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Amidst the rapidly evolving landscape of search engine optimization, very few digital marketers pay attention to the importance of local SEO.
BrightLocal’s 2020 Customer Review Survey revealed that 93% of consumers use Google to find a local business.
Another study by HubSpot found that 72% of consumers that did a local search visited a store within five miles.
Local SEO is all about catering to the queries of local audiences and creating a strategy to convert local leads.
When done right, guaranteed SEO services will grow your traffic and sales, resulting in long-lasting rankings, and help you acquire more reviews from happy customers.
But how; how can you create a local SEO strategy such that you end up becoming the best business in a particular industry locally?
Continue reading to learn how you can make your business stand out by following a proven strategy.
12 Ways to Make Your Business Standout with Local SEO
1.Do Local Competitor Analysis
Normally, competitor analysis is the first part of SEO. Every SEO Dubai company analyzes the competition and competitors first before creating a custom strategy to outclass the competition.
But when it comes to local SEO, your competitors reduce from global websites to only those operating locally. As a result, the competition lowers down and you find new ways to set your business apart.
Here’s how you perform the local SEO audit:
- Identify your top ten local competitors
- Inspect their content and find out the gaps
- Analyze their technical SEO
- Look at their social media engagement
- Compare your website’s UX with theirs
2.Perform Region-Specific Keyword Research
Another key part of the local SEO strategy is region-specific keyword research. When competing globally or in an entire region, you consider all the top keywords with a substantial search volume.
But that’s not how you do keyword research for local SEO. Here too, you focus on the keyword containing the name of the area where your business is located. Keywords containing places of interest, monuments, and hallmarks are also considered important for content optimization.
For example, a digital marketing agency in the UAE might only target the phrase “SEO services in Dubai” instead of aiming for “SEO services,” which is likely to have higher competition.
3.Create Content Based on Local Events & News
Now that you know who your competitors are and what are the best keywords you can target in your content to get the attention of the local prospects, it’s time to move to the content production phase.
Look for content opportunities in your niche and tie them with the local news. You can also write about local events and news. A lot of websites cover sports events, local elections, weather-related news, and basically anything that people are searching for and it’s somehow relevant to their business.
The more local touch you will give in your content, the more relatable it will be to the local prospects. Thus, you will be perceived as trustworthy.
4.Google Business Profile
A Google Business Profile is one of the important bricks of local SEO. Without it, you can’t get noticed by prospective customers. Displayed on Google with your actual office location, this profile contains everything about your business a random visitor might want to know.
When creating a Google Business Profile, you will add your office address, your working hours, your contact number, and the products/services you sell. While filling out these details, make sure you add your primary keywords wherever they make sense.
Apart from that, you can also add small posts to it on a weekly or regular basis to keep the audience updated with the latest happenings in your business. Customers leave their reviews—-which can’t be manipulated—- on this profile, boosting the credibility of your business.
5.Link the Relevant Pages
When focusing on local SEO, link the internal pages. If you don’t know what pages to be linked, get a consultation from SEO services to get an idea. Internal linking helps you build a marketing funnel, taking the visitor by hand from the first part to eventually to the page where the conversion takes place.
Besides building authority and leading the user, internally linked pages share the traffic. For instance, if page A, which is getting thousands of visitors a day, is linked to page B, the same traffic might visit page B too.
6.Optimize URL, Title Tags, Headers, Meta Description
One of the neglected aspects of local SEO is optimizing the metadata, page URL, and page header. Instead of inserting broad keywords in the metadata and URL, use the city name or town name to be specific.
Region specificity will boost page ranking. That’s why it’s also recommended to create separate pages for each area you are covering, so Google will consider your website as an authority in that niche.
7.Participate in Local Community
There’s no better way to direct local traffic to your website than getting out and promoting your brand among the locals by attending local community events. Sponsor a fun festival, do a giveaway, and do charity work with your brand’s name to boost brand visibility.
For organic growth among the locals, you must mingle around with locals. So capitalize on every opportunity to market your brand to the locals wherever and whenever possible.
8.Write Local FAQs
Local SEO isn’t just about optimizing your blog section for local queries but answering everything the locals might be asking Google. For example, almost every website today has an FAQ section. Check out Google, Ahref, and Semrush and see if you can find local queries that can be turned into FAQs.
Just like local keywords, local FAQs have a little competition and your website can easily rank against them given that you have answered those queries in a thorough and comprehensive manner.
9.Manage Reviews & Respond to Customer Queries
According to a study published by Brightlocal, around 90% of people read reviews for local businesses. Imagine the surge in traffic and conversions if all of these reviews are positive, you will pull in significant revenue through local SEO every year.
Besides maintaining high-quality service the key is to be responsive. Answer all customer queries in the Google Business Profile and consistently work on improving their buying experience. The more positive reviews you have the more traffic will convert.
10.Build Local Backlinks
So, you have built quite a few backlinks. And based on the results, you can say those backlinks have given your website a substantial boost. So why not consider building local backlinks to get more local traffic?
Reach out to local influencers, and local business websites who may be happy to give you a referral. Likewise, build profiles on local business listings. Local backlinks will boost your website against local queries.
11.Leverage Social Media
Do you have a Facebook page and an Instagram profile? Is your business on LinkedIn? If yes, leverage the social traffic. Interact with your followers —- particularly the local ones. Local followers are more likely to visit your website if your social content has a local touch.
Also, local traffic coming to your site is more likely to convert if your physical office is easily approachable for them. So make sure you make the most out of the local traffic.
12.Sponsor Local Events
So your goal is to make your brand popular among the locals. And you know what, local marketing isn’t just about online efforts. What you do offline can have a substantial impact on your local SEO.
One way to promote your business offline among locals is by sponsoring local events in which you expect locals to be present in massive numbers. You can also donate to NGOs and charity organizations to win people’s trust and sympathy.
Who Should Invest in Local SEO?
Local SEO is for everyone. Whether you are a small retail business or a giant B2B firm, local SEO can play a pivotal role in your organic success. Particularly when you have few resources to get started with broad SEO, it’s worth investing your time and efforts in local business marketing.
The level of competition in local SEO is significantly lower. You will be competing against only a handful of online businesses. And most importantly, local SEO queries have a higher conversion intent. Someone searching for a local business is more likely to convert.
So if you take your local SEO efforts seriously, you will reap considerable benefits within little time. The following businesses should add local SEO to their overall marketing efforts:
- Restaurants
- Real Estate
- Healthcare providers
- Educational institutes
- Bars and restaurants
- Law offices
- Local contractors
- Plumbers
- Stores and boutiques
- Hair salons
Conclusion
Local SEO marketing is still untapped by many businesses. But if you explore its true potential, you will be blown up by the results. Little investment of time and resources in local content production and local marketing will improve your ROI and engagement.
Eventually, by keeping the local SEO efforts parallel to your broad SEO campaign, you will experience considerable improvements in both local and generic keywords.