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Millions of customers use search engines daily to find the best local businesses and services in their area. If you’re primarily targeting a local audience, utilizing local SEO tactics can help increase your chances of being found.
The main difference between organic and local search is that local search has a geographical component. If a person searches for an industry + a location, the search engine will know to display results with a local intent.
Here’s how to improve your chances of ranking highly within local search.
Part 1: Google My Business
Google My Business is the core of every local SEO strategy. It contains all the information potential customers need to know about your business and presents it clearly to search engine users. When you optimize your listing properly, it will be easier for local customers to find you on the web.
Sign into Google and provide the essential details about your business, including address, phone number, and website. You’ll then need to verify your business, which can be done by phone call and sending a postcard to your address. Although this can take a few weeks, it protects your business from copycats.
It’s super important to get your NAP (Name, Address, Phone) right and for them to stay consistent with the details you want your customers to use. When entering the business name and phone number, it should be accurate and consistent across the web.
For clarity, when adding your website URL to your listing, it should be the home page of your main website. For businesses with multiple locations, it’s best to set up a separate My Business page for each area to ensure you rank highly for the destinations you do business in.
You will have the option to select a business category, and this is crucial for local ranking factors. It would be best to choose a category that explicitly describes your business rather than a long list of semi-related categories that could negatively impact your results.
Finally, you’re allowed three main photos on your page, so make sure they showcase your business in the best possible way and align with your brand identity.
Part 2: On-Page SEO
With your Google My Business listing all set up, the next step is optimizing your website for local SEO.
Your platform’s capabilities primarily drive your website’s in-page optimization capabilities. If you use an SEO-friendly website builder or a CMS with built-in SEO options, you should have no problem. You can specify metadata for the site (and individual pages), such as Title, Meta Description, Title H1, and Sub-titles H2, H3, and H4. But this is not the starting point for optimizing your site’s SEO.
Start by mapping out the URL structure of your website. Your site structure should align with your products, services, and areas of business and include geo-specific keywords so that it looks something like this:
http://domain.com/location/service1
http://domain.com/location/service2
Look at your page headlines (title tags) and header tags (H1, H2, and H3). These are essential for local SEO success and will help you rank organically. Ideally, you should include your location in as many of these places as possible without it looking spammy. For example, here is a way to sprinkle your geo-targeted keywords and phrases into the title and header tags.
Title Tag: 10 things to consider when choosing security guards in Yorkshire
H1 header: Why your corporate security in Yorkshire needs evaluating
H2 header: How to find the best security guards in Yorkshire
You should also set up images for local SEO by using keywords and locations in your image filenames, titles, and alt text. However, be careful not to repeat the keyword too many times in the filename and the alt-tag text, as this will hurt a page’s ranking for that keyword.
For further insight on how best to optimize images, look here.
Part 3: Make Mobile Work
Recent research shows that more than 55% of local searches happen on a smartphone, so if your site isn’t mobile-responsive, your customers will go to your competitors. Google has also emphasized mobile responsiveness to ensure SEO success.
You don’t have to be concerned about the cost of redesigning your site for mobile, as most CMS are responsive by default. Transferring your site to WordPress is an easy way to have a user-friendly, responsive, and well-optimized site with many plugins available to further help with local SEO domination.
Evaluating and improving your site for SEO purposes can be time-consuming, so it’s often a good idea to outsource the process. WP Tech Support will conduct an initial SEO audit on your website and do the necessary work to improve your search visibility. We will then provide ongoing maintenance and support to ensure your WordPress site remains optimized and secure. Please find out more about how we can help your business here.
