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How to Do Local SEO for Small Businesses
How to Do Local SEO for Small Businesses
Having local content for your business is great for many reasons. You can get to know your local community on a more personal level, and you have the opportunity to be part of the community. But local SEO poses its own set of challenges that brick and mortar businesses might not think about when starting their local SEO strategy. So let’s talk about local SEO and how it can help your small business. In this blog post, we will discuss how local businesses can use local SEO to increase their visibility in search engines and ultimately drive more traffic and revenue!
SEO vs Local SEO
Before we get into local SEO, it’s important to understand the difference between local and regular search engine optimization. With traditional SEO, you are optimizing your website so that search engines rank it higher in their results for keywords relevant to your business or industry. In local SEO, you are optimizing your business’s local sites and information in search engines. Local SEO focuses on increasing the visibility of a local business by targeting keywords that potential customers would use when searching for businesses like yours near them.
But local businesses need an additional layer of local SEO work on top of this - because local searchers aren't searching with general keywords like "locksmith near me", but really specific search terms like "24-hour locksmith in Mcallen". Imagine it as follows: Users tend to look for questions phrased in their own way as if they were asking someone else. Therefore, you should also consider that they can do voice search, and it is in this way that you should consider when you create local content.
So how do you start local SEO? Well first off, make sure that your website is set up properly for local SEO (more on this later) and ensure that all the local listings for your business are correct and consistent. You can use local SEO tools to make sure that you have everything set up properly, but the most important thing is consistency across different search engines like Google My Business (GMB), Yelp, Bing, etc. Also, it is important to consider several key aspects related to your business, such as location pages, online reviews, business directories, and local events that can work for you to create local content. Keep reading this local SEO guide to know more about it!
What You Need For Local SEO Success
There are a few things every local business owner needs before they start trying to implement local SEO to improve their ranking:
- A local address: You need a physical location where people can find you. However, if you do home delivery or service in a certain area, you can also specify where and to whom you offer your business.
- An accurate business name and category that matches your business.
- A local phone number that shows up on your website: If someone searches for your business, and they see that the search result has a local phone number but a local address that's thousands of miles away, they will assume it's a scam and look elsewhere.
With this information, you can proceed to implement the following basic points in order to improve your local SEO strategy.
- A Google My Business (GMB) page: You need a Google My Business page because that's where your customers are going to be searching for you if they want local results, also, an initial way to start your local link building. This is not the same thing as having a Facebook business page or listing on Yelp, which doesn't actually help with local search rankings (but still must be linked to your GMB).
- NAP consistency across all listings: NAP consistency is a local search optimization best practice that means you have the same name, address and phone number (NAP) across all business listings. This makes it easier for people searching on local search engines because they only need one piece of information to find your location - which saves them time in their local search.
- Local citations from local directories and online reviews: Citations and positive reviews are another local SEO best practice that helps with your local rankings because they show search engines that you have a good reputation in your industry, which usually means more relevant results for people searching online. These citations should come from online business directories and review sites like Yelp or Google My Business itself (where you can leave local reviews).
- A website: Having a website is not mandatory for local SEO ranking, but it's generally best to have one. Nowadays search engines like Google and Bing know when you don't have a website (and if your local business is big enough, they'll generally try to map it and give you a local search result in the local pack).
- A local landing page with your business information: Having local landing pages that match the local SERPs listings is also important for local SEO ranking success. You need local landing pages to send local traffic and increase your local SEO.
- Local SEO optimized keyword research: local SEO optimized keyword research is really important for any ranking factors. You need to know which keywords you should use by doing local keyword research in order to get the most locally relevant keywords and get local search traffic.
Let's see in more detail what each requirement consists of.
Google My Business Setup
The most important local search engine out there is Google, so you need to take advantage of its tools, such as Google My Business (GMB). Google My Business is a free and simple-to-use tool for companies and organizations to manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Google Maps. This is considered one of the most basic SEO tools that google provides since it is the beginning or base of any online presence attempt. Remember that Google Local Algorithm will consider a lot if you have a business listing or not.
This page is your business's landing page on Google, where people can find the information directly related to your company or location! There are many ways in which non-optimized GMB pages lose visibility including not having complete details, incorrect addresses, wrong categories set up, etc...So make sure to follow this checklist when setting up your account:
- Create a Google account (we suggest making a specific business account.)
