Before you start knowing Local Business SEO strategies, you should aware about what SEO is.
Let me start step by step to introduce you to what Search Engine Optimization actually is.
Search engine optimization is a techniques used to improve the number of visitors to a website by getting high-ranking positions in the search results page of search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing and many more.
So how local SEO is different from SEO?
Local search engine optimization (SEO) is a digital marketing strategy for small business owners who desire to sell their product or services to local customers.
While Organic SEO focuses on large-scale to target worldwide audience.
Many of the user looking service in near by area so Local SEO can help your business stand out from your competitors in the local market.
You need to learn how to use local ranking factors like name, address and phone number (NAP) and customer reviews to rise to the top of SEO results.
If you’re newer to local SEO, you might want to visit the Local Learning Centre to learn what local search marketing is, if it’s a good fit for your business and best practices.
I am sure you know that it will be a better option to go with a local SEO as it has a better perspective. To create a better understanding of the local SEO here is a complete guide for you.
This guide will cover some of the easy ways to dominate the local search. Let us glance at below local SEO checklist.
Keyword Research:
It’s essential to optimize your small business websites around keywords that are commonly used by the people.
So, Keyword research is the first and the foremost step towards the successful Local SEO campaign. This research includes those typical words, phrases & sentences that are regularly being typed and search on the internet by the users.
Now another question that will automatically pop into your mind is how to discover the keywords?
Take a small survey of your friends, family and some of the customers, about the general words and phrases they use on a search engine to look for the information they require. Make a proper list of those words and put them on a Google AdSense’s keyword planner to find the approximate search volumes and competition for that keyword.
Keywords with a high competition will normally have a competitive SEO score. Look for those specific words that have been searched by maximum people in a month.
Once you have that information with you, you can easily add them to your web contents.
Keywords for Title
The search engine depends on your title, which has to be catchy enough. The title is the key text that appears at the top of the search, which gives a brief outline of what is the website all about. The title also becomes an explanation for the browsers.
Your decided title should not only carry a keyword but it should be that much strength to explain about the contents provided on the website.
See below example of how you can use keywords in the title for a restaurant in particular city.
To make your understanding more easily, here are the guidelines to present a title in a catchy way
- Sum up your title within 55 characters, this gives a surety that it will be perfectly highlighted on the browser especially on Google
- keep adding the brand name as much as possible
- the homepage title must begin with the brand name including the services provided by it
Meta description
A Meta description is an important aspect of the successful Small local Business SEO campaign. The purpose of a Meta description is to provide the user and search engines with a brief outline of your web page. Having interesting and vivid Meta descriptions may increase the frequency that people click on your result when it is shown.
Aim to write unique descriptions that are under 156 characters in length, so your words don’t go off the track.
Image Optimization
For the best image optimization you need to look at these four important aspects:
- Name of your image file: make sure that your image file contains the keywords before you upload it on your site.
- The text of the image title: The text will be available with that image whenever a user surfs your site therefore again it is important to add the keyword to image title.
- Alt-Text: Alt-text helps the image to get posted on your website. Again this field should include appropriate keywords.
- Size: An image has to be in a JPEG file before it gets uploaded. You can use tools like Photoshop and JPEG tool for it.
Anchor Optimization
Words used with a hyperlink reference to the Anchor Optimization. It is a word that can be clicked to go to the other page where you can get some more information. It is an essential part of local SEO strategies.
For example, Wikipedia is an open book of information.
Here the word Wikipedia is a clickable word. If you will click this word you can browse on the Wikipedia website.
This is one of the important local SEO tips for you. These days Anchor Optimization is considered as one of the best local SEO strategies to detect plagiary, spam and relevance of a website.
Types of anchor text
If you are not aware of the various types of anchor text, then you might face problems in generating your website. So look at different types of anchor texts given below:
- Generic anchors: Generic anchors are normal anchor texts like “click here” or “go here.” The name itself specifies the meaning.
- Branded Anchors: When you are using your brand name as a text then these texts become the branded anchors. These are the safest to use unless and until your website is an exactly a matching domain
- Naked link anchors: These are the anchors that link back to a site by simply using the URL.
- Brand+ keyword anchors: to enhance and build a strong anchor profile, a brand text added with the keywords is the safest thing to use.
- Image anchors: To spread your anchor profile even further, you should consider using image anchors. In an image, Google reads the “alt” tag as an anchor text
- LSI anchors: It stands for Latent Semantic Indexing which basically refers to the variations of your main keyword, or so-called synonyms.
- Partial Match Anchor: The partial presence of keywords in the anchor text is said to be the partial match.
Websites must be mobile friendly too!
If the users are incapable of visiting your website due to poor mobile experiences like slow loading, small text, which continuously forces them to zoom in to read the content
So what you have to do is you must update to a mobile-friendly site for successful local business SEO campaign.
Perfect mobile-friendly websites must have the qualities of approachable web design, so that is adjusted in the mobile screen. Reactive websites are easier to handle from a point of view of local SEO services.
Another, option for you is that you can develop a separate website designed specifically for mobile.
This is again one of the best local SEO tips.
Citations
An online reference to your small business with business’s name, address and phone number (NAP). They usually take the structure of a local listing in an online directory such as Yellow Pages.
