The local search is a powerful medium for small businesses. Most small businesses use search engines to find local information. This means if your business is not optimized with local SEO, you are likely to miss out on 80% of your potential customers. Local SEO is critical if you are looking to keep your business relevant. For gathering information for the local searches the search engines depend on various signals such as social profile pages, local content, citations, and links. These factors ensure that the local results are relevant to the user.
Local SEO tips
1. Improve the internal linking structure: Even though it is ideal to have external links pointing to your website, you can also adjust the internal linking structure to boost your local SEO ranking. What is the relevance of internal linking? Well, it does these things,
- Provides support to site navigation.
- Assists with information architecture along with site hierarchy.
- A better distribution of page authority and ranking power among the pages.
2. Optimize for customer goals and interests: The golden rule for SEO in 2020 will be to optimize for customer interests. The BERT algorithm update by Google has placed a greater interest in the intent of the search. Therefore you need to concentrate on the goals and interests of people. You must write content that addresses the pain points and points them to the solutions to the problem. Your business also needs to have a multifaceted and multichannel marketing strategy for reaching people for several touchpoints.
3. Develop local content: As Google keeps on getting smarter, it means that content creators can write truly for the users and not for search engines. Although writing about general topics is likely to attract wider crowds, many times it is more significant to concentrate on the local news to attract the local audience. Be the authority for the industry by getting involved in the promotion of local industry gatherings, employees, news, etc. on your blog. Envisage top of the funnel content that goes beyond what your business is selling.
4. Make sure that the site is mobile phone friendly: Mobile phone search and local search go hand in hand. Nine out of ten users conduct the local searches on their mobile phones. Some common ways of using your website in the mobile phone environment are to look up the reviews, find location directions, and finding out contact information. Make this simple for your prospects by making your website mobile phone friendly.
5. Develop powerful customer reviews: When a recent survey was conducted it was established that most of people believe that reviews are responsible for affecting the local ranking in Google. They help shape up the reputation of your brand, drive sales, and affect the conversions. It is a powerful local SEO lever that cannot be ignored by the local marketers. Your local SEO strategy will be missing a key component if you are not taking into account the customer reviews. It is one of the more significant things you will need to build the brand expertise, authority, and trustworthiness in Google’s eyes. All this is not possible without customer reviews.
Although there is the uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, several local SEO marketing strategies remain effective. These include emphasizing organic assets, content creation, website optimization, and local SEO. You need to try and place your brand in a good place for embracing changes, improving your organic presence, and find new ways to have your products and services in front of the targeted customers. You can also get help from professionals available at I SEO U if your business needs any assistance with your website, SEO, internet, and social media marketing.