8 Practices to Help Your Local SEO

Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO)’s primary goal is to help users get the most relevant results for their location-based search queries. It has been studied that in 2022, 98% of consumers used the Internet to find information about local businesses, up from 90% in 2019. If a website is optimized for local SEO, and a user located nearby searches for your products or services, your website will rank higher on its organic search engine results page.

Mobile searches are on the rise and users searching behavior has evolved. Nowadays is quite common to specify location references on your searches – for example “Best barbecue in Austin” or “Best barbecue near me”. It’s time to take action and start benefiting from having your website optimized for local searches. Following is a list of 8 tips to help your business tap into local SEO business opportunities.

1. Get on Business Directory Listings

Find business directories and claim your business. Some key directories include: Bing Places for Business, CitySearch, Foursquare, Google My Business, Local.com, Magic Yellow, YellowPages.com, and Superpages.

2. Update NAP information

NAP (name, address, phone number) must be up to date and the same in every page of your website and each local directory listing. It’s a key action item so Google knows your local information as bots scan your web pages.

3. Get Social

Depending on your industry, some social networks may be a better fit to talk with customers than others. If you are a B2C business, Facebook is typically a good choice to start. Beyond building your Facebook Page and keep it updated publishing regular valuable content for your customers, attach your business page with your personal profile, and start looking for industry-related local Groups where you think your customers are participating. Typically members will ask others about businesses where they can find your type of products/services. If you are B2B, you should do the same with LinkedIn.

4. Local Influencers

For local stores, Yelp is the most trusted and used local review portal. TripAdvisor is super popular too. In both sites, top influencers are the top-rated reviewers and you can search for them and reach out to try your business. Twitter is also a great tool to connect with local influencers.

5. Work on Local Citations

Expanding the previous point, it’s good to get as many local citations as possible, so expand your search beyond review sites, into blogs, and even press releases – all these links help increase your domain authority.

6. Google Reviews

Getting Google Reviews definitely helps your local search ranking, as long as they are associated with positive ratings. You can create a strategy to get more Google reviews, for example, by offering a discount to any customer that leaves a review.

7. Use Google Adwords Local Extensions

Recently Google introduced a new feature that affects location-based searches. If someone searches for a business type from a mobile phone and adds “nearby”, the search results page displays 3 or 4 local businesses. Location extensions show your business name, phone number, and a map marker with your Adwords ad text next to it.

8. Use local keywords