- Register your business for Google my business
- Add your business name
- Add a location (crucial to appear in google maps and local pack)
- Contact information
- Point customers to your appointment URL
- Add a website (optional but recommended)
Once this is done, it is important to note that, for both Google and users to take into account the listing of your business and be seen as reliable, it is important to keep it constantly updated, both in terms of information about your business, as well as updates and posts made in your listing. Also, remember that in this listing, users can find google reviews, so keeping possible local leads informed that you have happy customers in your business is a great indicator for them and for your domain authority.
NAP consistency
NAP is an acronym for Name, Address, and Phone number which are basic information elements when talking about a business. When setting up local listings on search engines, it is important to ensure that the NAP of each local listing matches, to avoid online visibility penalties for duplicate content. Having your listing information on all the search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others is crucial for local SEO success.
On Google, most local businesses results are usually displayed by address and follow this format:
Name of Business, Address, Phone number.
The search engine will pick up any inconsistency in your business information and display it as such...which is NOT what you want. As we mention in our local SEO guide, with consistency, we ensure that the data always appears the same in every search result it appears in, regardless of the site it is displayed on.
- For example, if our company number has the following format: XXX-YYYY-ZZZZ, then this is how it should appear on all sites.
- The same goes for our email address, which should always be the same and in case of changes, update it.
- In the case of the address, if it follows the scheme of street/number/city/zip code, then the data must appear in that order on any site or social network where it is included.
So, for example, say your business has a local listing in Google My Business with the address:
7001 North 10th Street Suite G3
And you decide to change this address to:
You will lose local SEO important ranking because the information on your business is inconsistent across local content, as well as reliability; your potential customers might not be able to contact you since they don't really know which option is the real one to contact your business. So it's really important to make sure your business information is consistent across local search engines.
You need to make sure that you have exactly the same name, address, and phone number (NAP) everywhere so the local community can easily find out where local businesses are located. This can take some time to do, but it is necessary for local SEO success. If you need assistance with your local listings, our expert staff will be happy to assist you.
Local Citations and Review sites
The local search engine will take into account citations when ranking your local listing. A local citation is an online reference to your business that includes its NAP information (Name, Address, and Phone Number). There are citations such as local directory listings that can help your local SERPs ranking. But this kind of citations can also come from other sources such as:
● Non-profit and charity listings
● Social networks, like Facebook and Twitter
● Business reviews on local review sites
● Also, local directories allow you to list your business for free.
Local search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo use local citations as one of the local SEO ranking factors. These are basically other business listings that mention your name or address on their post. It also helps your domain authority and your link-building strategy, thanks to the local backlinks you can get from these listings. You should go to local directories (like Yelp) and local review sites (like TripAdvisor), find the ones with high page rank for your local search and add your business there.
When it comes to reviews, Google seems to be taking local reviews very seriously. In fact, local rankings depend in a significant way on the amount and quality of positive reviews your business received from customers. So managing online ratings is something you should really focus on if your business has yet to establish a strong web presence and good online marketing strategy.
As we can see, SERPs ranking is a very important part of local SEO. It can help your business establish credibility and increase its revenue by attracting more customers from the local area. If you need assistance with getting more online exposure for your business, we offer an affordable Local SEO package that will fit any budget.
Business Website
Having a website is not mandatory for local SEO, but it's generally best to have one so you can send traffic from all the local searches available on Google, Bing, Yahoo.
Some local search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo also allow users to find local businesses through their websites, looking for keywords in title tags and content. You can do some internal link building on your website, get your social media links on your website, and vice-versa.
Also, your website is the best place for educating customers about what you do and why they should choose you over other local businesses options in your area. It's a great opportunity to build trust with potential customers by showing them how good of a local business you are.
If your local intent ranking is strong, then more customers will visit your website and be impressed by what they see. Having a website creates a more reliable image of your business, also helps you rank higher in local searches, which will ultimately drive more traffic to your business.
In order to do this efficiently, you need to create a local landing page on your website where the local search engine can find all of your business information, including address and phone number. You also need to make sure that your local landing page is listed in the local search engine's directory (so, for example, Google sees this as a consistent and complete local business listing). You should also make sure that your website is mobile-friendly. In this manner, the site will be displayed on mobile devices and can be viewed from these devices when a mobile search is done. If you want to set up a business website, we offer affordable and professional web design services tailored specifically for local businesses.
