Local Search Engine Optimization is used to increase online presence for a business to appear in search engines when nearby users search for a relevant product or service. The goal of increased presence is to drive business conversions. Semrush Blog posted an article titled “How to Improve Local SEO: 11 Best Practices” that serves as a good starting point for this topic.
The first tip was to optimize your Google Business Profile to show the most updated and relevant information. The second tip is to leverage directories and local citations in order to appear more trustworthy. When doing so it is important to ensure your business’s name, address, and phone number information is consistent across every source to avoid confusion. The third tip is to manage and track online reviews surrounding your business. Often times, the business with the highest star reviews will appear at the top of the SERP. Try your best to respond to all reviews to show that you care. Another idea to improve local search was to target local keywords. This might seem rather obvious, but it is often overlooked and keywords can then be too generalized. The next tip is to create location-specific landing pages. It may also be helpful to audit your on-page SEO health to make sure that everything is operating smoothly and up to date. The eighth tip is to create and publish locally relevant content so that Google can better understand the relevance of your site to a local search. It may also be useful to prioritize local backlinks. The tip that stood out to me the most was to optimize your site for mobile searches since most local searches happen on smartphones. Examples of this are “pizza near me” or “auto shop near me”. It is unlikely that one would be making such searches with a laptop nearby, so it is especially important to optimize for mobile search. Can you think of a time where you made a local search on your laptop- and if so, how often?
3 Responses
Your post is very informative about some of the ‘best practices’ that can be used to optimize SEO. I particularly like the strategies of managing and tracking your online reviews, auditing your on-page SEO health, and optimizing your site for mobile use. All of these tips can help generate traffic and increase conversions which would be great in growing a business.
This is an interesting post. I like how you can track your online reviews. These tips were very helpful.
I think local businesses are very important to the local economy and it is always nice to find somewhere near you that is exactly what you needed! SEO helps users find businesses near them that they never noticed before. I like how you explained how to make the most out of local SEO!