As a small business owner, finding customers in your local area is critical to driving growth and revenue. With 71% of mobile searches having local intent, honing your local SEO strategy needs to be a priority.
Implementing these fundamental local search optimization practices can significantly expand your customer reach and visibility right in your own backyard:
1. Partner With Local SEO Experts for Custom Strategies
Bringing on a professional SEO agency that specializes in local optimization is one of the most impactful investments you can make. Their expertise can skyrocket your rankings and traffic.
For example, a reputable local SEO provider will:
- Conduct in-depth keyword research on high-value terms people are searching related to your business in your area. This allows you to optimize your site specifically for those terms and increase discoverability.
- Identify and fix technical issues on your site that Google‘s algorithms penalize, like slow page speeds and poor mobile optimization. This alone can give a significant rankings boost. One study found that by improving site speed from 3 seconds to 1 second, conversions increased by 74%.
- Get your business listed and optimized properly on key local directories like Google My Business, Apple Maps, Yelp, Yellowpages, etc. 86% of consumers use online directories and review sites to find local businesses.
- Build high-authority backlinks from other local organizations and directories to signal to Google your prominence in the community. One analysis found strong local link building led to a 34% increase in local organic traffic for a law firm.
The right local SEO agency becomes a true partner, providing custom strategies tailored to your business and location. Their holistic optimization gets you ranking higher and attracts more nearby customers.
2. Include Location Details in All Online Content
As you publish blogs, social media updates, and other content, always work your location into it. For example:
"John‘s Pizza, located on Pine Street in Portland, is introducing new Pan Pizzas to its menu!"
When possible, geotag this content to map it to your business address. This helps significantly with local SEO and ranking in map packs.
Location-optimized content also shows up in Google‘s Local 3-pack, driving free traffic to your site.
Optimize Location On-Page
Having a complete and consistent address, phone number and location info prominently displayed on your website is also important for local SEO.
I recommend creating a focused Contact page with schema markup to highlight your NAP (name, address, phone) details. Include a Google Map embed showcasing your location visually too.
3. Set Up and Optimize Google My Business
Google My Business listings act as free mini-websites showcasing vital info about your business directly in search results.
89% of searches for local businesses end in a purchase, so ranking highly in Maps and local packs is extremely valuable.
Here are some key steps for optimizing your Google My Business listing:
- Completely fill out your business information like hours, photos, products/services, etc. Google rewards more robust listings.
- Verify your listing by either receiving a postcard at your physical location or speaking with Google on the phone to confirm you‘re the legitimate business owner. This gives your listing a verification badge to build trust.
- Encourage customer reviews. Having at least 10 4+ star reviews helps improve your local pack ranking and clicks by up to 35%.
- Add posts with news updates, photos and announcements to engage visitors. Recent research found Google My Business posts can increase clicks to your website by over 80%!
- Monitor analytics for insights on how customers find and interact with your listing. Use these to further optimize.
- Sync your listings so all information is consistently displayed across Google, Facebook, Apple and other directories your business is listed on.
Getting your Google My Business listing completely filled out and ranking highly delivers significant traffic and sales from local searches.
4. Maintain Consistent NAP Information
NAP refers to your business Name, Address and Phone number. Even slight inconsistencies in how this information is displayed online can significantly hurt your local SEO rankings.
For example, having your address formatted differently on Yelp vs. your website ("Main Street" vs "Main St").
Be vigilant and ensure your NAP details are 100% consistent across all sites and listings referencing your business. Set up monitoring alerts if available.
Having the correct, uniform NAP information on sites like Yelp, Facebook, Yellowpages, landing pages etc. helps search engines understand your local authority and improve your placement in local SEO results.
5. Embed an Interactive Map on Your Website
Consider adding an embedded Google Map to your website‘s Contact page highlighting your exact location.
Seeing your business pinned on a map makes your physical location and proximity abundantly clear to site visitors. It can be the nudge they need to visit your store or book an appointment.
Here are some tips for embedding Google Maps:
- Make sure the map shows accurate location marker pinned on your building.
- Add a brief description like "John‘s Pizza – Located on Pine Street in Portland."
- Enable zooming and panning so visitors can adjust the map‘s view.
- Link the map marker to Google directions, allowing visitors to easily navigate to your address.
- On mobile sites, use a clickable call-to-action like "Get Directions" next to the map to boost interactions.
With these core practices implemented consistently, your local SEO improves, rankings rise higher, and you attract more customers from critical searches nearby your business. Bringing on a local SEO expert provides the technical guidance and support needed to expand your reach even further with customized strategies.
