Local SEO: 11 tips you just can't ignore

Local SEO helps businesses to get noticed and sends customers to your door.

  If you run a local business, understanding SEO can make a significant difference between success and failure. 

Keeping in mind that local search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most powerful tools at your disposal an operator. Statistics show that internet search is how people find and interact with local businesses.
Research has found that almost 50% of all the searches on Google are for local information. Add the fact that more than 85% of people who search for a local business on a mobile device call or visit that company/store within 24 hours, and that shows us that local search is an excellent way to put your business in front of potential consumers.

SEO is a complex system, and local SEO is determined by a whole different set of factors. But there are some tips you can put into practice to get your business ranking in search results.

1. Get your Google "My Business" info right
Google My Business and Bing Places for Business are free directories, and they're absolutely vital for local SEO. These databases let you manually provide search engines with information about your business, including business name, address, phone number, opening hours, website link and photos.

You should make full use of these directories. Surprisingly, many of your competitors don't. Some of them haven't claimed their listing on these directories, and a great amount has too little information there,

These are free services, and they spoon-feed search engines relevant information about your business. Using them gives you the chance to appear in Google's local search results listings with your business marked on a map, your opening hours and your contact info.

Moreover, you can also use Google My Business to provide updates about your business. The Google Posts section allows you to add information about upcoming deals, events or offers and the updates are displayed in Google's search engine results pages (SERPs).

When you sign up, Google will contact you via mail to verify that you're actually the business operator. Once you're verified, you can provide all the information you can. To get the most out of these listings, make sure you provide up-to-date information on your business and upload some high-quality photos of your business' exterior, interior, and some products.


2. Add a map on your website

Embedding a Google Map to your location on your website is a simple process, and helps customers easily navigate to your business. Customers who land on your website looking for your business don't want to navigate away from your site to find you on Google Maps. Installing Google Maps on your site keeps your visitors there, increases your dwell time and lowers your bounce rate.

3. Ask for reviews

Reviews are such a powerful signal to search engines and a vital signal to consumers.

Online reviews can either give your business a serious boost or seriously hamstring you. It's important to ask happy customers to leave you an online review. Make it easy for them by providing a link. Even more important is creating happy customers in the first place. If your business is delivering on customer service, asking for reviews should be easy.

4. Different business locations - different URLs
If your business has more than one location, make sure each location has its own URL with its own contact info page. This makes it easier for search engines to differentiate between your locations and provide the correct information for each one.

5. Get your business listed
In addition to Google My Business and Bing Places for Business, there are a number of other directories where you can list your site. These citations are essential local SEO ranking signals. They provide valuable backlinks to your site, and they help build your authority and increase your visibility.

Directories you should look into are yellowpages.com, Yelp, Tripadvisor, the Better Business Bureau, and Citysearch.
Some of these sites will automatically grab your information from Google My Business or from other sources. But you want to make sure you claim all your business listings so you can update or edit information. Moz Local is a helpful tool to manage your local citations.

6. Be consistent with your contact info
You need to ensure that everywhere your contact information appears, it appears consistently. This means if you shorten your address as "St.," it needs to appear as "St." in every source; your contact info page, your Google My Business listing, your directory listings and so on.

You also need to make sure every page on your site and every external directory listing correctly lists your phone number and your opening hours. Not only will inconsistent business information confuse search engines, but it will also frustrate potential customers.

7. Pay attention to technical SEO

Technical SEO is the process of making sites easy for search engines to crawl and index. There are a few technical factors search engines are looking for when they crawl your site.

They want your site to:

• Be easy and logical to navigate
• Understand how the pages relate to one another
• Load quickly 
• Be mobile-friendly.

 However, the main takeaways are to keep an eye on your site's speed, make sure it's designed to be mobile responsive and make sure it's easy to navigate.
As a local business, you might not search as deep into technical SEO as a major corporation, but you need to make sure you have the basics covered.

8. Do some networking for backlinks
Backlinks, or links from other sites to your website, are one of the most powerful ranking signals search engines take into account. Each backlink works as a vote of confidence from another website. Don't be afraid to do some networking to get backlinks.

One way to get backlinks is to join your local Chamber of Commerce. Not only will you get a link from the Chamber of Commerce website, but you'll also have the chance to meet other business owners who can be a possible source of backlinks. If you're not direct competitors, consider offering them a link to their website in exchange for a link to yours.

You can also build backlinks by contacting local journalists and publications and informing them about your business. Getting reviews from local publications can give you a serious boost in the SERPs.

9. Provide a separate URL for each product or service
If you provide a variety of products and services, make sure each one has a unique URL with its own content. Lumping all of your products and services on one page makes it harder for search engines to view you as an authority in a specific area because you're sending too many disparate signals on a single page.

10. Create great content
Finally, the best step you can take for your SEO is to provide great content that delivers value to your site visitors and brings people back to your site again and again.
"Content is the King" as Bill Gates said. Start a business blog and write about topics related to the product or service you offer.
 Publish More Locally Optimized Content. Attach your blog posts into local events while still focusing on the industry you operate in. Great content brings people to your site and it keeps them on your site. Traffic and the amount of time, people spend on your website are significant ranking signals for search engines. If you give people content they find valuable, search engines will take note.

11. Make your website mobile-friendly
 Since 2007, mobile users have been increasing until now, and it has exceeded the number of people using a desktop.


With this, Google has taken websites that are mobile-friendly as a ranking factor. So if your website is still not mobile-friendly, think about how many potential customers you are losing.