Top 10 Tips to Master Local SEO For Brands

If you are a small business owner, then instead of focusing on SEO, it is better that you start focusing on local SEO. No, we are not telling you to shift your focus from SEO and miss out on the global ranking. We are just emphasizing the importance of the local SEO.

Optimizing your website for the local SEO means that you will have more local traffic, local leads, conversion, and foot traffic. This practice will help you compete against the big commercial companies that have the fortune to spend on marketing and advertisements.

Local SEO is one of the best ways for businesses to boost their online presence and let the locals know that they are in the market serving their needs. Then there are other factors. When you are serious about SEO, Google has prioritized the local SEO ranking to boost your global rankings.

Why Is Local SEO Important?

If you think that most of the search engines are meant to buy the best brand worldwide, there is much to learn for you in SEO. More than 46% of the search quests are local searches. Yes, you read it correctly. People look for shops, brands, products, and services that are near them.

For instance, when you have a light bulb problem, you will obviously look for “Best light bulb shop near you”, you are not going to look for shops that are in different cities.

Local SEO also helps to authenticate the credibility of your business. Google takes the local searches and Google tagging very seriously.

Here is why you should focus on local searches.

• More than 80% of Smartphone searches are conducted with “near me” keywords.
• Out of 80% of the searches, 70% visit the shops, if it is in the vicinity.
• More than 50% of the searchers visit the shop within the next 24 hours.

Top Ranking Signals That Might Force You to Go For the Local Searches

According to MOZ, the following signals show why local SEO can be a game-changer for businesses.

• On-Page Signals – 25%
• Citation Signals – 8%
• Personalization – 7%
• Social Signals – 3%
• Review Signals – 6%
• GMB Signals – 9%
• Behavior Signals – 12%
• Link Signals – 28%

These signals will not add value individually, but if you sum them up together, you will be able to boost your business.

Tips To Master Local SEO For Brands

If you want your business to be consistent, then the first step is to rule the local market. If you can do so, you will never see an off business season. But how can you do that?

In this article, we have come up with some of the best local SEO practices. What are they? Let’s find out.

#1. Optimizing Your Business for Google My Business

Google My Business has become very important for the business with a physical shop. This feature allows foot traffic to locate your business on the map. Last year, Google announced the importance of Google My Business. Every small business is looking for ways to optimize their business.

While you are optimizing your Google my business profile, ensure that you have covered all the following.

• Validation your business in Google My Business.
• Specify every detail of the business.
• Encourage your customers to leave their honest reviews.
• Do not forget to reply to all the comments.

#2. Encouraging Clients For Their Review

This practice helps your business to get local recognition. Asking your clients to leave an honest review will help others know about your business, and the testimony of your clients will advocate your services.

Here are some of the tips that you can use to encourage your customers to write reviews.

• You can ask them about their experience and how they felt about their business.
• You can even ask them to leave a review by mailing them.
• And once people are engaged with your business, make sure you do the same. Start by replying to their messages and comments.

#3. Voice Search Optimization

Voice searches are the new trends that will eventually rule the new search practices. Though people still use typing search methods, there are people who are hooked on voice searches. Hence, it is good to locate the relevant voice search keywords and integrate them with the local SEO.

When it comes down to voice searches, people tend to go for long-tail keywords to specify what they are looking for or searching for. Hence, while you are optimizing the business for voice searches, you must consider users’ internet for the best search results.

Remember that users always want fast and ready to go results. They do not want to search for the same thing twice, just because the first search didn’t go well. Hence, it is necessary that you use the relevant keywords for the voice searches.

#4. Build Local Links

Backlinks have always been an important factor for the website. But if you are looking to boost local SEO, you not only like backlinks that are of high quality, but you also have to ensure that those links are from local websites. If you are not getting any relevant website, then start guest post services.. This might help you with the local, high-quality backlinks.

If you are not getting any suitable links from the same industry, you can try looking for high-quality links from different industries. For instance, you can collaborate with different businesses to increase your exposure.

For branding tips you can go through blogs related to branding by ibrandstudio.com.

And to learn more about landing pages problems which are equally important also follow ibrandstudio.com.

#5. Accurate Citation

Building Citation is one of those things that sound a lot more complicated than it actually is. A citation is the proper display of your business name and detail on the SERPs. When you are working with SEO, a citation is the first step towards an SEO optimized website.

Citations are called “table Stakes” in the local search industry. The reason is very simple. If you do not have any citation, you will not get a seat on the local searches, and the people will not be able to see your business.

#6. Ensuring Your Website Is Mobile-Friendly

None of us like it when a certain website performs well on a desktop or laptop and have problems opening on a smartphone. Well, if you know this, that means your website is already mobile optimized. Today more than 70% of the internet users are mobile users. Hence, it has become very important that you are administering a mobile-friendly website; otherwise, you are missing out on that 70 % visitor.

#7. Creating Relevant Contents

Having a website doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have any content on it. A website alone will never be useful unless you have something to give to your visitor. Creating relevant content and serving it to users will help encourage the visitor to visit the website.

For instance, you have a clothing shop, writing about the best fabric for the winter will be the best way to attract the audience’s attention and funnel it down to your website.

#8. Optimizing Title & Meta As Per Locals

It is a summon misconception for the people that meta description is a ranking signal. No, they’re not. But that does not mean that they do not offer any value. They are the best way to highlight the key points or cover a major pillar of content while showing SERPs results.

You might take me for a fool to add a non-ranking signal in the local SEO campaign. However, if you stick with us, you will know why we have added it to the list.

A meta description is a short preview that we can see in the SERP snippet. That means it acts like the first exposure to your content. Hence, if you can make this appealing, you will be able to see a boost in traffic.

#9. Use Local Keywords

The keywords change with the change in approach. When you were optimizing for the global SEO, keywords were different. When you optimize for the local SEO, the keywords will be more local-oriented and should target the local audiences. The local key like “near me”, “name of the local area”, “name of landscape”, etc.

#10. Separate Web Pages for Each Product

You might think that keeping all your products and services on one webpage will help your products with extended exposure. But that is not the case. The best way to keep your audience on the website is to maintain individual WebPages for every product and interlink them.

If you have a physical presence, then try adding your Google map location on the website. This will add credibility and will encourage people to visit your business location.

Conclusion

SEO is evolving quickly. Though Google has not announced officially about the local SEO is very important, as we know, Google goes with the trends. Hence we can hope, in the future, that Google will soon come up with a feature. This is why, by taking the forest step, you will help you gain a first-mover advantage.

About the Author!

Shane Brown was born and raised in New York. He is a passionate blogger and chief blogging officer at BloggerOutreach.io. and also in Viacon. He is the man behind Search Engine Magazine, a well-known SEO Magazine. Shane specializes in in-bound marketing and creative sales copy.