If you expect citation to help you with your local SEO strategies, it’s important that it exactly matches the NAP on your website and on your Google My Business page.
What format you are choosing for your citations isn’t important, but picking one format and sticking with it is an important decision. You need to be extremely consistent with the name, address (and phone number used when you begin building citations.
A social profile is like an improved version of a citation that is more faithful and customizable. Few of the social profiles are Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Linkedin etc.
If you want to build well visibility of your website, you ought to create high quality and relevant citations and social profiles as much as possible.
Follow below some of the major Local SEO tips while building citations and social profiles:
- Make sure that your NAP information is proper.
- If you change your location of your company, then you must update your NAP information on your social profiles, on your website and citations.
- Mention unique descriptions of your business that tells about your company’s products and services.
- Upload at least 4 relevant, best quality images
- Maintain a spreadsheet to store username and passwords
- Remove duplicates. You must have only one citation per location.
Google uses citations to authenticate the correctness of the contact details in their local business schedules. As the false information, like the address and phone number put ups a question on the reliability of the search results. Therefore, if the same NAP is mentioned on almost 50+ different websites then it’s likely a confirmation of precise information.
Another reason that shows the importance of citations is that it helps to improve your business’s rankings in local search results; they increase general alertness of your business and provide more ways for users to search you on the internet.
Google My Business profile
Having a first-class business profile on Google is compulsory.
Google My Business (GMB) is an amazing marketing platform for small businesses, which comes under the important Local SEO checklist.
Add business name and address to Google my Business Profile. Tap on your business to declare your profile. Then, verify the box “I am authorized to manage this business” and tick “Continue” Button. Re-examine your business addresses and check whether it needs any changes. Google will send you a verification code tour mail. Enter the received code in Google My Business to complete the authentication process.
Here are some major benefits of utilizing Google My Business:
- GMB will help you to control and update how Google shows your business details
- You will get to know how searchers find your business.
- You will be accessible on Google Maps and this can help your customers locate directions to your business.
- You can Respond to customer reviews so that you might get more demand from the people
List your business in local directories
Listing your business name, address, and contact information around the web, mainly at trustworthy local listing sites such as the Just dial(india), Yelp and Yellow Pages are not only helpful in authenticating your identity to search engines but afford extra links to your site which will also aid your ranking. Confirm that your info is same across all listings
Build quality backlinks
Next on local SEO checklist is building high-quality backlinks
When another website accepts links of your site, it’s like providing proof to the search engine that they trust in your content and ability on specified topics. The more sites that tie to your website, the more tributes the search engines will grant you for offering your users with authority and relevancy. Hence your search engine ranking will improve day by day.
Customer’s reviews
Customers are the real king of any business. They could just make or break your status in the market. Thus, you must be aware what your customers love and what draws them towards you the most.
Most of the consumers read online reviews to discover local services. They also evaluate a local business on its unique star rating. So it is very important to obtain positive reviews.
The more 5-star reviews your business organizations will gain, the more online publicity it will collect.
To acquire positive reviews you must focus on offering an astonishing customer experience. After each service is done, respectfully ask them to write feedback about your services.
Yelp, Foursquare, Google my Business, Facebook are great places to interact with customers.
Steps to find Best Local SEO Services
Local SEO is little-complicated campaign
That’s why you required finding the best local SEO services firms that are keenly specialized in Local SEO campaign
Here are many steps you should take to hire the company that will optimize your small business website so that you can get people to your site easily!
- Glance at their Case Studies
Case studies show the worth and success stories of any best SEO service providers. They’ll tell you accurately how the company assisted other small businesses to achieve local fame.
Generally, best Local SEO Services will have case studies on their website. Visit their site and get ideas about their capabilities.
- Know how they are expert in Schema.org – Schema.org is very significant to local SEO. Handle your business project to only who understands it very well.
- Ask them to explain their Local SEO Strategies for your business- Each company have a different approach regarding local SEO. Some might be expert in just one vertical, others might specialize in each vertical. So there are immensely various models.
- Know the local SEO Tools that the Company Uses- There are countless local SEO tools obtainable on the market that craft an SEO’s job much effortless. Let them explain the tools that they use and a reason behind it. Make sure will they mention local SEO tools like Yext, MOZ local, SEM Rush, etc.
- Ask them about citations and GMB- You can advance your business’s local ranking with the help of Google My Business and citations.
So make sure you employ a Local SEO firm that knows how to utilize GMB and citations.
Conclusion
For a small business firm that caters for a particular local region, Local SEO is the most imperative marketing technique that they must opt for!
Without using Local SEO campaign, you cannot look ahead to rank in Google’s top search engine results pages. In addition, Google is endlessly making changes in the technique local businesses are positioned in the SERPs – so you must aware of it, as you have many rivals around you
And the guidelines in this article are proven which includes the Local SEO checklists such as keyword research, Google My Business page set up, citations, backlink building, customers reviews etc.
In order to accomplish your business objectives of gaining top search engine ranking and fetching more online deals, you must pay special interest to these aspects
Keep building high-quality backlinks from reliable websites. If you follow above tricks you will definitely see better results.
All the best!
