Mastering Local SEO: Techniques to Conquer Your Cityscape

Intro

Local search visibility is a core driver of success for many local businesses. If you run a local-based business with a consumer focus, then your company must appear in the local search results if you want to effectively reach your target market.

The stakes are now higher than ever, because the high rate of adoption of internet technologies means that it’s now common for people to turn to search engines when they’re looking for a local provider. Take this recent survey of United States consumers for example. Of the 1,117 respondents, 21 percent search for local businesses every day, 32 percent said they search for local businesses multiple times per week, and 24 percent said they search at least once a week.

That’s a whole lot of search volume from consumers who are actively looking for a product or service provider to solve their problems. The businesses on the top of the search results receive the lion’s share of the customers.

However, getting significant visibility on local search results takes plenty of work. It requires an investment in local SEO, and if you get it wrong, the results can be elusive.

So, how can you master local SEO and bring your business to the top of local search results?

In this article, we'll discuss how local SEO works, its core ranking signals, and how to improve your SEO for optimal results.

U.S. consumers’ frequency of online searches for local businesses from statista.com

Core local SEO ranking signals and best practices

Unlike general SEO, which takes more of a broad-based approach to increasing organic search traffic, local SEO instead focuses specifically on optimizing local search rankings. This can include not only search visibility based on the user’s geographic location, but also your search visibility in search engine features like the map results.

One way to improve your local search performance is to engage an SEO agency who specializes in the local area. For example, if you're based in Perth, Australia, then you could engage Perth SEO Studio to enhance your search visibility in the Perth CBD and nearby locations.

Whether or not you choose to engage a SEO agency, it’s good to understand the local SEO ranking signals that will determine your position in local search results and the best practices for boosting them, so let’s explore the most important aspects.

Your company's location or proximity

The geographic location of a user at the time of their search has a significant impact on whether your business will appear in their search results. The search engines will aim to match local businesses that are personalized to the individual user, based on the user’s known location. If the search engines are unable to determine the location of your business from the information you provide on your website, then search engines will perform calculations to estimate your business’s location, based on the information provided on your social media, website, and directory listings.

For this reason, putting your brick-and-mortar address on your website is essential. But if you don't have a physical office or storefront address, then, you must optimize your content by referencing the locations you serve in your content and landing pages.

Perform comprehensive local keyword research

Keyword research helps you determine the most relevant local queries related to your business. You can then use these terms to localize your content.

At the same time, this process will help you understand the local intent of queries. These searches can be explicit or implicit.

For example, explicit searches specify a location or have spatial terms like "nearby" or "near me." On the other hand, implicit searches don't have specified locations mentioned, because some users know search engines will understand the context of their queries without them having to specific it.

You can use a keyword research tool to acquire comprehensive insights into the keywords you should include in your content. The insights can include:

• Identifying long-tail keywords that relate to your products or services
• Analyzing competitor keywords to determine the terms or phrases they rank for, which enables you to identify the keywords that you can also target
• Finding local event keywords related to programs, fairs, or festivals that your business can participate in
• Identifying seasonal local search terms relevant to your business during a specific time of the year, e.g., summer and holidays
• Evaluating local keyword trends and search behaviors and how they change over time

When you’re armed with the right level of keyword research, then you can optimize your website content for local SEO.

Optimize your meta tags for local queries

Optimizing your meta tags for local queries is achieved through the following approaches:

• Add your city or region in your title tags. These tags will help search engines understand your website's geographic relevance.
• Incorporate location-specific keywords into your meta descriptions. These descriptions are summaries of your web page content and they appear underneath the hyperlinks on the search engine results pages.
• Integrate geo-tags to specify your brick-and-mortar location's geographic coordinates. These tags are helpful if you have multiple branches because search engines can accurately display your locations on maps and search results.

Online reviews and ratings

Online reviews and ratings are significant ranking signals for local SEO. To get the greatest benefit from your reviews, then make sure you focus on:

• Quantity: If you receive a high volume of reviews, it indicates a large customer base, which helps enhance your local search visibility.
• Quality: Positive reviews signal authority, trustworthiness, and customer satisfaction, while negative ratings can affect your reputation.
• Recency: Fresh reviews typically hold more weight than older ones. Regular new reviews show that your business is active and relevant, which can increase your local SEO rankings.

Take time to respond to your reviews and ratings; it helps to communicate your commitment to providing high-quality services.

If someone leaves a negative review, then it’s helpful if you address their concerns, apologize, and offer a viable solution to their complaint. Other response approaches include:

• Taking responsibility
• Giving an explanation
• Asking for another chance

Remember to be professional, no matter how bad the review is. It would also be best to show that you're a real person by signing off with your name.

Content

Search engines rank websites with informative, relevant, valuable, and in-depth content. Visually compelling elements that complement written content are important ingredients in this mix.

Although no word count rules exist, comprehensive content often receives higher rankings. However, no matter the length, the main objective is to satisfy the user’s query, so your content must provide valuable information.

Additionally, search engines prefer new and regularly updated content to ensure the results are up to date. So, if your content isn't regularly updated, it is unlikely to appear on the first page of local search results.

Create high-quality localized content

Articles about general topics can attract a lot of visitors. However, with local SEO the goal is to attract local customers, so the content is best optimized when it focuses on local-specific topics.

One of the ways that you can help boost your local relevance is by promoting your industry through educational blog posts that are relevant to your local area. For example, if you're a security company that aims to engage new businesses, you can create a helpful resource to get these companies acquainted with the security situation in the region.

