Do you know 28% of people who make nearby searches always end up in purchasing something? This is why you need to rank on local SEO as well. A local SEO is a strategy that gives your business more visibility in the local search engine result pages.
Do you find ranking on Google, Bing, or other search engines the biggest struggle in digital marketing? Don’t worry. You aren’t alone!
Many businesses have understood the benefits and importance of local SEO, but haven’t really been able to utilize it to fullest. It often becomes difficult to keep track of the changing trends in the SEO strategies time and again.
We brought you our quick and easy Local SEO Checklist. This master guide is your one-stop knowledge station to know everything about Local SEO!
What is Local SEO ?
Local SEO definition is simply the search engine optimization tactics and strategies to enhance your business visibility in the local search results of Google.
Who can benefit from it? Every business with a physical location, or is part of any geographic area can benefit from local SEO.
Over 46% of people make local Google searches every day. And 88% of people make local searches for businesses through a mobile phone, i.e., either through a direct call or visiting the business within 24 hours.
Google says, local intent searches like “near me” are drastically increasing; growing 150% faster than non-local searches.
What does a Local SERP (Search Engine Results Page) look like?
When you search for nearby places in Google, it displays 2 sets of results:
- The Snack Pack Result.
- The Organic Result.
- “Snack Pack” Result.
These are the results we are concerned about for a nearby search. Google Snack Pack is a boxed area which we see on the first page every time we make local searches online.
It displays the most relevant and top 3 local business lists as per the search queries made.
- Organic Search Result.
This includes the regular organic search results we are aware of!
A study revealed that 40% of people go for organic search results, while 33% of people clicks on the snack results.
That means, you have to rank in both of these queries. And, that’s where local SEO comes to play. Plus, Google is focusing more on satisfying the local intent queries of the searchers. This gives you a great opportunity to outshine all your competitions in the local SERPs(Search Engine Results Pages).
What are the Benefits of Local SEO ?
The purpose of local SEO is to instantly boost your local business. These are the list of things a Local SEO does to help you grow your business:
Since we are done with the basics of local SEO, let us move on to how you can implement it to benefit your business?
Here is our checklist for local SEO to Rank Higher in a Local Business.
The ultimate checklist of things you must do to rank higher in local result pages. The most important pointers for the local SEO checklist are as follows:
- Business registration on ‘Google My Business’ and optimization.
- Link building.
- Using appropriate Keywords and On-Page Optimization.
- Citations & Directories.
- Behavioral Signals.
- Quick load-time of your website.
- CRO strategy.
Let us explore these factors one-by-one.
- Business registration on ‘Google My Business (GMB)’ and optimization.
Create your own ‘Google My Business’ profile. It just takes three to five minutes. This ensures that your business is visible in the local search results.
For setting up a profile, you need to feed the business address to Google. You, then receive a card to your business address, containing a PIN which is used for the address verification.
After the verification is complete, within a couple of days you can see your business on the Google map displayed once the users in your area make a search for your service type.
Pro-tip: Always try to provide as much details as possible to Google during this step. More the details completion percentage, more are your chances to rank in the SERPs. Try to get 100% completion listing in the Google My Business.
- Link building
Link building is still of great relevance in the present scenario. But it is one of the most challenging SEO aspects. A study of 1 million SERP results shows that the number of domains linking to a page correlates with rankings more than any other factor.
This is what makes backlinks really important even today!
Here are easy and effective ways that you can use for link building:
- Focus on build high-probability link channels with custom search engines.
- Research your competitors’ content and you can steal their backlinks for your use.
- Create high- intent tool lists blog and feature your business in it. Tools lists are blog posts are the blogs containing a curated list of the top tools or products for your niche or category.
- Using appropriate Keywords and On-Page Optimization
Make sure to use the appropriate and relevant keywords to help you rank higher in the search results. Content is one of the most important factors for SEO optimization. Write the product or service descriptions keeping in mind the kind of keyword search people are going for.
A plenty of keyword research tools, like Ubersuggest, SEMrush are available online for a quick keyword reference. Very often the importance of on-page SEO optimization gets overshadowed by off-page SEO techniques.
But we must remember that it is ultimate the content that needs to shine, not just to rank higher, but also to build trust and credibility with the audience towards your business.
- Citations & Directories
You must maintain a clean citation profile for ranking in the local search results. What exactly is a citation? A ‘citation’ is a reference to the name, address and phone number (NAP) of your business. They work as the foundation of local SEO.
