Local SEO is essential for any business that wants to achieve visibility in searches for their service area. If you are not ranking highly in local search results, you are missing out on potential customers. Luckily, you can do a few easy things to improve your local SEO rankings. Keep reading to learn more about local SEO tips.
Optimize Your Google My Business Listing
One of the most important things you can do for your business is to claim and optimize your Google My Business listing. This is the listing that shows up when someone searches for your business on Google Maps or searches for a business like yours in their area.
You will want to ensure that your GMB listing is complete and accurate, as this is one of the main ways that Google decides whether or not to show your business in search results. You should also regularly post updates and special offers on your GMB page to encourage customers to choose your business over your competitors.
Get Listed in Local Directories
Another great way to improve your local SEO rankings is to get your business listed in as many local directories as possible. People use many online and offline directories when searching for businesses in their area, so it’s important that you are listed in as many of them as possible.
Some of the most popular local directories include Yelp, Foursquare, and the Yellow Pages. Taking the time to get your business listed in all of these directories will pay off in the form of improved local SEO rankings.
Use Local Keywords
Using local keywords is another great way to improve your local SEO rankings. Local keywords are simply keywords that contain a location identifier, such as “pizza delivery Chicago” or “plumber Los Angeles.”
When people search for these kinds of terms, they usually look for businesses near them. So, if you want your business to appear in these kinds of searches, you need to make sure you are using local keywords throughout your website and other online properties. Including location-specific keywords on your website, in your GMB listing, and on other online listings will help improve your chances of showing up in these types of searches.
Encourage Reviews
Encouraging customer reviews is another great way to improve your local SEO rankings. When people search for businesses in their area, they often place a lot of emphasis on reviews from other customers. So, getting positive reviews from happy customers will go a long way toward improving your local SEO rankings.
You can encourage customers to leave reviews for your business in a few different ways. One way is to ask them directly after using your services or purchasing something from you. Another way is to provide an incentive, such as a discount or freebie, in exchange for a positive review.
However you decide to encourage reviews, just make sure that you are proactive about it so that you can start seeing results quickly.
Optimize Your Website for Mobile
Finally, one last thing you can do to improve your local SEO rankings is to ensure that your website is optimized for mobile devices. With more and more people using their smartphones and other mobile devices to search for businesses online, it’s important that you make sure that they can easily access and navigate your website when they are doing so. If not, they will likely click away from your site and onto one of your competitors’ sites instead.
You can ensure that your site is mobile-friendly by using a responsive design or by creating a separate mobile version of your site altogether. Whichever route you choose, just make sure that mobile users have a positive experience when they visit your site so that they are more likely to tune out the noise and choose yours over all the others.
Conclusion
If you want to rank well in local search results, you can do a few things to move up in the standings. You’ll achieve better local rankings by optimizing your Google My Business listings, getting listed in local directories, using local keywords online, encouraging customer reviews, and optimizing mobile searches. Stick with it, and don’t give up on achieving the LOCAL results you know your business deserves. For more information, contact us now.
