Local SEO has become one of the defining methods of targeting an audience for small and medium enterprises. Moz mentions that local SEO deals with businesses with more of a face-to-face approach to doing business. Traditional SEO helps a company define its overall scope and allows it to seek out its target audience. Local SEO boils that down to location-specific search results. Google’s new intent-based algorithm knows that people prefer being close to specific search results. Local search engine results pages, therefore, focus on the geographically most immediate results first. If you’re a small business owner, you may find these local SEO hacks helpful in promoting your page.
1. Simulate Local Searches
In the old days, you could use Google Keyword Tool and simulate searches at a different locale by just entering the geographic name. However, today’s search engine results will give a different result based on the location that you’re searching from. There are a few ways you could simulate or “spoof” the area that you want to search from, including:
o Use software to geotarget a location
o Use the “rule” parameter to encode the location name into the search
o Add the “near” parameter by including “&near=cityname” to your search results
Ideally, you’d choose keywords that rank well for a particular location but have meager competition.
2. Tap Into Competitor Research
Competition is the heat of innovation in business as well as in SEO. What is your rival doing that you aren’t but could be doing? One of the most vital parts of SEO is backlinks. These backlinks, according to Riserr, make for more authoritative sites and better SERP rankings. One of the most effective ways of using competitor research to raise your search engine rank is to figure out what sites link to your competitors but not to your site. Using these links as a start, you can do some outreach to get those sites to start linking to you as well.
3. Destroy NAP Inconsistency
When you’re using Google My Business, your address is the key to finding your business. However, between the multiple directory entries you have online, your name, address, and phone number (NAP) details may have changed from time to time. You must find these inconsistencies and weed them out. Nothing is more frustrating for a customer trying to get in touch with you than having to call four numbers when only one actually works.
4. Curate Customer Proofs
One of the most powerful ways to establish yourself online is by building proofs from customers. These might be something as simple as putting together link-building opportunities through customer reviews. Some consumers have their own personal pages where they review businesses, and this may be an excellent chance to do some link building alongside them. Additionally, ask for reviews on your Google My Business page to stand out from your competition.
5. Use Structured Data Markup
Structured data markup is a way to show off your business as a highlight in Google searches. You can provide a rich data snippet that offers your NAP details as well as positive results that might help a customer decide that they’d like to do business with you. Each site (Facebook, Google, etc.) uses a different markup schema, but software exists to help you have all the various schema markups for your page.
Local SEO is Vital
Considering local SEO as part of your marketing strategy already sets your business apart from so many others. You could do this marketing yourself or hire marketing companies to guide you to the right way to do local SEO. The choice is yours. Investing in SEO is a good idea for any small or medium enterprise that wants to appear more prominently in local search results.
