Search engine optimization remains a crucial aspect of any website’s success. Further to this, local SEO, in particular, is critical for businesses and services that operate in a specific physical location or area.
7 Tips To Improve Your Local SEO
So, how exactly does one target customers in your area more strategically and improve local SEO? We have seven tips that will help you get started.
1. Research and Use Local Keywords
First, it is really important that you take the time to research what keywords ranking high in your area. There many free keyword research tools such as Ubbersuggest, Keyword Sheeter
and one of my favorites, Keywords Everywhere, which can be installed in Chrome or Firefox. My preference is to compliment those tools with a paid subscription to either SEMrush or Ahrefs.
When it comes to keyword research, it’s a good idea to prioritize long-tail keywords. This enables you to be really specific about what you sell or offer.
Also, add geo location keywords to the mix so that your company’s name can rank on the first page of Google’s search results when someone searches for your products or services in that specific location.
2. Schema Markup
Schema markup is one of the latest tools you can use for local SEO success. It lets you provide answers to questions about specific keywords that are relevant to your website.
It is a form of microdata that you can add to your website to help search engines return accurate and informative results to online users. If you pair schema markup with the specific products or services you sell, then you can actively lead online users to your website.
Remember to pair significant information, like your company’s name, address, and contact details to schema markup. Doing so will make it easier for customers to get a hold of you. This is especially important if you are not yet ranking on the first page of search engines.
3. Use SEO Best Practices for Title Tags, Meta Descriptions, and Heading Tags
When it comes to the nitty-gritty technical information on your website, don’t neglect proper SEO best practices. This is especially important when it comes to title tags, meta descriptions, and heading tags.
Title tags shouldn’t be too long and you should place keywords near the beginning of titles to get the most out of them.
Meta descriptions should always contain your main keyword. They should accurately describe the content on a specific page.
Also, make sure that you assign heading tags correctly. Remember that H4 header tags and onwards don’t carry as much SEO weight compared to H1 header tags through to H3. So, you’ll want to include your location keywords in the higher-level headings.
4. Find Local Media Opportunities
Putting your brand in the spotlight gives your own website and other media outlets the opportunity to share some highlights about your products and services.
More people writing about your company equals more search results from reputable sources that link back to your website. This automatically boosts your website’s SEO ratings and puts your brand in the public eye.
5. Guest Post on Other Local Sites
When you guest post on other local sites, you normally get the opportunity to link back to your blog, website, or your products and services.
Try to guest post on local sites that get a lot of traffic and have high rankings in the search engine results pages. This way, you can direct that traffic to your own website.
Guest posts also give you a great platform to indirectly advertise your products and services. Just be sure to pick your local sites wisely to maximize the benefits from guest posting. You don’t want to post on sites that will harm your brand in the long run.
6. Write About Local Events and Activities
Writing about local events that people are already interested in enables you to attract new online visitors to your website. However, it is equally important to link to other intriguing or important information from those articles. By doing so, you can keep people on your website and lower your bounce rate in the process.
By ranking for local keywords, your website will also automatically end up higher on local search engine result pages. This means your brand will become more visible the more you invest in this tactic.
7. Make It Unique
Last but not least, always remember to write original content. Google penalizes copied text and websites that host plagiarized articles.
Whether you are writing about local events, your products and services, or guest posting on another website, the more unique, informative, and creative the content is, the better!
Final Thoughts
Good local SEO is often the secret ingredient needed that really helps a business to achieve success. Although it may be tempting to shoot for the stars and market your website everywhere, a more localized, strategic approach is often the best way to boost sales.