Local SEO – 7 Important tips to improve your business

The first step in local SEO is properly knowing your business objectives. After that, you must understand the guidelines set by Google. Once you know these guidelines, you can start implementing local SEO tactics. These strategies will ensure that your website gets top rankings among search engine results.

What is Local SEO?

Local Search Engine Optimization is used to improve the business visibility to the targeted audience in local area. Local SEO best practices classify your products and services rankings to local prospects and make them visible at the top when they search for something.

In this way, businesses can gain organic traffic through searches made by local users. In this blog, we share tips for local SEO to boost the rankings and improve your business identity in nearby areas.

Responsive Website

As you know, people like to stay and use a website that is easy to navigate, user-friendly, and compatible with all electronic devices, whether phone, desktop, or tablet.

Most users use their thumbs to operate their phones, so your site must have large buttons or links that are easy to click. Your font size should also be large enough to be easily readable on small screens. Besides boosting your search engine rankings, responsive websites are also better for your user experience. You may lose traffic, leads, customers, and revenues if your site is not user-friendly and compatible with all devices.

A website design agency develops a mobile-friendly website that generates high search engine rankings for your local business, which indicates that over 64% of searches are performed on mobile devices. Furthermore, most viable consumers own a smartphone; therefore, the mobile-friendly website is more accessible to mobile users and improves the overall experience. The Google search algorithm has been tweaked to favor mobile-friendly websites.

Mention Contact Details

Additionally, your website must include detailed contact information called NAP, an abbreviation of Name, Address, and Phone number. Displaying the information on the website is mandatory to gain visibility in the search results.

Also, your website must be connected with your social media accounts and contain contact information to make it easy for users to get in touch with you anywhere at any time. Otherwise, your business will not appear in the local searches if these components are not present.

Social Media profiles

Social media marketing effectively complements local SEO, which works best for local businesses, as it provides long-term brand visibility and presence on search engines. Social media marketing agency offers a powerful combination to companies without needing more paid campaigns.

Social media channels are powerful marketing channels that can improve brand trust. Combined with local SEO, they reach more potential customers and yield higher-quality leads and traffic. Additionally, they can complement each other by creating a shared set of objectives. They help refine each other's strategies and lower overall marketing costs when used together. Using targeted audiences by behaviour and interest helps match marketing strategies to achieve specific sales funnel stages.

Schema markup

Schema markup is the microcode placed on the website to help search engines understand the content on your web pages and make it more informative for local users to read and understand.

Schema markup is a powerful way to enhance your website's search engine results by using structured data, like URLs, to help users find what they are looking for. This will boost your website's click-through rate.

When using Schema markup, you should ensure you have updated it with any updates to your site. Google constantly updates its documentation and the Webmasters Blog from Google is another great resource for keeping up with the changes.

There are hundreds of types of markups to choose from, and it is essential to select the appropriate schema for your website. The schema can also include critical information about a business and make it stand out from the crowd.

Google My Business (GMB)

Optimizing Google My Business profile is vital in improving local SEO for your business. It assists in providing valuable and relevant information according to the users' queries.

GMB gives twice the exposure to your business on Google, increases online visibility, generates new leads, and boosts conversion rate. Besides information about your products and services, your GMB profile also contains a company description. Getting positive reviews on your GMB profile from the customers can also increase the ROI.

Google recommends adding helpful information to your business listing. It also encourages using images to help your listing stand out. You can upload a cover photo and a profile photo to make it look more appealing to customers. As a final step, make sure to add your business logo in the appropriate places.

Local search volume is a considerable part of the SEO world. The algorithm for local SEO uses different ranking factors than traditional organic search results. When you rank in local search results, your NAP plays an essential role.

It allows you to add information such as business hours, holiday hours, special events, and photos. It also helps you respond to reviews. This gives users a sense that you're interested in their feedback.

Links Exchange

Links exchange is crucial in boosting local SEO and can help you achieve your goal of local rankings by establishing credibility with local business owners and gaining organic traffic. When your site has a lot of local links, Google will see that it's relevant to local search queries. As a result, your business will get more local customers, who are more likely to contact you or purchase a product or service.

You should target industry-specific sites to get more visibility in your local market. You should also focus on building a better brand in your area. You probably have seen that local news sites are a great source of authentic links to target customers and create brand awareness among the local community.

You can also trade links for the products and services with local bloggers and influencers. Many of them have a decent following and may be willing to feature your business for a product review. This will increase online visibility and get your business name out to more people.

Link exchanges can help you attract organic traffic. Having relevant links from local authentic sites helps promote your rankings in Google. These links also encourage consistency across your website's pages and increase the chance of your business being mentioned positively. You'll also be able to get your local business listed on these sites, which will help you earn even more local SEO.

Google 3-Pack

Getting ranked in the Google 3-Pack can incredibly impact your website. It can help you reach more customers and put your local business on the map. Don't worry if your website isn't on the top of the first page; it doesn't have to be. By following these three key points below, you'll soon see your website in the top 3 search results while gaining local visitors!

• Optimize GMB - Google My Business Profile
• Create responsive website
• Add reviews

Several factors determine the Google 3-pack rankings. Google considers the user's location (e.g., how far the user is from your business) and other relevant factors. For example, if two people in different locations type in "plumbers in Seattle," they'll see very different results.

Wrapping Up!

Local SEO improves brand trust by putting your business at the top of consumers' minds. When a consumer performs a search, they will most likely remember the first business they see, and a company with strong local SEO can make the difference between a successful business and a failure.

While local businesses once had fewer competitors, but at the same time, the internet has created many more options. The advent of services has increased competition, commoditizing the local business industry. The cost listed on these services and other local search platforms forces business owners to offer discounts or incentives to attract customers.

Try our professional SEO services in London at Cynosure Designs and improve your local business SEO!