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“Best dentists near me!” “Top bakeries in my area!” “Okay Google, find the nearest gas station”

Local searches are quite prevalent these days. According to study, 82% of the users search for local businesses on their smartphones. Yes, instead of just going out on a spree to find out all they want while on their way, they quickly pick up their smart device, make a search, and are provided with a number of options. The options that appear in front of them are the ones that are discoverable. Are you sure, you’re one among them?

If you think, you are not able to make it to the local searches, then you are missing out on a good population of visitors who might have turned your customers. So this makes it extremely crucial for businesses to optimize their websites for local searches.

Well, simply being visible on the local search results is not enough, rankings matter a lot.

True to the very interesting phrase, “If you want to hide a dead body then hide it in the second page,” it is a hard-hit fact that 75% of users don’t go past the first page, and consider all that appears on the first mostly, as reported by HubSpot. The visibility on the first page matters, as most of the users, click on them and don’t even consider those that appear on the second. Even if they do, chances are very rare that they would go to the third page.

Ranking on the first page has always been considered a huge deal for the websites as people think that it requires a lot of fan-following and super-active social media presence on various social media platforms. Especially, the small businesses that rely upon the local market, find it just a dream to rank on the first page.

Well, it’s actually not the case! Ranking on the first page is not that difficult and is rather possible with three smart SEO techniques.

Method #1: Integrating Local Search Terms

It is always wiser to consider what people look for, and then accordingly optimize your website. Determine the local keywords that are relevant to your niche areas, with Google AdWords. You can analyze the data to find out the search terms used by the visitors so that your website flashes on their screens.

The local search terms are created by combining the keywords describing your service or product with the name of the city where your business is based.

To find the right keywords, you can use tools for keyword research for the local markets.

Apart from this, keep a tab on the keywords used by your competitors who have been performing quite well on online searches. Include them in your content.

For new keywords, you can use the Keyword Planner tool through your AdWords account, where you can enter the keywords used by your competitors, and then as you will click on the ‘Get Ideas’ tab, you will get more related keywords. So, you will be using your competitors’ keywords as well as those that your competitors won’t even know, and so you’ll be ranking better than them.

Method #2: Local Directory Listing

When a business is dependent especially on the local traffic, it becomes mandatory for it to be listed on local directories such as Google+ Local, Bing Local, Yahoo! The best part about directory listing is, it appears on the first-page search results. Not only this, the users are allowed to rate and write reviews about your business and you will be able to interact with them.

You can list your business on these directories by providing all the information such as the name and contact details of your business. Provide a good description that contains the local search term, and maintain consistency so that people find some information about your business everywhere and trust you better. Maintain a record of all these listings.

To keep measuring your website’s performance on local searches and the cities you target, use Google Webmaster Tools.

Method #3: On-Page SEO Techniques

On-page SEO involves optimization of web pages considering various factors. This leads to higher ranks, increased website visibility, and all the local traffic that is relevant.

The factors include Title Tag, Meta Description Tags, Robots Meta Tag, URL, Header Tags, all the Headings (H1, H2, and H3), Image Alt Tags, and Canonical Tags. So, apart from content optimization, high-volume keywords should also be incorporated into these factors. All these on-page activities make the website more visible with higher ranks on search engine results and so help in attracting local traffic.

What Else You Need to Do

Apart from these methods, the internal and external link-building activities also help in optimizing the business websites for local searches. As the users are led to internal pages of the website, Google understands how relevant these internal pages are, and so ranks them well, thus boosting online presence. Similarly, external links or backlinks also enhance the website search performance. For example, when a high domain authority (DA) website links to yours through a blog written by you, you get more visitors. The higher is the DA of such websites, the higher is known to be the quality of the backlink.

Of course, your content should be informative, engaging, and high quality too, so that it engages the quality traffic and increases the probability of conversions. With consistent efforts and winning content, these quality backlinks are earned.

Know about How Local SEO Can Help Increase Organic Leads For Your Business.

On Concluding Note

It doesn’t matter how small your business may be, you can certainly make waves with it, following the right local SEO strategies. Unless you make a strong foothold in the local market, you won’t be able t progress further, and that’s where the role of local SEO begins. Consistent local SEO will help you widen your audience, with a promise of consistent growth. Initially, you may find it difficult to implement these local SEO strategies, but with the right tools and ample expertise, it will be much easier.

Originally posted 2021-06-28 21:15:57. Republished by Blog Post Promoter