You cannot ignore local SEO when you learn that “near me” searches have grown faster than other comparable searches. That’s why a growing number of businesses invest in local searches. If you’re one among them, look for progress since the world of SEO is constantly evolving — even beyond 2021.
In this article, learn some local search improvement tips from a top consultant SEO. These will help you improve your search engine presence in your targeted local demographic.
Table of Contents
Claim Your Business Listing
While this might seem like a piece of basic advice, but it’s surprising how only a handful of businesses have claimed their business listing while investing in local SEO. But to truly explore the benefits of local SEO, you must claim your local listings on Google, Yelp, and other search directories.
Claimed businesses are seen as more authoritative, genuine, and trustworthy. So you’ll increase your chances of customers selecting your products and services over others.
And claiming your business listing isn’t tough either. You can claim your local listing in a few steps through Google My Business or Google Maps.
Update NAP Regularly
NAP stands for Name-Address-Phone Number. When you set up your GMB or local listing, Google will ask you for these details (or it will scrap from data available on your website).
When people search for your business or your offerings, they are served with these details. If this turns out to be wrong, all your efforts will go down the drain.
Therefore, you must update your NAP as and when you update these details. If you move into a new locality or a new address, make sure to update the same on GMB.
Search for your business once a week to check if the details served up on Google are accurate. If not, you’ve got some work to do.
Create Localized Content
When creating content, you should think about the local customers and the demographics. If you’re creating a blog post and serving a particular town, it makes more sense to talk about the city and its people.
Search engines will take note of it, too, and rank your content higher. Make sure to add the town/city, locality, landmark, pin code wherever possible to localize the content.
If you can cover local events and or interview local personalities, that’s an even better SEO tactic.
Optimize for Voice Search
Voice search is going to take over locally too. Customers will use digital voice assistants to search for the things they need locally. So you should include voice search into your Local SEO practice.
The first thing you need to restructure your content. The more structured it is, the better search engines will index it. And it may result in a higher ranking (or direct answers).
Also, focus on longer keywords that are more conversational. So think of, “Hey Google, how to make chocolate pudding without egg?” So you need to optimize for the entire phrase.
Ask Customers to Leave a Review
Consider reviews as a goldmine. They can convince potential users to buy from you and only you. As you scale up your SEO efforts, you can invest a portion of it in attaining reviews.
It can be as simple as asking your most satisfied customers to leave a review on Google. You will also receive reviews automatically from random customers. But you don’t have control over them since they can be negative ones too.
The more positive reviews you can get, the better it is for your business.
Offer Live Chat Support
Once you successfully bring customers to your website, you need to guide them through. Ensure that they get what they’re looking for. And there’s nothing better than offering live chat support.
When customers get stuck with something or don’t know what to do, they can chat with a representative and figure out a solution. The representatives can also lead them to product pages if they have a commercial intent.
Place the live chat widget all across the website. Web visitors can click on the button to initiate a chat anytime.
Leverage Paid Search
Paid search is a great way to supercharge your local SEO efforts. You can cover a broad range of keywords. As you might know, it’s extremely hard to rank for keywords with commercial intent. In such cases, rather than overspending on SEO, you should invest in Google Ads. When optimized correctly, they’ll offer a far greater ROI than local SEO.
For service businesses, call-only ads are a great way to generate appointments. So, spend a little money on paid searches.
So talk to your consultant for SEO and implement the advanced tips.
