How To Improve Your Local Search Rankings Using Local SEO?

Local Search is a powerful tool for small businesses to attract consumers from their area. According to a study made by Hubspot, around 46% of all Google Searches are carried out to seek local information. In a nutshell, local SEO is mandatory if you want your business to stay relevant. 

Here, we’ll be discussing the basics of local SEO and how you can use it to boost your website’s rankings in search engines. Keep scrolling the page and follow these practices to gain an edge over your competitors. 

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO is a technique used to improve the ranking of your website on local search results pages. Here, the term “local search” means when someone searches for businesses, products, and services relevant to one particular location. 

In short, local search is more specific as compared to general Google searches. Hence, local SEO is the process of optimizing your online visibility to appear in those local search results. It mainly helps in bringing in more foot traffic to your brick-and-mortar location. 

With local SEO, businesses can position their products and services to local prospects and customers. Since this marketing strategy attracts a more targeted audience, it automatically improves your chances of conversion. 

The 5 Best Ways to Boost your Local Search Rankings

There are many ways to do local SEO; hence, it’s important to find an approach that will work best for your business. Here, we’ve outlined the 5 best and sure-shot ways to get started. 

• Add Location Pages to Your Website

Unarguably, adding location pages to your website can help improve your local search rankings. These pages provide readers with your name, address, store hours, descriptions, phone number, maps and directions, special offers and services offered by the business, and testimonials from happy customers. 

However, when adding multiple location pages, make sure to avoid duplicate content across them. For a single-location business, it’s best to create a locally descriptive About Us page to get the job done. You can also add a Google map to your website to get bonus points. 

• Optimize for Google My Business (GMB) Listing 

If you want to rank higher in local search, optimizing your website for Google My Business listings is a must. GMB is essentially the most important part of your local SEO strategy and allows you to create free business listings. 

There are a few things you can do to improve your chances of being listed on the platform, such as submitting your website for review, including keywords in the title, meta description, and images, and providing essential categories that may be relevant to your business, etc. 

You can further optimize your GMB profile by sharing fresh content and updates regularly. Google My Business is constantly updated with new listings, so make sure your site is optimized and up-to-date to get the maximum advantage.

• Pay Attention to Local Link Building

Local SEO is all about creating quality links to your site from local sources. This can be done through conducting in-person interviews, guest blogging, and creating valuable content that is relevant to your local community.

However, make sure to use the linking domains that are more relevant to your target location. It means that you should target authority websites in the specific region. 

Remember that, local link building is one of the most crucial parts of boosting local search rankings; hence, it requires research, hard work, creativity, and perseverance. 

• Ensure your Website is Mobile-Friendly

There’s no second thought in the fact that sites optimized for mobile viewing receive higher rankings in local search results. Local and Mobile searches always go hand in hand as around 61% of all Google searches are performed on mobile. In fact, “near me” searches have now increased 250% since 2017. 

With mobile-friendly websites, users can find your business more easily when looking for local services or products. To make such websites, use a responsive design and make sure your site loads quickly. 

Add smaller images as they load faster and take up less storage space on a phone or tablet, making them better suited for mobile browsing. Also, it is advised to use clear and concise text. The fewer clicks it takes to get from one page of your website to the next, the better chance you have of ranking high in local search results.

• Get the most out of Social Listening

Social listening is primarily used as a source for marketing insights, but it has several benefits beyond that. This strategy can boost your local SEO by letting you know the views of people in your target location, whether it’s about your business or in general. 

Additionally, social listening efforts can also help you understand what sort of local content your target audience might be looking for. 

Summing Up

These are some of the essentials of how you can improve local search rankings using local SEO. So, are you ready to get local? Incorporate these ideas into your existing strategy and take your local SEO efforts to the next level.