Other ways to create localized content include:

• Writing blog posts about local events, e.g., sharing stories about your involvement in a local community event
• Developing case studies about local customers who benefited from your products
• Publishing interviews of local industry leaders, content creators, or influencers
• Creating tutorials or how-to articles that address common local problems
• Using easy-to-read fonts and readable text sizes to enhance readability
• Following the webmaster accessibility guidelines to ensure your site is accessible to users with disabilities
• Integrating a search bar to help users quickly search for specific information
• Making contact, signup, and registration forms straightforward to fill out and submit

Enhance your internal linking structure

Internal links are links within your articles that direct to other pages on your website. To improve your internal linking structure, keep the following practices in mind:

• Link to relevant and complementary content
• Create natural, contextual, and descriptive links that provide value
• Add the most important links at the top of the content
• Link high-authority pages to low-authority ones
• Make your most essential links clickable from the homepage
• Avoid link stuffing as it can be seen as spammy

Build and optimize local citations

Local citations mention your company's name, address, and phone number (NAP) on other websites. To optimize these elements:

• Ensure NAP consistency across all citations to avoid confusion for search engines and users.
• Claim and optimize listings on major directories like Yelp, Yellow Pages, and industry-specific platforms.
• Seek out local directory opportunities specific to your city or region.
• Consider using citation-building services to save time and ensure accuracy.
• Regularly audit and update your citations to maintain their relevance and accuracy.

Google Business listings

Google has an online directory specifically for businesses. Businesses can appear in this directory by creating a Google Business Profile (GBP). Your listing on this platform is a crucial local SEO ranking factor because it contains the following information:

• Address and phone number
• Company information
• Photos
• Reviews and ratings
• Operating hours

If these details are inconsistent with the other information about your business on the internet, then Google may find your business information conflicting. As a result, Google won't rank your listing because it doesn't provide the information users need.

Another online directory similar to Google Business Profile is Bing Places. Getting listed on this platform is essential to ranking in the local search results on Bing.

Audit your listing on Google Business Profile

It’s recommended that you regularly audit your GBP listing to ensure your business information is up to date. You should check the description, location, and other necessary information and make any changes when applicable. These updates will help your profile appear on more local-related queries.

If you don't have a GBP listing yet, you can add or claim your business to get started.

Get listed on multiple online local directories

To get listed on online directories:

• Submit your listing to high-quality directories.
• Ensure consistent contact information (business name, address, business hours, contact numbers, and product or service information).
• Include your website and social media profile links to direct prospects and visitors to your profiles.
• Add an "About Us" section that briefly describes your business.
• Add photos and videos to your listings.

Website design and performance

Your website is open to users 24/7. For most prospects, it is their first impression of your company and where most customer journeys start.

As such, your website design and performance help build trust, authority, and brand recognition, which can be optimized in the following ways.

Ensure your site's positive user experience and mobile-friendliness

The user experience of your website relates to the way in which visitors navigate and interact with your website. Some tips to enhance your site's user experience include:

• Use white space to make your content more legible
• Optimize your page speed, e.g., compress your images to decrease the loading time
• Ensure an intuitive design to make the navigation straightforward
• Choose texts with fonts and sizes that are easy to read.
• Use short sentences and paragraphs in your content.
• Avoid or minimize intrusive pop-ups.
• Follow the webmaster accessibility guidelines to ensure your site is accessible to users with disabilities.
• Integrate a search bar to help users quickly search for specific information.
• Make contact, signup, and registration forms straightforward to fill out and submit.

At the same time, you must ensure your site's mobile friendliness. You must incorporate a responsive design that caters to various screen sizes so that when users switch devices, they won't struggle to browse the pages and read your content.

Example of a responsive website design - Source

Backlinks

Backlinks are also known as incoming, inbound, or one-way links. They are links from external websites pointing to yours. For search engines, they are "votes" of quality to assess your web pages.

These votes indicate your website's relevance, authority, and quality. When your web pages have many relevant and high-quality backlinks, then you have a better chance of getting higher local search rankings. \

How to get relevant and authoritative backlinks

Here are some link-building strategies to acquire high-quality, relevant, and authoritative backlinks:

• Publish skyscraper content. This practice involves creating more comprehensive versions of published articles and contacting referring domains to link to your content.
• Reclaim unlinked mentions by contacting publishers that mention your brand without linking to your site and ask them to link to you.
• Revamp your old content with updated information and statistics.
• Find and fix broken links from other websites. Then, contact them and suggest linking to your web pages.
• Use infographics or provide a free online photo gallery for bloggers, content creators, journalists, and publishers.
• Build free and valuable online tools like calculators and template generators.
• Provide testimonials in exchange for backlinks from your product and service suppliers.

Periodically conduct a local SEO audit

Local SEO shouldn’t be stagnant. You must periodically audit your strategies to see what's working and what's not, which can be achieved in the following ways:

• Perform a Google Business Profile audit to ensure accurate and consistent company information.
• Conduct a citation audit to ensure your citations are correct on online directories
• Undertake a website audit to check how your website performs across devices
• Use Google Analytics to track local organic traffic and user behavior.
• Monitor your rankings for local keywords using tools like SEMrush or Moz Local.
• Track and observe your competitors' local SEO strategies and performance.
• Use heat mapping tools to understand how local users interact with your website.
• Adjust your tactics based on performance data and local market changes.

Final thoughts on staying competitive with local SEO

Mastering local SEO is a nonstop process that requires creativity, dedication, and adaptability. By implementing these techniques and being constantly aware of your local market's needs, you can effectively conquer your cityscape through increased foot traffic, phone calls, conversion rates, and revenue.

While these strategies provide a solid foundation, every local market is unique. Don't be afraid to experiment and tailor your approach to your specific audience and business objectives.

Moreover, as search engines refine their local algorithms, staying ahead in local SEO will be essential to outperforming competitors and establishing a solid presence in your local market.

With persistence and the appropriate tactics, you can elevate your local search visibility and connect with more customers in your area.