Local Landing Page
A local landing page is a webpage on your website that contains all of the business information. It will help you rank higher in local intent results, so local customers can easily find you. Having a local landing page is just the first step in ranking higher for your local business. Once local search engines find your local business website page, they will establish it as a complete local business listing. They will also know that you have established your website as the local business' online presence.
Also, you may consider adding location pages or sections to your website, to ensure that, if you have multiple locations of your business, users in the local area know where they can find you without being limited to a single location. So, having a local landing page is a crucial step in local SEO for local businesses. It will help search engines understand your business better, and will make it easier for local customers to find you.
Local SEO optimized keyword research
Keyword local SEO optimization is a great way to increase local search ranking. It means that you need to figure out what people in your local area are searching for in local search engines and optimize your local landing page so it ranks for those keywords.
You want to target local search terms that are relevant to your business, location, and industry. Try using tools like Google Trends to help identify local search trends you can use in local business marketing efforts. For example, if you have a furniture store in McAllen, Tx, it would be useful to look at searches related to "furniture stores near me" because many people searching online will likely be looking for this type of information. For local SEO, it's important to focus on local keywords that are relevant to your local audience. They should be short and descriptive – a good rule of thumb is using words that people would use when asking their friends where they got something from or what company they used for a certain service.
What Not To Do For Local SEO
There are also a few local SEO tips for what you should never do for local search engine ranking.
The most important thing to avoid is local spamming, which means filling your local landing page with keywords that are irrelevant (and often unrelated) to local search engine ranking. This can get your local landing page penalized by local search engines, and will ultimately hurt the rankings of your business online.
The most important thing to avoid is local spamming, which means filling your local landing page with keywords that are irrelevant (and often unrelated) to local search engine ranking. This can get your local landing page penalized by local search engines, and will ultimately hurt the rankings of your business online.
The most important thing to avoid is local spamming, which means filling your local landing page with keywords that are irrelevant (and often unrelated) to local search engine ranking. This can get your local landing page penalized by local search engines, and will ultimately hurt the rankings of your business online.
Also, avoid using keywords that don't make sense for a local audience – this is one of the most simple mistakes you could ever make when it comes to local SEO, so always keep it in mind!
Local SEO Tips for Local Businesses
The local SEO process is much easier than people think. It's not about having the best business website, but about understanding how local search engines rank local businesses. If you're just starting out in local SEO for your small business, local search engine ranking is not something you should overlook.
As a summary of what can be implemented to rank better in SEO, we leave you with the following recommendations:
● Make sure your business name is accurate. If you are local, but not the only local company with that name, then this may be challenging.
● Make sure your local phone number shows up on the landing page of Google My Business, which is also accurate. If someone searches for your business in Google, they should see this number in the local pack.
● Make sure your website shows up on the landing page of Google My Business. If someone is local searching on Google and they don't see your local landing page with local information, then it's likely that you will not show up in any online search. This doesn't mean you need a local website, but it does help to have one (especially if your business is local).
● Make sure to claim your GMB page. If you are not the owner of the Google account that has claimed this listing, then you will not be able to update the local information on your GMB page.
● Make sure all local directories are linked to your local GMB page.
● Make sure all local directories have linked to your local website (if you have one) and social media.
● Optimize your site for local search engines! Make sure all the pages on your website contain accurate location data (like an address). If possible try including geotagging specific posts with images as well users know where they took place.
● Avoid local spam. Don't try to game local search engines with fake reviews or other black hat SEO techniques that could hurt your website's ranking and local site's trust.
● Include local keywords in your meta tags, like meta descriptions and page title tags, as well as throughout the content of your website.
A little help to your Local SEO
Local SEO is the local business's best friend for attracting new customers. If you want to rank higher in local search results, then make sure your business has an optimal local SEO strategy. Keep in mind that local search engines are different than regular ones and you should approach them differently.
As we have seen in this blog post, if your business account, website, or listing isn't ranking high for local search results, then local SEO needs to be your next priority. There are many local SEO strategies you can use to enhance the visibility of your local business. Don't be discouraged if local search results aren't working in the way you want them to, because there are many solutions for this issue. The local search algorithm is still being perfected, so don't be surprised if you see some local results that are not relevant to your business.