Although directories don’t play a major role in ranking, but they form the foundation of the NAP details and backlinks. For local listings, adding correct locations to get the relevant traffic is of utmost importance.
Add location wherever your product or service references are present, including the homepage and the service pages. The 5 key areas where you should always tag location are:
- The title tags.
- Headings
- Body copy
- Meta descriptions
- Footer
Also, tag location on the URL as well for the relevant content. Submitting your website to the local directories can also benefit you a lot. Since Google indexes the directory entries first, so your site gets listed on a reputed directory, you may easily rank in the top 5 listings.
Even when your struggle for site ranking continues, the business search visibility is boosted significantly!
- Behavioral Signals (Get reviews).
Google algorithm promotes the sites with positive and genuine customer/client reviews. It boosts your business visibility and the likelihood of customers visiting your location is enhanced.
It is a human behavior to choose the business which others have tried and find useful. So, just ranking #1 will not assure you high traffic, it is ultimately the trust and loyalty of business that convert the leads.
What is more effective in trust-building than good, positive customer reviews! 97% of consumers make their choice reading the online local business reviews. They even verify 5-star ratings by checking if the comments are genuine or not.
Pro-tip: Don’t be hasty to get positive reviews or try to generate fake reviews. Eventually the consumers get to know. Try reaching out to your existing customers, and ask them to give their genuine reviews.
- Quick load-time of your website.
Nobody likes a website that takes more time to load. Improving your webpage loading time significantly improve your chances of ranking higher in the SERPs.
Keep your website simple and organized. Nothing attracts mass audience more than an easy to access, clean and fast website. Don’t burden the webpage with heavy graphics and videos, widgets etc.
Maile Ohye, Google stated that, “Two seconds is the threshold for eCommerce website acceptability. At Google, we aim for under half a second.”
When the search engine giant itself confirms that the speed plays an exuberant role in the ranking results, you can’t deny this factor.
Identify the parts of the webpage that are causing it to load slowly, and replace them suitably with more effective visuals, contents or features.
- CRO Strategy
CRO stands for Conversion Rate Optimization. It is the process to improve the percentage of customers taking desired actions on your website.
Proper CRO implementation includes the following actions:
- Value proposition adjustment.
- Content layout restructuring.
- Clear and direct Call-to-actions (CTA) addition.
- Social proofs inclusion.
- Video addition to the pages.
It is basically strategy to generate more revenue from the existing consumers. For any business it is easier to maintain the existing than getting new ones. This strategy revolves around the same perspective.
You should focus increasing your conversion rate rather than generating huge traffics. For local business listings, select your area and build strategies to prosper there. Give equal importance to lead generation and lead nurturing!
Conclusion for Local SEO Checklist
Check all the aspects of the ‘To-do list’ to see a significant improvement in your local SEO game. We hope you have learnt something new about local SEO today. Feel free to connect to us to know more about the market strategy of local SEO and how you can use it for better lead generation and nurturing!
Why Choose Digital Romans?
Growing your business with local SEO is a smart choice. But, implementing the right strategies for local SEO can be a challenging task for you. With Digital Romans by your side, you don’t need to worry about it anymore!
Digital Romans is your one-stop solution to all the online marketing struggles. Join now to conquer the market game.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q1: What is Local SEO?
Ans: Local SEO definition is simply the search engine optimization tactics and strategies to enhance your business visibility in the local search results of Google.
Q2: Who needs Local SEO?
Ans: Every business with a physical location, or is part of any geographic area can benefit from local SEO. Over 46% of people make local Google searches every day. And 88% of people make local searches for businesses through a mobile phone, i.e., either through a direct call or visiting the business within 24 hours.
Q3: Why is Local SEO important for your business?
Ans: The purpose of local SEO is to instantly boost your local business. These are the list of things a Local SEO does to help you grow your business:
- Increases visibility to the potential buyers, so they can find your business easily. With appropriate local SEO technique, your business can track even the non-local searches who need your service.
- It gives freedom to customers, as when and where to buy a product! For example, if your restaurant is fully airconditioned and serves Indian cuisine, you can add that to the local SEO. This attracts the customers who are looking for a restaurant exactly like yours.
- Even if you don’t have a website, local SEO can still drive a lot of traffic to your business.
- Lead generation is so much easy with it. It provides suitable Call-To-Action (CTA) that customers can immediately contact you.
- It helps you build a trust between you and your customers which ultimately gets you more profit.
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