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A Comprehensive Guide to Local SEO in 2022

Local SEO

Local SEO is one of the most powerful tools for small or local businesses: nine out of ten consumers use search engines to find local businesses. This means that if your business is not present on the internet or not optimized for local search, you are missing out on a very good opportunity for growth. In short, local SEO services are crucial for your business for being relevant.

To help you grow your business locally, we have created a list of the best local SEO practices that you can consider for the local success of your business.

  • What is Local SEO?

Local SEO allows businesses to market their products and services to local consumers. To collect information for local search, search engines use local content, links, social media profile pages and citations to offer the most relevant local search engine results to the users.

  • Best Practice Local SEO Tactics

To improve your local search rankings, you need to optimize your Google My Business account, work on improving on page SEO by updating your website and excel on Wild Wild Web. While it may seem overwhelming, it’s extremely easy to succeed in the endeavours with some patience and continuous efforts.

  • Optimize for Google My Business

Google My Business is the most important element of local search- as Google clearly feels most comfortable sharing content it can verify and support. Google My Business is Google’s tool to help your business meet search engine requirements. If Google finds your business authentic, it will surely reward your business by providing a sidebar area in Google local search.

To ensure you are optimized for Google My Business, you need to create and verify a Google My Business page, motivate your customers to share their reviews on this page, and reply to reviews.

  • Website Updates

Now as we have done with discussing optimizing your business for Google My Business, let’s take a look at some simple website updates to enhance your local SEO.

  • Improve Internal Linking Structure

Though external links directing to your website are great, improving your internal linking structure will enhance your search engine rankings. Benefits of improving your internal linking structure:

  • Supports website navigation
  • Helps with information design and website hierarchy
  • Allocates page authority and ranking authority among pages
  • Optimize URL, Headers, Meta Description, Title Tags, and Content

When we talk about content, every newly posted content is a new indexed page for your website, a new page through which you can target a geographic search phrase, and also a new opportunity to get found in SERPs. When you write new content, you need to optimize it for search engines by using keywords in the URL, header, title, meta description and body.

  • Add Location Pages to your Website

If you are operating on more than one geographical location, create different location pages. It provides visitors with your NAP, open timings, parking information, store descriptions, testimonials and more. It is crucial to not to use duplicate content across different location pages. For a single geographical business, create a locally descriptive About Us page. If you add a Google MAP to your website, you will get an added big-time bonus.

  • Create Local Content

As Google has become smarter, content developers can now truly write for users and not for search engines. However, while writing about general topics will fetch huge visitors, sometimes it’s important to shift your focus and write about your industry news to get the attention of the local audience. Become the local authority for your industry by writing about your local industry news, gatherings and other informative content. Think out of the box and create content that goes beyond your business sells.

  • Ensure your website is mobile responsive

Local search and mobile search work in tandem as most of the people search for a local business on a mobile phone. Some of the most common ways people will use your website in a mobile environment are to find directions to your location, read reviews, and search for contact information. Make it easy for your visitors and customers by making your site mobile-responsive.

  • Engage with Directories and the Wild Wild Web

You have learned how to optimize your Google My Business page and what updates you should make on your website for an internal SEO boost. Now, we will discuss how you can use directories, NAP consistency and inbound links to ensure success for your local business.

  • Optimize Online Directories and Citations

There are many map data aggregators like Map My India, Geoinfosys, etc. that provide a large amount of the map data.

Consistency is the key: check that your citations are steady and complete across such data aggregators. Inconsistencies like abbreviations, misspellings, lack of suite number or wrong phone number can be problematic. Since, if Google can’t find out which info. About your business is right, it may now display your business in search engines.

  • Name, Address, Phone Consistency

You need to make it simple for people and search engines to discover you. For this, you should set up your NAP (name, address and phone number). This should be integrated as crawlable HTML text on your site. The most common location for the NAP is in the footer or header of the site.

  • Get Inbound Links with Relevance and Authority

Inbound links are extremely powerful opportunities to boost your local SEO — every inbound link tells Google you’re a genuine business, and inbound links can also improve your domain authority. Here are a few ways to get inbound links:

  • Sponsorships or Partnerships
  • Guest Blog Posting
  • Scholarships
  • Engage with Social Media and Add Posts to Google My Business

Google considers the content shared on social media essential. As you’ve created out an informative Google My Business page, share it on social media, further supporting social and search.

It is a comprehensive guide to improving your local search engine rankings in 2020. Follow these tactics to make your local business success. All the best in your endeavours.

Atul Kumar

Atul Kumar is a Digital Marketing Manager at Impressico Digital with over a decade of experience, making him the go-to expert for SEO, PPC, Social Media, Email Marketing, and Content Marketing. With a deep understanding and expertise, Atul has helped numerous businesses improve their digital presence and strategies to maximize ROI.

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