Doing local SEO is as important as focusing on regular SEO, but it does come down to how you address it if you want it to be successful. Local SEO can be complex, but as long as you have the right tools and knowledge at your disposal, it can be worth the time and energy. You do need to keep in mind a few actions and tips in order to get the best results. In the end, you can get a nice SEO boost if you follow these recommendations.
Without further ado, here are some of the best tips and tricks that you can use in order to get the best local SEO results. Remember that you have to address all of these individually and with enough attention if you want tangible results.
5 Local SEO Tips for Optimization
- Optimize your site for local SEO
If you want to get the best results with your business, then optimizing your site to boost your local rankings is a priority. Plus, this is one of your most important assets, so you have to nurture it properly if you want to get the best experience:
- Perform keyword research and focus on long tail keywords that pertain to your local area. Also, try to use keywords in the page titles. Add in the local area name to landing pages so that you can better optimize for local SEO.
- Add information like business name, address, and phone number which are identical to your local listings. These are known as NAP (Name, Address and Phone Number).
- Get a domain name that includes your local area name or acronym for the best results.
- Optimize your copy for local keywords as this will also boost your visibility.
- Create a thoughtful link strategy
Try to link to other sites. Try to get links from other sites. A good linking strategy will always help boost SEO and offer credibility to your company:
- Sponsor local events or even host them and then add a link to your site on that event’s page.
- Seek out directories who have links for your competition that you don’t have and begin reaching out to these for your store. You can do this through a number of third party tools to quickly identify the link opportunities.
- Share website links on your social media of quality content, as these platforms encourage sharing.
- Avoid spam and link schemes, instead try to rank everything naturally. Manual cleanup is necessary when you find these spammy links.
- Encourage and reply to reviews
People are always looking for online reviews before they purchase any product. That’s why you need to do everything in your power in order to encourage happy clients to write positive reviews. You should try to:
- Talk with happy clients and ask them to post a natural review about what they thought in regards to your product and service quality. It’s important for reviews to be authentic so don’t force them into saying anything.
- Share a list of review sites with your audience so that they can share their opinion in those places that matter.
- Reply to reviews, no matter if they are good or bad. This shows respect and professionalism.
Do not post fake reviews because their origin will be discovered in the end, and that will hurt your business. Also, it’s just not cool.
- Use social media to engage customers
You should try and share messages about your business as often as possible on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook because these links matter. Try to:
- Post relevant content as often as you can and create a social media strategy that involves posting on a daily basis or at least on a regular schedule.
- Always engage the audience and update them about your business, your new products, or highlight stories that are relevant for them.
- Engage with your customers when they comment or interact with a post. They appreciate that.
- Add your listing to local directories
There are many local or even national directories like TripAdvisor, Yelp, and other websites that keep a list of companies in various local areas. If you want to boost your SEO, then you do need to have a presence here:
- Create and update your profile on these local directories in order to obtain the best results and experience
- List your business in the right category.
- Automate the process of updating and securing your listing with software tools. There will always need to be manual work, but software can help.
- Create a separate listing for each of your locations in case your business has multiple locations in the same town or in more than one town.
- Add videos, images and the site URL to your listing in order to make it more appealing and informative.
Getting the best local SEO is a process and needs to be well thought out. Try to stay committed on results and focus on having a good experience. If you do that the results can be very well worth it! Should you not be certain on where to start, we can help: sign up for a free digital analysis.
Ash
October 24, 2016 at 12:01 pmMatt,
This is a great starter guide! I’d also include schema optimization and getting yourself properly optimized on second-tier directories like TripAdvisor, Yelp etc., as a strategy.
LocalSEOChecklist (http://localseochecklist.org) also has some other cool ideas you can use to boost local presence.
reunionmarketing
October 26, 2016 at 1:56 pmHi Ash,
I appreciate the feedback and agree that including schema would be another boost for local SEO. That local SEO checklist is an awesome resource. Thank you for sharing!
Sumit Mishra
December 26, 2016 at 8:04 amThanks Matt for a great tips on improving local seo for business who want to get ahead of their competitor offline as well as online.
Things I follow to be visible locally on web is adding my business on google business and adding my business on top local directory . Manage and updating profile on website who provide local information services like just-dial and indiamart (in india). Engaging and collaborating on Facebook local area group and posting targeting area content.
And I would love to try things like creating profile on national directories to target more audience .
John Ferrell
December 28, 2016 at 2:30 amI like that you mentioned that people are always looking for online reviews before they purchase any product. I think that if having someone do SEO for your company is very good for business. I think that if you don’t have a good ranking online then you might not have very good business.
James
December 31, 2016 at 4:09 amMatt thanks for the tips. In our case,after ensuring proper on page optimization we create pages in all possible social media sites for our client,then add the business to local business directories and guesting posting have been working well for us so far.
Todd Daugherty
January 30, 2017 at 4:17 pmWe have found that with local directory listings, make sure your NAP (name, address and phone number) info is consistent throughout all the listings. This seems to be common sense, but in doing audits, a handfull of our clients NAP’s were not.
Pooja Gupta
March 8, 2017 at 6:59 amHey Matt
Thanks for the tips.
There are couple of more things which i would like to include:
1. Online Reviews on Yelp and Google Business
2. Content Marketing
3. Niche Relevant Directories
mr @ online work agency
March 9, 2017 at 5:55 amMatt,
This is a great starter guide!I like that you mentioned that people are always looking for online reviews before they purchase any product…. thanks
mr @ online work agency
March 9, 2017 at 5:57 amMatt,
This is a great starter guide!I like that you mentioned that people are always looking for online reviews before they purchase any product…. I’d also include schema optimization and getting yourself properly optimized on second-tier directories like TripAdvisor, Yelp etc., as a strategy.site for local SEO is the best topic ever