When it comes to local SEO, it’s more important than ever that you optimize your onsite and offsite SEO strategies for customers and clients searching for your local business.
Local competition is fiercer than ever, and if you’re not at the top of your leaderboard, you can bet your competitors are.
Here are five local SEO tactics you can use to help your business rank higher in local search terms.
Title and description tags are HTML elements that you can customize to reflect the content of your web pages. The text of the title and description tags is displayed in the search results.
Think of this text as a “mini-ad” that you need to carefully craft.
Your title and description are your only chance to grab a searcher’s attention and get them to click your links to your website; so think carefully about what you put in these areas on your web pages.
If your title and description tags are missing or Google doesn’t think they’re good enough, Google often makes something up or “rewrites” them.
Both should describe the content of the page and should include keywords so that they stand out in the search results pages.
The generally acceptable length for title tags is approximately 50 to 60 characters, and description tags can be approximately 160 to 200 characters. Take advantage of this space and use it wisely.
If you’re not sure how your title and meta description tags will look or how many characters you can get away with, try using an emulator like the Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress where you can see what your title will look like and description in both. a mobile device and a desktop:
Writing titles and descriptions is considered an art in the SEO world.
In a sea of competitive search results, if that text isn’t unique, compelling, and descriptive, your click-through rate will suffer (which can hurt your rankings).
In addition, additional words or characters could break the text with ellipses (…).
Now, perhaps this is not a true tragedy. Some SEOs even encourage you to exceed the recommended maximum number of characters. But I think this looks unprofessional, especially when it appears in the middle of a sentence, cutting off your thoughts mid-sentence.
The lesson? This space is beautiful and every character counts. Here are some tips:
Never waste space on page names or words that don’t provide useful information to the search engine about what your website or business is about.
If you want to stand out among local customers, include the name of the city your business is located in and/or the area your business serves (eg, “Serving Iowa City and Cedar Rapids”). Focus on using a targeted keyword and carefully place it as close to the beginning of the tag as possible.
Remember, if your business appears in the search results, you can get that person to click on your link.
Don’t waste characters that don’t help convince a searcher that your site is worth visiting.
2. Google Business Profile – Claim and Optimize
The Google Business Profile (GBP) is one of the best local SEO strategies for local businesses that meet customers face-to-face.
If your business qualifies for a GBP listing, you must claim i optimize your Google Business Profile. (It’s one of the best ways to get your business ranked high on Google!)
Google Business Profile is free and your business can get incredible exposure if you’re optimized enough to show up on Google’s local three-pack:
To claim your Google Business Profile listing, visit google.com/business. There is a claim and verification process that you will need to follow.
This verification process is necessary because Google wants to confirm that your business is a real and legitimate business. The business owner should claim the listing in GBP.
If you work with a digital marketing agency on your SEO efforts, you can grant them permission to be a manager of your business profile. This way, you retain control of your profile if you end your relationship with the agency.
The next step is to optimize and continue to improve your GBP listing:
Selection of categories. Add business hours. Write a solid description. Uploading photos and videos. Creation of publications. Answer questions from potential customers. Responding to reviews you receive, etc. Include any products or services you sell.
Google Business/Knowledge Panels profiles are full of information about your business, so be sure to fill out all the relevant sections to complete your Google Business Profile.
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3. Online reviews are important
Up to 84% of people trust both online reviews and personal recommendations, according to BrightLocal’s 2023 Local Consumer Review Survey.
Online reviews are like gold for a business, especially when they are 5-star reviews. In general, you want at least ten 5-star reviews on your Google Business Profile. But your goal is not to stop there.
You want to continually ask your happy customers to leave feedback. Because? Online reviews are a known ranking factor, so getting great reviews should be one of your priorities!
“Positive, high-quality reviews from your customers can improve your business’ visibility and increase the likelihood that a shopper will visit your location.” says Google.
Two places you should focus on getting reviews are your Facebook Page and your Google Business Profile. These are big.
Many people turn to social media to see what their friends and family think about a business, so having good reviews on your business Facebook page can help attract potential customers.
Getting positive reviews on your Google Business Profile is critical because these reviews show up on Google when someone searches for your business.
Whenever a review is left about your business, whether positive or negative, be sure to respond. This shows that other people read your reviews and that you, the business owner, care about what your customers think.
You can use various software options and reputation marketing tools to proactively track, manage and solicit reviews. Here are a few to check out:
GatherUp TrustPilot Salesperson
4. Create separate service pages
If you have a service-based business, one of the best things you can do is create individual pages each service offer instead of listing your services on one page.
Creating service pages allows you to optimize the location you are targeting and the keywords associated with the specific service you offer in a much more targeted way.
Instead of a list of lines or just having a short paragraph on a “Services” page, you have an entire page to talk about each service you offer, which means you have more content and ways to optimize your text to serve better to your readers. i Google (for SEO purposes).
So spend some time creating individual pages for each service you offer, even if you only have time to create the pages one at a time. It will be worth it in the end. I promise!
5. Online Directories and Citations
It is important that your business appears correctly and consistently in major online business directories (aka citations) such as Yelp, Facebook, Merchant Circle, Citysearch and others.
Because? Because online directories often appear in organic search results.
If your business is not listed in these directories, when a potential customer clicks on these links in the search results, they will not find your business information.
You’ll also want to try to find high-quality local directories to list your business.
Check the website of your local newspaper and your Chamber of Commerce to see if they have a local business directory that you can be listed in.
You can also search for keywords like “[your city] directory” to find other local citation sites or directories.
It’s also essential to get your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) from major citation data aggregators like Foursquare, Data Axle, and Neustar Localeze.
Data aggregators take your business information and distribute it to hundreds of other online directories!
Always make sure your business NAP is consistent across as many directories and citation sites as possible.
These five local SEO strategies are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to local SEO. Implementing the five local search tactics above will give you an edge over your competition. Start today!
The views expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.
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