Local SEO is one of the hot topics you will find these days, the reason being people looking for products and services locally. With the growth of search engines like Google and users switching to mobile search, the need for local search has deliberately increased. The reason being, people looking for places, products and services locally available for easy access.
This is when Local SEO plays its role, websites are optimised locally to rank well on SERPs- search engine result pages when location-based results are retrieved. Business owners today, often ask about how to optimise a website for local SEO or what are the best local SEO practices, but first, they need to understand what Local SEO is and how it works.
Search engines analyse content, citations, links and social media activity to rank a business locally. Local SEO serves to a geographical area and helps search engines like Google rank the best available resources locally. By optimising a website locally, you promote your products and services to local prospects and customers. But what are the best Local SEO practices? Here’s what you need to know,
How to Optimise A Website for Local SEO?
Search engine optimisation practices are implemented by webmasters to rank their websites well. Similarly, Local SEO practices are taken in hand to rank a website or business on local searches. Here are the best practices that can help you optimise a website for Local SEO.
1. Optimise Content with Local Search Terms
Keywords in content play a vital role and this one of the best SEO practices but remember not to overstuff content with keywords. To make this work for Local SEO, you need to use location-based search terms as keywords. It is essential to use location-based terms such as ‘city’ or ‘country’ in content to make it clear to the prospects as well as search engines that what you do and where.
2. Optimise Meta Data with Location Centric Terms
Just as adding location to the content is vital, using meta data with location-based terms is also a unique way to make a local impression. Webmasters often argue whether meta data are of any help while ranking a website or service on search engines but why shall we miss this chance of promoting our business locally. By adding location names to meta data (title tags and meta description) you can easily help prospects identify your business.
3. Set up Google My Business Account
Setting up Google My Business account is highly essential for your local business. This way you officially inform the search engine about your business location, its niche, products and services. Due to a lot of traffic and new sign-ups on Google My Business, your business rankings on search engines may not immediately get better but this will surely add to the chances of being recognised locally. Most importantly, by using Google My Business for listing your business, you give it a credible and authentic look.
4. Add Schema Mark Up for Each Product and Service
It is essential to separately list down all the products and services on a website. This enables search engines to regard your business for each of the mentioned service or product. To make things work even better, you need to add a schema mark up for each product and service.
Schema marks up are little code snippets added to websites that help search engines bring more informative results for users. These inform search engines that what your content means rather than what it displays. Thus, these are essential for ranking your business locally on search engines.
5. List Your Business in Local Directories
Listing a business in local directories is another great way of optimising a website for Local SEO. To make things work, list your business exactly in the same way as you list it on Google My Business. This listing can be time taking in terms of formatting and results, but it does benefit your website for local SEO.
6. Keep Your NAP Citations Updated
Adding NAP citations is very important for ranking a website locally. NAP stands for Name, Address and Phone number, these details are usually added to the footer of the website. Make sure that all NAP citation formats are the same on every webpage of your website, this helps remove any confusion. Similarly make sure that you use same NAP details on the website, that you had added to Google My Business.
7. Add Reviews
Positive word of mouth is always beneficial for businesses, these act like votes of validation. Prospects do make purchase decisions after analysing public reviews about a product or service. By asking people to add reviews for your business online you can increase credibility and hint search engines that your work stands above all others. On the same side, testimonials on websites also hint search engines about a business and its performance.
Set Up Social Media Pages
To make it big with Local SEO practices, it is not just essential to optimise your website, but you also need to set up social media pages. By doing so and adding relevant authentic information on your business’s social media pages, you can easily hint search engines about your business and its activity. For locally optimising your website, you then need to add social media links to it.
All these mentioned SEO practices can help you rank your website locally. To optimise a website for local SEO does require a lot of attention and time. Too much work to do? We can help you rank your website and business locally! Comment below to request services.
