Best Local SEO Tips and Tactics for Your Business

An SEO strategy can be described as a process during which you plan and try to implement certain steps that will improve your organic search engine rankings. You know by now that implementing a good SEO strategy can improve the likelihood of your business appearing in search results. But have you heard about local SEO and its benefits?

Let?s say that you own a business somewhere in Sydney and that you want to attract more customers from that area. Targeting customers from the area where your business is located is much more affordable than trying to advertise it in the whole Sydney region. 

This is why you need to know all the best SEO tips and tactics that are location-specific. 

local seo tactics

Why is local SEO better for your business?

As already mentioned, local search is more location-specific than general Google search. This means that local search happens when someone is searching for businesses or services near their current location. 

Knowing how to optimize your local CEO so that you show up in local search results can easily improve your business?s online visibility, enhance credibility, build trust, attract more targeted traffic, and ultimately it can bring customers to your physical location.

The question now is, how do you implement the best local SEO strategy? To give you a hand, we gathered all the best SEO tips and tactics that can help your business. Let?s check them out.

Create a list of local keywords

The first step to any good SEO strategy is creating and optimizing local keywords. It?s important to know and use what your local customers are searching for. The best solution would be to use both general and specific keywords that are related to your business and location.

In addition to your business?s name and location, include words such as ?near me?, ?near me now? and so on. In recent years, these types of searches have seen huge growth and are critical for your business since they allow you to reach your local customers when they most need or desire your service or product.

Display your N.A.P. online

For your customers to find you, they would need to see your name, address, and phone numbers (N.A.P.) clearly displayed on your website. Many businesses make the mistake of making this information difficult to find, which is what ultimately hurts their business.

Your N.A.P. needs to be seen both on your site and off your site in the citation. On-site, it should be carefully positioned in the footer and on the ?Contact us? page. And off-site, you should gather citations that are unique to your geographical location. This will make it easier for both customers and web crawlers to find you.

Keep online directories and citations optimized

Almost all SEO experts will tell you that consistency is the key and thus regularly optimizing your directories and citations is crucial. Make sure that all your citations are complete and consistent across all your websites, platforms, and apps.

Often verifying and keeping citations up-to-date can help customers discover your business and boost your local search engine rankings.

Misspellings, mistakes, and similar discrepancies can negatively affect local search engine rankings because Google will have problems deciding which information is right and which isn?t.

Getting listed on online directories that are specific to your industry or location can also be beneficial, but once again, make sure you keep your information updated and verified.

Perform local SEO audit regularly

A local SEO audit can help you figure out how your page fares in the search engine rankings and what to do to improve your site to increase traffic, leads, and so on. Since the world of SEO is rapidly changing, getting the hang of SEO once and implementing the strategy is simply not enough. You need to constantly monitor your progress. 

If you have trouble performing the audit or improving your local SEO, don?t be afraid to hire some of the many SEO agencies in Sydney. They will know exactly how and when to help you.

Optimize for GMB

GMB or Google My Business can be of great help when it comes to local CEO. GMB is a free tool that can help you control information about your business both on Google Maps and in search results.

So, since your goal is to be locally visible, you should create a GMB page and verify it, use Google posts on your account and encourage customers to leave reviews. Additionally, with GMB you can post photos, and special offers and easily interact with potential customers.

Customer reviews

This has led us to customer reviews and how they can help you rank higher in search results. People often like to check reviews of the business they?ve searched for since this can help them decide whether or not to contact you or visit your business.

This is why it would be a good idea to encourage customer reviews as much as possible. Having reviews, especially positive ones, can help you boost your visibility in local search and it can also enhance your business?s reputation.

Make your website mobile-friendly 

A large number of people will use their phones to conduct a local search. This is the number one reason to make your website mobile-friendly. With a mobile-friendly website, your customers won?t have any trouble navigating it or finding your information.

And while you?re optimizing your website for mobile screens, make sure you add click-to-call buttons, both on your site and GMB listings. This can be very useful since many customers will be able to contact your business directly from search results.

Create local content

One of the SEO tactics that is often underrated is the use of local content. Trying to attract local customers means that you have to provide some local content as well. And making local but quality content takes a lot of effort, more than you can imagine. 

To help you figure out what content is considered good local content, you should embrace your community and write about local things people love and care about. Stay away from general topics and focus on showing your community that you?re involved and a member of that community.

You can?t go wrong with these local SEO tips and tactics. Optimizing your local SEO is now becoming crucial for the success of your business. So, make sure you do it right and don?t let your competition come on top before you!