10 Tips to Improve Your Local SEO

You’ve slept through your alarm. Already running late for work, you rush to the shower only to find the hot water isn’t working – what’s the first thing you do? Grab your nearest internet-connected device and search for emergency plumbers in your area. 83% of people, just like you, turn to Google to find businesses near them that meet current needs.  

Searches for local businesses continue to grow. 61% of consumers search locally every day, with searches for “open now near me” growing globally by over 400% YOY. By adopting an effective local search marketing strategy for your business, the number of leads and conversions coming through your website will boost sales. 

We’ve put together ten tips to help you improve your local search marketing strategy. 

Create a location page or location-specific ‘about us’ page 

Set up a unique page on your business’ website that specifically discusses the business and its location. If your business name does not specify a location, you should create a location-specific page that describes that your business offers and uses keywords relevant to specific localities your business is based in, or services. If your business has multiple locations, it’s important to create multiple location pages to help with multi-location SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). As a bonus, consider adding information on the location-specific webpages on why customers should choose your products/services over your competitors to help persuade potential leads during their search process. 

By creating targeted location-specific pages, your search engine results page (SERP) ranking will improve and boost your overall SEO strategy. 

Research hyper-local keywords 

Research, analyze and choose the best location-specific keywords that are relevant for your business and its location to drive traffic from search engines to your website. By using a keyword tool such as Google’s Keyword Planner, you can find hyper-local keywords that are popular in your area to include on your website. 

Keep in mind that at the same time, you shouldn’t over-optimise your website since this might be seen as trying to manipulate Google’s rankings. Instead, focus on using the keyword you’ve found naturally on your website. 

Feature photos of local points of interest on your website 

Including photos of important places near your business location or pictures inside your business location on your website will boost your local search marketing efforts enormously. Ideally, you should include a few photographs of various places around your business, such as a nearby park or a recognizable building, in addition to photos of inside your business including your lobby, patient rooms, product shelves etc. Not only will this tactic optimise your website with relevant picture content, but it can help you rank in the image results page on Google or Bing and drive more organic traffic to your business’ website.  

It’s important to also optimise the photos with captions and alt text to increase the likelihood that people will come across your page when they’re looking for the product or service your business provides. 

Film a local video to highlight your business and its location 

Manage your listings 

Nearly half of all Google searches are location-based searches, with 81% of consumers researching a business online before visiting. You can drive more traffic to your business from local searches with accurate and complete directory listings. Creating and claiming listings like Google My Business will make it much easier for people to find your business online and increase traffic to your website. Additionally, if someone has a positive experience of your product/service, they’re more inclined to leave a review on a directory listing which can improve your search rankings and encourage others to give your business a try.  

Use high-quality backlinks from businesses in your area 

One of the best ways you can boost your local SEO is to get backlinks from other businesses in your area to help increase your rankings for local keywords as well as build up the authority of your website. 

You can find other businesses (that aren’t competitors) in your industry by looking at Google Maps for nearby locations or searching for specific keywords related to what you do on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. Once you’ve identified a few quality prospects, reach out to them and ask them if they’d be interested in supplying a link back to your site. 

Add call tracking with a local area code 

Call tracking with a local area code is when a specific local number is featured on your website to track where calls are coming from, which is especially useful if your business has more than one physical location. Also, supplying a local phone number on your Google Business Profile adds to your business credibility, helping to improve your rank. 

Optimise your Google Business Profile 

Creating a Google Business Profile is one of the first things that you should do when it comes to local search marketing.  Answering reviews (both good and bad), adding more relevant images, and updating information about your business as soon as it becomes important is key to having an optimised Google Business Profile. 

The better optimised your Google Business Profile is, the better chance you’ll have of ranking higher in local search results and generating more sales and leads through your website. Make it a habit to continuously optimise your profile and keep information correct to make the most of your listing. 

Apply Google’s Local Business structured data 

Google’s Local Business structured data provides search engine robots with more information about your business’s site to help them better understand what your business does and where it is located. 

Using the Local Business structured data is as easy as adding some code to your website (or having your website developer add it). Once you’ve done so, search engine robots will crawl your site and collect the data, which will then be used to improve your local results on Google search results pages as well as Google Maps. By using Google’s Local Business structured data, you can improve your local search marketing efforts while increasing traffic to your business’ website at the same time. 

Invest in local search advertising 

Your organic SEO work will be more effective when combined with a paid search advertising strategy. By adjusting your search advertising strategy to bid on local keywords and target local searchers, you can increase your chances of showing up in relevant local searches. By running local search advertising in conjunction with your local search marketing strategy, you can increase brand awareness and trust for your business.  

We’re here to help!  

With a history of helping businesses grow locally, LocaliQ can help get you in front of your ideal customers. Contact us today to chat to our team of marketing experts.