How to Improve Your Local SEO and Drive Results Quickly

You might think that SEO is a powerful marketing tool for large businesses that operate at several locations, but it's equally, if not more, important for local businesses trying to make a name for themselves in their local community. Developing a local SEO strategy can help your local business increase website traffic, gain new customers, and rank higher in relevant search results.

This article will guide you through the process of how to improve your local SEO for your local business. We'll also discuss why local search engine optimisation is so important for local businesses.

🤔 Why Is Local SEO Important for Local Businesses

Local SEO includes tailoring your content to reach customers within a specific geographic area. It helps potential customers find information about a business's products and services with less effort on search engines like Google and Bing.

Utilising the right local SEO tactics comes with the following advantages:

Online visibility and brand awareness: Implementing local SEO efforts increases your business visibility, making it easier for your local audience to find you.
Increased valuable traffic: High local rankings lead to an increase in quality website traffic, opening new doors to potential customers.
Improved user experience: Developing a local SEO strategy can help you better understand the needs and preferences of your target audience, improving user experience.
More foot traffic: By appearing in local searches, your business will not only gain more website visitors but in-store foot traffic as well, which is imperative for local businesses that rely on local customers.
Higher conversion rate and customer engagement: The right local SEO tools can help you increase your conversion rate, which also drives customer engagement.
Earned credibility: If you receive positive reviews, it will increase your business's credibility, enhancing your local search ranking.
Competitive edge: If you improve local SEO efforts, you will be able to stand out from other websites that offer similar products or services.

Local SEO isn't only an effective tool for brick-and-mortar businesses that operate at a physical location. Service-based businesses and even online businesses can benefit from local search engine optimisation.

⚒️ How to Improve Local SEO

As a local business owner, you must understand why local SEO matters for your business to succeed online.

It's essential for businesses wanting to improve their online presence to know how to improve local SEO. Developing an effective local SEO strategy requires significant effort and understanding of how to best utilise various tools available at your disposal. Following these local SEO tips will enable businesses to maximise their exposure while becoming known as a reliable source in the eyes of potential customers and search engines.

Here are the best local SEO techniques that will increase your website's local ranking score:

Doing local keyword research
Optimising your website for local SEO
Creating and optimising a Google My Business listing
Building local links
Generating local reviews
Tracking your results

🕵️ Doing Local Keyword Research

If you're wondering how to rank local SEO keywords on the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs), you must first conduct local keyword research. This will help you understand what search queries your target audience uses when looking for products or services on Google Search. You can then implement those keywords into your website.

Another effective local SEO strategy is to target keywords relevant to your geographical region. For example, if you run a private medical practice specialising in cardiology, you can target specific keywords potential patients might be searching for, which keyword research should reveal. You can use various medical keywords, such as "cardiologist in Melbourne," "heart doctor near me," or "cardiovascular specialist in Melbourne."

These are otherwise known as long-tail keywords, and they're quite important for local SEO. They usually contain three or four words and geographical markers like city names, zip codes, neighbourhoods, etc.

🪄 Optimising Your Website

Optimising a website for local SEO is an important step to increase visibility in local search results and draw more customers. It starts with developing a strategy that will help your site rank higher in local searches, and every good strategy begins with keyword research.

Once you have completed this step, you should strategically implement relevant keywords into different parts of your site, including:

Blog content
Page titles
Meta descriptions
Subheadings
Images
URLS
Link anchor text
Post tags

Creating high-quality content tailored to your target audience can also be beneficial when it comes to improving SEO rankings. This includes creating webpages that specifically target what potential customers are searching for, including topics related to services or products at a specific location.

You can use your blog to write posts about various topics related to your business. For example, how-to guides, tutorials, customer stories, industry news and trends, information about your company, and so on.

Integrating schema markup into website pages can provide additional information about your business, which can lead to higher-ranking positions in SERPs. Schema is especially useful for businesses operating at multiple locations because it allows for extra details about each separate entity.

Another important step is to optimise your website for mobile searches since the majority of online searches happen on mobile devices.

