In this article, we will discuss 8 key strategies that one can use to boost their Local SEO Rankings.
In recent times, local SEO has become more important than ever. It is known as one of the best ways to accelerate the online growth of local businesses. In order to find the best options in their locality, people usually rely on online search results. Hence it’s important to make sure you are ranking high on those searches.
About 72 percent of the people who did a local search were known to visit the stores within a distance of five miles. That shows the importance of local SEO for your business.
Whether you operate in the clothing industry or foodservice industry, local SEO is the key to reaching out to more local customers. It can help you gain a competitive edge in the market and stay ahead of your competitors.
However, improving the local rankings is not an easy task. You need to make a plan strategically and implement SEO in the best way. If you are wondering where to start, here are the 8 of the best tips to boost your local SEO rankings easily.
1) Create and Optimize your Google Business Profile
When you want to enhance your local search rankings, the first thing you must do is create a profile on Google My Business. By creating the profile, you get your business listed on the yellow pages or local business directories available on the internet.
Setting up Google My Business listing is quite easy. However, it is important to make sure that your profile is complete with all the essential details. Ensure that the profile completion rate is 100%. Try to spend more time crafting an excellent description of your business.
Make sure to choose the right business type and category. Also, clearly list down all your products and services that are provided by your business. In order to make your business profile more appealing to the target audience, try adding some relevant pictures.
In addition, add the URL of your official website. Many businesses forget to do this. However, this can be quite frustrating for your target audience. So, make sure that potential customers can easily find your website on the Google My Business profile.
2) Invest Time in Conducting Local Keyword Research
The key to improving your ranking on the search engines is to make use of the relevant keywords in all your content. So, it is important to spend time doing thorough local keyword research.
Your local audience is likely to search for the services you offer with the use of certain specific keywords. If you are familiar with your customers and the industry trends, you may already have some idea of the keywords to target.
In order to find the right keywords, you can use the available tools such as Keyword Generator, KeywordTool.io, or Google Trends and perform keyword research. This can help you find the most relevant keywords specific to your industry along with the search volumes.
Once you have the keyword phrases, make sure to add them strategically to your content. You can include them in your titles, meta descriptions, title tag, the body of the content, and footer. This can help in effectively boosting your local SEO and search rankings.
3) Craft City Specific Pages
Businesses usually create web pages that target global audiences. While it is a good idea to focus on engaging a wider audience, you have to create city-specific pages in order to boost your local rankings.
Well, creating such pages is very simple and easy. All you need to do is add the name of the city in your keywords. Make sure to include the name of the location a number of times on the particular page.
It will enable you to easily reach out to your local customers and expand your business in the local market. Moreover, you can even craft pages that include local news related to your industry.
4) Get your Business Listed on Different Directories
In addition to having a Google My Business profile, you must also consider listing your business on other directories. It proves to be a powerful technique for boosting local search rankings.
Some of the popular directories that you must target include Bing Places, Yelp, Angie’s List, Best of the Web, and more. Also, try to look for online business directories that are specific to your location.
This can help in enhancing your SEO efforts and enable you to connect with your local audience better.
5) Get More Online Reviews
When you offer valuable and high quality services and products, you are sure to have a long list of satisfied and happy customers. These loyal customers can be a great asset to promote your business in other markets.
Getting reviews from happy customers can boost your local search rankings. As per Google, positive and high quality reviews from real customers can enhance the visibility of your business.
There are plenty of ways to convince your customers to leave a review for your business. For instance, you can directly ask the customers to leave their reviews. Your marketing team can continuously engage with customers and ask them to provide their valuable feedback.
You can also provide an incentive to the customers who leave a review for your business. Offer your customers loyalty points, discounts, or free stuff as incentives if they leave a review for your brand. This can help you get more reviews.
6) Optimize for Mobile
Today, almost everyone owns a smartphone. So, whenever the consumers have to make a search relating to a product or service, they do it through their mobile phones. For this reason, having a mobile-friendly website is the need of the hour.
Moreover, the location-related searches through mobile are increasing recently. That means you must make sure to optimize your business websites to ensure that it functions well on mobile devices.
In case your website does not work well on mobile devices or has navigational issues, it can affect the reputation of your brand and local rankings. It may even result in your potential customers turning to your competitors.
7) Build Inbound Links
Inbound links can boost your local SEO efforts. However, building inbound links is not an easy task. It does take a significant amount of time and effort. There are various ways to get more inbound links.
One of the best ways is to contact people within your industry with whom you have a good relationship. It may include other businesses, suppliers, contractors, distributors, wholesalers, and even partners.
They can provide you with pages on their websites where your contextual links can be strategically placed. Guest posting is another great way to build more inbound links. You can craft engaging content for other businesses and include your website link in that content.
8) Optimize for Voice
In addition to optimizing your website for mobile devices, you should also optimize it for voice searches. Today, more and more people are making voice searches in comparison to text searches.
As this is the latest trend, many businesses have started optimizing their websites for voice search. Leveraging this strategy can provide you with a competitive advantage and help you stay ahead in the race. It is an excellent strategy to rank high on local searches.
Conclusion
Local SEO may seem to be overwhelming at first. However, when you know the right strategies, it can be very simple and easy. To occupy a top rank on the local search result page, local SEO is a must. Adding the right keywords, optimizing your website, getting more reviews, and building inbound links are some of the best ways to improve your local SEO.
Want to boost your local search and SEO rankings? If yes, implementing these tips can provide your business with the best results. Leverage the best local SEO solutions and increase your reach among the local audience.
Author Bio
Bhavik Soni is a Creative Writer at Auto Monkey. We provide an original analysis of the latest happenings in the social media industry. Connect with Latest Social Media Trends and News plus tips on Twitter, Facebook and other social tools on the web.
