According to Google, 76% of people who use their smartphone to make a local search will visit a local business within 24 hours.
It shows that three in every four people who use their phones for a local search are ready to buy. All they need is somewhere to buy from.
If your business isn’t showing up high in the search engine rankings, then you could be missing out on a huge amount of business. And the best way to get your business up the rankings is to get your local SEO right.
Read on as we take a look at 11 local SEO solutions that can help to grow your bricks-and-mortar business.
1. Keyword Research
Stuffing your content with local keywords you’ve picked off the top of your head isn’t going to cut it.
Rather than guessing what users in your location might be searching for, do some research. There is a huge amount of data that can help you choose keywords that users search for. Use that information to your advantage.
Remember that a keyword that gets a ton of volume isn’t necessarily the best choice. If there’s a lot of competition from other sites, then you’re unlikely to see any significant improvement in your rankings. Instead, try to find the sweet spot of keywords that are fairly popular without having too much competition.
2. Get Local Backlinks
Link building is a huge part of SEO.
But when it comes to local SEO, having strong backlinks to sites on the other side of the world isn’t really going to do much for you. Instead, try and build as many backlinks to local sites and companies as you can.
This is far more likely to help when users are searching for local businesses.
3. Use Your Positive Reviews
Positive reviews aren’t just a great way to build confidence in your business.
They’re also something that search engines will use to determine whether or not your business is a good one. And one or two reviews aren’t going to cut it either; having good reviews from only a small number of customers isn’t likely to instill much confidence.
Try using social media to promote your positive reviews whenever you receive them.
4. Sign up to Local Directories
Not everyone looking for a local business will use a search engine directly.
Make sure that your business is listed on all of the prominent online directories. Sites such as Yelp, Foursquare, Yellow Pages and Angie’s List are all regularly used by potential customers looking for local businesses. The more you sign up to, the bigger your chances of being discovered.
If anything changes, such as adding additional locations, make sure you update all of your listings. You can find more information about acquiring temporary buildings for your business.
5. NAP
When submitting to these listings, make sure that your NAP information is submitted in exactly the same way.
NAP stands for name, address, and phone number. This has to be submitted exactly the same for every site. That means you shouldn’t use the word avenue in one listing, and an abbreviation in another.
If your listings aren’t identical, you’ll actually be competing with yourself in the search results.
6. Google My Business
If you don’t already have a Google My Business listing, get one now.
These are the business listing blocks that you’ll find in Google search results. Signing up to the free listing means that if users search for your business, it will come up with the same look and feel as if they’d searched for their local Starbucks or Apple store. It gives your business an appearance of quality and trustworthiness.
Make sure that your NAP information is exactly the same for this listing too.
7. Optimize Your Site for Mobile
As we already learned, people using mobile local search are ready to buy.
So if your website doesn’t work well on mobile, you’re very likely to make potential customers look elsewhere. The best solutions are either to have a dedicated mobile version of your site or to opt for a responsive web site. Make sure to test it on as many devices as possible.
Having a site the works well for mobile will also help your position in local search.
8. Produce Quality Blog Content
The backbone of any SEO campaign is blog content.
But it’s not enough to churn out a few hundred words stuffed with keywords. Your blog content needs to be useful, and it needs to be high-quality. If potential customers are drawn to your site via a well-optimized blog post, they’re not going to hang around for long is the content is awful.
It’s also important to keep producing fresh content as this will affect your rankings.
9. Target Your Writing for a Local Audience
If you want local people to read your content, then aim it towards a local audience.
Blog posts that are genuinely useful to your local community will make your site, and your business more popular. Find out what interests customers in your area have, and write content aimed at them.
If you find a niche that works, then you’ll set yourself apart from the competition.
10. Optimize Your Product Lists
When sites are being crawled by search engines, they will search through things such as menus and listings of products or services.
So make sure that you optimize these for local search too. Including the right keywords in these pages means that your product list or menu might start ranking in its own right. And it will also boost your overall SEO.
11. Include a Map
Remember that 76% of users?
They’ve done a local search. They’re ready to buy today. They just need somewhere to do so.
So make sure that they can actually find you. Embedding a Google map for your business into your website means that not only can the see where you are, but they can also get directions from their current location.
Then there’s nothing to stop them from becoming your next customer.
Have These Local SEO Solutions Been Useful?
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