Local Search Optimization is helpful for small businesses. According to a study, more than 40% of searches on Google are for local information. If you did not optimize your business for local search, you are losing customers. To put it in simple words, local SEO is crucial if you want to attract your local audience.
We have created a guide to help you optimize your business for local SEO.
1. Optimize for Google My Business
Google My Business is now the most used business profile, especially for local search. As you are trying to get good results on Google, using their tool will give you the chance of taking advantage of Google’s own content. So eventually you will meet the requirements of Google.
To optimize for Google My Business, follow the below instructions.
1. Create a Google My Business page and get verification.
2. Use Google posts within your account.
3. Encourage your customers to share their reviews online.
4. Send a reply to comments and reviews by mentioning the service and the location.
2. Social Media Engagement and Activities
As far as we checked Google becomes more socialholic that it considers socially shared content more important than before.
As you already have a Google My Business Page, social sharing becomes helpful.
3. Ensure your details online are consistent
You should make it easy for your customers to find you. So make sure you use your name, address, email, and phone number consistently. For this, you have to set up NAP.
NAP stands for name, address, and phone number. These details on your website should be added crawlable like HTML text instead of images.
Use contact us for including your NAP.
4. Build citations and directories
In the United States, Apple, Google, Yelp, Bing, and Trip Advisor are getting map data from companies these four map data aggregators: Express Update, Neustar Localeze, Foursquare, and Factual.
Regularly check if your citations are consistent and complete this on these four data aggregators. Avoid misspellings, lack of address details like suite number, and invalid old phone numbers. If google can’t determine which of your information is right, it may not show your business in search results. Also, avoid duplicate listing in online directories.
5. Perform a local SEO audit
SEO is not a one-time thing. It is a continuous process that needs to be checked and monitored over time. Though you did everything right, there are sometimes you won’t get the result. Never stop there, continue making changes and see what works. For this, you need to perform a local SEO audit to check how well your local search optimization helped your website, where it stands now, and what you need to focus on further.
A local SEO audit includes,
Google My Business Audit – Check how your Google My Business Page appears in search engine result pages. Verify the information on the page is correct.
Google Search Console Audit – Are your site pages crawled by Google? Do you get errors in indexing?
On-page SEO Audit – Does the site optimized for on-page SEO needed for ranking?
Citation Audit – Verify there are no duplicate citation listings in any business directories and they have the right details.
Competitor Analysis – Who are your competitors? How do they are doing? Is there any gap between you and them? Are you outperforming them in design, content, links, and ranking?
Website Audit – How well is your website performing now compared to the beginning?