table of Contents
- Understanding Local SEO
- Identifying Your Local Competitors
- Building a Strong Local Brand
- Utilising Local Keywords to Create High Quality Content
- Optimising Local Landing Pages
- Encouraging Online Customer Reviews
- Start Outranking Your Competitors With Local SEO Today
Understanding Local SEO
Local SEO involves optimising a business’s online presence to boost its visibility for local search queries in search engines. SEO for local businesses should focus on reaching the target audience of local customers and making it easier for them to find the business within their area.
The business’ website and Google Business Profile listing are the 2 most important search ranking signals you can have. These can be modified to include relevant keywords and phrases connected with the products and services offered, plus the location of the business. Optimising a business for local search terms increases its visibility and helps it connect with more potential customers looking for goods or services in the area. Increased store visits, phone calls, and online sales may be seen as a result of this.
Your website and Google Business Profile send search signals through NAP, which includes the name, business address, and phone number. Other important information sending signals from your Google Business Profile include your business description, business hours, Google reviews, and photos & videos. Search engines use this information to determine the legitimacy and authority of your business within its respective location.
Companies with effective local SEO strategies often appear at the top of search results for location-based queries and on mobile devices. For example, search engines will use their algorithm to display the nearest coffee shops to a user’s location in the local 3 pack or on Maps if they search for “coffee shop near me”. Other factors such as online reviews play a role in determining which business may appear in search results.
Identifying Your Local Competitors
Identifying local competitors is a key step in formulating an efficient local SEO strategy. This enables you to analyse the competitive landscape in your area and inform your own local SEO steps. You can identify local competitors by performing online searches related to your business and viewing the results for companies near your location.
After identifying your local competitors, it is essential to assess your competitors according to several criteria, including reviewing their:
- Website
- Google Business Profile
- Visibility and rankings on search engines
- Quantity and quality of online reviews
- Local business listings and directories they are listed in
- Social media presence and activity
- Content marketing strategies and tactics
Assessing your local competition can provide insights into their successful local SEO tactics and potential areas for improvement regarding your own approach. It is advisable to review your competitors regularly as they may change their online business strategies and presence over time.
Building a Strong Local Brand
Establishing a strong local brand presence can help businesses stand out from their local competitors. Businesses should emphasise their unique selling points and tailor their messaging to a specific local audience in order to establish a strong brand that appeals to customers. To establish a strong local presence, you should create a unified message and visual identity across your digital and physical channels. This includes your website, social media accounts, email campaigns, and storefront. Establish trust with the local audience by ensuring brand consistency.
It is important to identify your unique selling points (USPs) when constructing a local brand. These are the qualities which make your business unique compared to local competitors. Identifying unique selling points can help you craft messaging and branding that appeals to your local audience. For example, a local wine store having unique local offerings in comparison to the direct competition.
Local search signals are integral to crafting an effective local SEO strategy. Factors such as your Google Business Profile listing, local citations, Google reviews, and backlinks, allow search engines to understand the relevance and authority of a business’ site in the local area.
Accurate and complete information on a business’ Google Business Profile can help improve local visibility in search engine results. It is a free service that enables businesses to register and provide relevant details such as business address, opening hours and phone number. By optimising their business profile, businesses can make it easier for customers to locate them.
BeOnTop is a local SEO agency with expertise in all things Google Business Profile and local SEO. We have years of experience helping businesses of all sizes elevate themselves within their local area. Click the button below to receive a free SEO audit of your business and start seeing more results online.
Utilising Local Keywords to Create High Quality Content
The use of local keywords is a key factor when crafting a local SEO approach. Including business relevant keywords in website content, meta tags, and page titles can help boost your site’s visibility in local search engine results.
Businesses can make use of keyword planning SEO tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or SimilarWeb to investigate local keyword search volumes, competition levels and learn other relevant business keywords.
Integrating local search terms into website content is important, as it can boost rankings in search engine results. Incorporating these keywords into page titles, meta descriptions, headings, and body content can be extremely beneficial for your SEO efforts. These local keywords are how existing and new customers will find more about your business online.
Optimising Local Landing Pages
Local landing pages are a vital part of any local SEO campaign. Location pages are created using relevant content that is tailored to specific local services, products, or areas served by the business. This increases visibility in local search results and can help businesses attract more local customers.
When crafting local landing pages, it’s important to incorporate relevant and location-specific details such as your business name, address, and phone number. It is a good idea for service based businesses to create a page for each location they service in an attempt to improve search rankings in these locations. Furthermore, these pages should also feature insights into the products or services being delivered and should also display any promotions or exclusive deals that could be enticing to a localised user base.
It is essential to enhance local landing pages for local search. This includes using location-specific keywords in page titles, meta tags and content. Incorporating high quality images and videos which are related to products or services can boost the performance of local search if they are tagged correctly with alt tags and location data. Ensuring that local landing pages are accessible from the main navigation and discoverable by search engines is important too.
Encouraging Online Customer Reviews
Online customer reviews are an important part of any successful local SEO strategy. Positive reviews can increase a business’ credibility with existing and potential customers, plus improve visibility in local search results.
Businesses can ask their customers to review their products or services in an attempt to help improve their online reviews profile. The most popular methods to request reviews is via email, sms, and asking in person. Businesses should make it easy for customers to review them by providing a direct link or QR code to the review site.
It is beneficial to both acknowledge and reply to all customer reviews, as this helps create trust and credibility amongst potential customers. Furthermore, it offers the opportunity to resolve any issues or complaints they may have when responding to negative reviews.
A review management platform such as AddMe Reviews can be capable of being your all in one reviews tool to help your business get more stars and more sales. Software like this will help you send review requests, manage incoming reviews, manage customer feedback, and share all your online reviews; amongst other things.
Start Outranking Your Competitors With Local SEO Today
The importance of local SEO for businesses is clear, given its capability to help improve the visibility of any business in local search results and ultimately gain more customers. A successful local SEO strategy requires continuous monitoring, optimisation, and data analysis in order to generate actionable insights and stay ahead of the competition.
As a local SEO agency, BeOnTop offers comprehensive SEO and Local SEO services to businesses looking to improve their local visibility and outperform their competitors. Our team can provide their expertise to discover issues and opportunities to improve your local SEO. Our team can conduct a free SEO audit of your business; click the link below to get started.