5 Simple Ways To Improve Local SEO

Local SEO can help small and big businesses reach a niche audience and create a mark. The need is very simple.

What do you do when you want to look like a diva? You go online and look for an affordable and reliable beauty salon.

What do you do when you want to enjoy good food with your partner? You search  the web for restaurant reviews.

It’s obvious that the internet has all the answers, but how do you reach those who are asking questions? Here are 5 simple ways to improve local SEO.

1. Get a Google My Business Account and Have a Social Media Presence
2. Create a Virtual Presence By Motivating Customers to Leave Positive Feedback
3. Pay Attention to Voice Search and Mobile Users
4. Make Use of Local Keywords and Stories
5. Work On Collecting More Backlinks

What is Local SEO and Why is It Important?

Local SEO allows businesses to promote their services or products to local customers or prospects. Local SEO uses geographical components whereas traditional SEO does not.

Local SEO doesn't only help promote your business but also makes it more authentic by giving potential customers the information that they need.

Some experts argue that local SEO is more important than traditional SEO because:

• About 80 percent of local SEO searches convert
• About 46 percent of Google searches are related to a local business
• About 500 percent more people now search for terms that contain the phrase 'near me'
• About 50 percent of searchers visit a story that they search about given that they find it on the web
• About 33 percent of users search the web before visiting a local store

Now that you know about the importance of local SEO, let’s talk about ways to improve it.

Tip #1: Get a Google My Business Account and Have a Social Media Presence

According to reports, about 56 percent of local businesses have not claimed their Google My Business listing. This is very important because a My Business account will help establish your virtual presence without having to spend a single penny.

You will be asked to input information including your address and contact details. This will help potential clients reach you as they will be able to find you on the map and also look at your business as a legitimate option.

However, merely having an account may not be enough. You must also optimize it. Here’s how:

• Make and verify your account
• Provide the latest information
• Add information such as your logo, office hours, images, etc.
• Encourage buyers to leave a review and makes sure to respond to them

This will increase the chances of your business appearing in Google’s Local 3-Pack, one of the most popular mobile local listings.

Other than this, you must also create a social media presence by building and managing pages or profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

Tip #2: Create a Virtual Presence By Motivating Customers to Leave Positive Feedback

It is believed that about 40 percent of online reviews are artificial, automated, or phony. Many businesses spend thousands on generating fake reviews and while they may be able to improve SEO, they’re not very effective since customers can usually tell fake reviews apart.

Hence, it is important to work on getting your actual customers to leave you positive comments. After all, about 91 percent of buyers trust businesses with positive reviews.

Reviews can be posted on your official site as testimonials, shared on your social media, and business profiles on Google and other directories. They do not only optimize pages but also encourage more users to buy from you.

The best way to encourage users to leave feedback is to:

• Ask for it after completing a deal or sale
• Respond to both positive and negative reviews to improve engagement
• Offer special discounts or perks to users who leave a comment

Review management is not only important for SEO but for reputation management as well.

Tip #3: Pay Attention to Voice Search and Mobile Users

Thanks to the use of mobile devices, more than 55 percent of users now use voice search to look for what they need. This is why it is important to have a responsive site that’s optimized for voice search. After all, about 51 percent of users now use mobile devices to perform a search.

It’s believed that Google may begin to blacklist websites that do not work well on mobile devices. Hence, make sure to review your site and ensure it’s fully optimized for mobile devices.

In addition to this, businesses need to think about how people 'ask questions' and not 'how they type'. Tools like Alexa and Siri can ‘speak’ to users, hence it’s important to include proper questions and phrases when creating content.

Traditional keywords do not typically include words like ‘what or where’ that are commonly used in voice searches.

Tip #4: Make Use of Local Keywords and Stories

Use tools such as Google Keyword Planner to filter keywords according to your target location and make sure to include them throughout your content.

Here are some tips:

• The title must be SEO friendly
• Make sure to write local SEO-friendly META and tags
• Optimize images by including relevant keywords
• Use keywords in the right density – between 1 to 2 percent

Include locations throughout the content and make sure to add some local landmarks as well.

Tip #5: Work On Collecting More Backlinks

Backlinks are important when you want to rank well on search engines. The average page in the first position has more than 35,000 backlinks.

They can be bought but it is important to concentrate on whitehat techniques and earn backlinks from sites that rank well in your geographical location.

Here are some tips:

• Create a company blog since businesses that have a dedicated blog get 97 percent more backlinks
• Create articles that are long – at least 2,000 words – since most pages that rank well on Google contain more than 1900 words
• Include images and videos as they help pages rank well and improve engagement

In addition to backlinks, you should also work on internal linking as it helps pages get ranked quickly.

We hope these simple tips will help you improve local SEO ranking and find more business. If you’re still struggling then get in touch with a professional SEO company.