A Guide on How to Use Local SEO for Your Business
Exploring the power of SEO
Everyone understands the importance of visibility for a small business, such as a restaurant or doctor. Local SEO is critical, in this segment we will look into how to implement a few strategies to improve ranking on the leading search engines.
What is Local SEO?
In a nutshell, Local SEO is a form of search engine optimization that helps boost your business’s visibility in local search results on Google. Any business that has a brick-and-mortar location can be benefited from this strategy. According to Hubspot, around 46% of Google searches involve local information. Therefore, without optimizing your local SEO, you could be missing out on a big market for your business. Google relies on local content, social media pages, links, and even citations to provide its users with their most relevant local search results.
1. Set Up Google My Business
Most likely, you have already searched for restaurants in your city and Google has provided a list of options based on the type of food you desired. This list consists of businesses that somehow take advantage of the use of local SEO. By optimizing your business, you will allow it to show up on Google searches in your area.
The first step on how to use local SEO is to set up and verify a Google My Business Page. After that, make sure to use Google Posts within your business’ account and also encourage customers to share reviews under your Google page. However, do not forget to do this crucial step: make sure to respond to all of your reviews – this will show Google that you are an authentic business and therefore reward you with a coveted sidebar for Google’s local search.
2. Share It On Social Media
Now more than ever, sharing content across social media platforms is crucial. Not only to establish your online presence and reach a new audience but also to make sure that you have enough content to fuel your Google My Business page. Make sure to share your page on your business’s social media pages to align socials and searches.
3. Information Check
Although Google is a powerful search engine, it does not do magic. It is all on your hands when it comes to facilitating for people and Google itself to find you. That is possible by making sure that all of your information is correct and being displayed. That includes your business’ name, address, and phone number. In case of any changes, make sure that your site is always updated.
4. Local SEO Audit
SEO is a constant non-stop work in progress and that means that doing an audit for your own business to better understand where your business stands and what you need to improve to achieve goals is extremely important. A local SEO audit includes analyzing your Google My Business, competitors, website SEO, citations, and a better understanding of how exactly your website is performing.
5. Review Link Structure
Yes, external links that bring traffic to your website are crucial, however, your internal website link structure should always be optimized to help boost your SEO rankings. By doing so, you will be supporting your website’s navigation as well as assisting with website hierarchy.
6. Add Location Pages to Your Website
This step is only if your business has more than one brick-and-mortar location. If that is your case, you should be adding location pages that contain your name, address, phone number, hours, testimonials, promotions, and any other relevant information to your customers. On the other hand, if you only have one location, create a locally descriptive “About Us” page. For extra points, don’t forget to include a Google Map of your exact location on your website.
7. Create Local Content
By far, this is one of the most important steps to follow when optimizing your local SEO: be a local authority within your industry. This includes promoting local industry events, news, and any other type of educational content on your blog page (basically anything industry-related that goes beyond your products or services).
If you are ready to boost your local SEO rankings, then make sure to follow these steps on how to do so and don’t miss out on this powerful tool.
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