An Ultimate Guide to Improve Search Engine Rankings with local SEO
The goal of every business today is to attract maximum organic traffic and place their website or store at the top of search results. If you have a similar goal, then you need to understand that local seo is the answer to all your prayers.
There is no point in investing your money in traditional advertising as you would only be draining your resources and would not get much returns on your investment.
If you seriously want to grow your business and capture maximum customers without spending much upfront money, it is best that you take help from the best local seo agency.
How Does Local SEO Work?
Local seo is not that different from conventional seo strategies when you practice it at a larger scale. What makes local seo unique is that the search engine uses a different set of ranking factors to place your site or store in the local search results.
When a person does a local search, Google goes through its index and provides the most suitable and relevant results related to that query.
When it comes to local seo, Google would consider the following factors to rank your site in the local results:
- NAP citations
- Google My Business profile listing
- Keywords used in GMB profile
- Sentiments of online reviews
- Keywords used in website content
- Number of check-ins/visits on the site
- Shares and popularity on social media
- Google map ratings
By implementing the right seo strategies, you can make your business more accessible, get maximum organic traffic, generate more leads, and increase your sales.
In this guide, we have discussed in detail the different local SEO strategies that you must practice.
Best Local SEO Strategies that Can Improve Your Ranking Position!
Follow these steps/tips to boost the ranking position of your site and drive more traffic:
1. Find and Use Local Keywords
The most important stage and step is finding high search volume local keywords that relate the most to the niche/category of your website.
Local keywords are the terms that people in your area would generally use to find your business or relevant products/services.
Finding keywords manually is not an easy task, which is why it is important to get help from an online keyword suggestion tool like the one by Ubersuggest.
You can enter the main keyword that you want to rank your site against, and the tool will provide you with supporting LSIs.
Local keywords can help you target and attract local audiences and also increase the visibility of your brand.
2. Post Content that Intrigues Local Audience
Content is one of the most popular ranking factors considered by Google. If you want to see your site ranking on the top local searches, you must provide your audience with what they want or are looking for.
You need to understand who your audience is, their pain points, and their needs/wants. On the basis of this knowledge, you can easily plan your content.
The content relevant to the search interest of your target audience is the best one.
Also, make sure that the content you post on your website is unique and free of all kinds of human errors.
You need to focus on content optimization if you want to sustain the top positions for a longer time.
3. Optimize Your Google Business Profile
In the local seo world, the Google My Business Profile is the most important ranking factor. This means that you must create and optimize your GMB profile on priority.
The process is not as difficult as Google would provide you with step-by-step instructions. Still, if you are not up for it, you can get help from local seo experts.
When creating your business profile, you have to make sure that you provide complete and accurate details.
Providing detailed and accurate information in your GMB profile would help Google present this information to customers who are looking for your business.
A well-optimized profile is going to increase traffic on your website and will also help you generate more leads.
4. Build NAP Citations for Better Local SEO
NAP citations, for your knowledge, are the mentions of your business name, address, and contact details. It might also include the address of your business website.
According to local seo experts, NAP citations are very important, and they account for more than 5% of the ranking algorithms.
NAP citations are a helpful way to provide search engines and details about your business to your target audience.
You can build NAP citations by enlisting your business in local, national, and industry-based directories and on local websites/magazines.
Make sure that your business citations/business details are consistent on every platform. If you find this process to be complicated, you can take help from the best local seo companies in your city/state.
5. Get as Many Positive Reviews as Possible
Positive customer reviews are also one of the major ranking factors. You must ask your existing customers for reviews and feedback and post it on your website.
You would be surprised to know that over 99% of customers visiting your website would specifically read reviews of previous customers before making a purchase decision.
By getting positive and detailed reviews, you cannot only impact the purchase decision of your audience but also help your site get on top rankings.
More visits, increased engagement, and conversions can boost your position in the SERPs.
Note that it is important to get Google reviews, so don’t spend all of your time asking for reviews on sites like Yelp.
6. Build Links with Local Websites
Just like conventional seo, local seo also requires you to build backlinks with high-authority websites.
When you are optimizing your website for the local search results, you need to make sure that you build links with relevant and authoritative sites.
You can contact relevant sites yourself, or you can create high-quality and relevant blog content that intrigues other sites and wait for them to contact you for a link.
There are many online backlink builder tools available that can assist you with this process and help you spy on the backlink profile of your competitors.
7. Invest in Google Ads (Using Local KWs)
One of the most popular and effective ways of getting more local traffic is by using Google Ads. This step or strategy can be expensive and is suggested for large business enterprises, but if you have the budget, you must invest in Google ads.
Note that if you are smart, you can use local keywords, which most businesses would not bid on.
By doing this, you can pass on all of the hard work to the search engine and let it manage campaigns and get you more traffic.
Conclusion
When it comes to improving your position in the local search results, you must focus on strategies that actually work instead of investing your hard-earned money in traditional advertisements or expensive social media marketing campaigns.
In this article, we have discussed in detail the different strategies that you need to follow to help you improve your position in the search results, capture maximum audience, and increase your sales.
In case you don’t have much expertise in implementing these seo strategies, you can also hire local seo companies and let them manage this task for you.
Local seo companies can do a seo audit and find out the shortcomings of your website. Based on their analysis, they would suggest packages in your set budget that would help your business grow.
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Elena Jack