📍 Creating and Optimising a Google My Business Listing

If you want to increase local SEO rankings, you need to create a Google My Business (GMB) listing. Claiming and optimising a GMB listing can help small businesses increase their visibility in local search results, drive more traffic to their websites, and generate new leads.

Google My Business, or a Google Business Profile, is an online business directory where you can post your local business listing. Creating a Google Business Profile includes adding your business on Google Maps. Once you've done this, make sure the listing contains accurate information about your business. Your NAP information (name, address, and phone number) should be correct and up-to-date.

There are a few ways to optimise your Google My Business profile, which include the following:

Verify your mailing address and phone number
Add images of products or services
Post special offers
Respond to online reviews and questions
Provide directions if necessary
Set business hours
Make sure there are no duplicate listings
Update outdated information

Regularly updating your listing is imperative. An up-to-date listing will ensure that customers are able to find the most recent information about your business and its services.

Aside from Google My Business, you can use other business directories for your local citations, such as Yelp, Yellow Pages, Bing Places, Moz Local, Facebook Business, Apple Maps, etc.

🔗 Building Local Links

Local link building is crucial for improving your local search engine optimisation strategy. It involves getting other websites to link back to your site, which can improve the quantity and quality of traffic from search engines. Building strong relationships with other businesses can increase your website's visibility and expand its reach beyond organic search results.

This also helps create trustworthiness with users since they're more likely to click on a link if it has been recommended by another business or organisation.

When trying to attract links locally, choose those that have high domain authority and relevance to your target location. Look into directory listings such as Yelp and Yellow Pages that offer premium listing options. You can also opt for industry-specific directories like Angie's List or TripAdvisor, depending on the sector you operate in.

Connecting with influencers in your area, who share content related to your niche, is also beneficial. This could involve guest blogging opportunities or asking influencers to write reviews about your services or products.

Use social media platforms strategically when promoting any campaigns or initiatives that may be happening in your local community. Post relevant content, local news, and special deals regularly across various channels, such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. By doing so, you will further establish yourself as an industry leader while helping drive referral traffic as people engage with posts and tag their friends and family.

📣 Generating Local Reviews

Over 80% of consumers look at online reviews before making decisions about local businesses. This statistic highlights the importance of generating customer reviews for a business's success.

It's imperative to have customer feedback, as it can help build trust with potential customers and also boost visibility on search engines. If you want to generate customer reviews, you can take advantage of review sites like Google My Business or Yelp by asking loyal customers to leave an honest rating and comment on their experience.

Offering incentives such as discounts or special offers may encourage more customer reviews and positive feedback. By capturing genuine customer experiences, businesses are able to promote themselves locally and improve their SEO rankings.

📈 Tracking Your Results

There are various factors to consider when evaluating how effective a local SEO campaign is and how successful it has been so far. This includes website analytics, keyword performance, link-building effectiveness, and more. Without proper tracking and analysis, businesses may miss out on important insights into their digital marketing efforts.

These are some metrics to keep track of in order to evaluate your SEO campaign:

Organic local search rankings
Traffic levels from different channels
Page views per visit
Time spent on site
Conversion rates for calls-to-action (CTAs)
Click-through rate (CTR) from SERPs
Bounce rates from SERP pages

You can also use various analytics and tracking platforms to measure the success of your local SEO strategy. These include Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Moz, Ahrefs, SEMrush, and more. Not only will these tracking tools let you know how to improve your strategy, but you will also know how you compare to other websites in your niche.

Keep in mind that it will take time before your local SEO strategy starts to generate results, so don't expect to see a difference in web traffic right away.

🚀 Improve Your Local Ranking with Local SEO

To improve local SEO, businesses must understand the importance of optimising their website content for local searches, encouraging customer reviews, routinely updating their Google Business Profile, and listing business information on relevant local directories. By following the local SEO tips in this guide and implementing useful SEO tools, you will be able to grow your business online and attract more foot traffic at your brick-and-mortar location.

If you need help with your local SEO strategy, RankRise is here for you. As a reliable digital marketing agency, we aim to help our clients improve their SEO and search result rankings. We do this by increasing your visibility in search engines, driving traffic leads to your website, and increasing brand awareness. If you want to know more, feel free to contact us.