Local SEO is an integral part of a local business’ marketing strategy. Local SEO involves optimizing your website for local searches to ensure that you rank as high as possible in the search engines when users are looking for businesses like yours.

With local SEO, you can be found by local customers who would otherwise never know about your business! If you’re not optimizing for local SEO, then don’t worry—we’ll show you how right here in this blog post!

How Search Engines Work?

Before diving into utilizing best SEO practices, you should first understand how search engines work and index websites. For example, when a user goes to search for local businesses on Google, they will see the following:

– An input box (i.e., “near” or “within”), which limits search results in terms of how close you are from that location or within a certain radius;

– A list of local business websites with their corresponding contact information;

– A list of local business websites and their corresponding contact information. But this time sorted by relevance to the search term.

The user can toggle back and forth between these two lists to find what they need depending on how specific or broad their search criteria are. This is because Google’s algorithm considers both proximity and relevance when ranking local business websites.

How is Local SEO Different?

Local SEO is different than general SEO for a few reasons. First, local searches will often yield local results only, meaning you’ll have to be found in the first list of local business websites when someone’s searching on Google. Second, local SEO techniques can help you rank higher and give more exposure if other businesses collaborate with you.

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO refers to the process of optimizing a local business’ website or blog for local search queries to rank higher on SERPs (search engine result pages) and drive more local traffic.

As we mentioned, local SEO is used to optimize your website for local searches. So that potential customers in your area can find your company’s site.

How to Utilize Local SEO?

Various SEO practices are available to help you rank, including on-site optimization.

On-Site Optimization Techniques

To rank well in local search, one must optimize their website for local customers and include the following on a company’s site: 

• A physical address that is clearly visible on every page of your website.
• Location information such as city, state, zip code, or local phone number should be easily accessible and displayed prominently on every page of your website.
• A local business category that includes a detailed description of what you do. This will help visitors to find relevant local businesses from search results.
• The local language or dialect spoken by the people in the area where you operate (e.g., Spanish, Vietnamese).
• Photos of the business and people who work there. This will make your website more appealing to local customers
• The local time zone where you operate.
• Addresses or hyperlinks for nearby branches/locations if applicable.
• Reviews from local customers who have done business with your company in the past. This is a great way to show that local customers trust and use your services!
• Any information about your unique business, such as restrictions on how to order many items at a time.

Utilizing SEO Practices to Rank Higher in Local Searches on Google

One of the most important things you can do when optimizing your site for local search is adding local keywords or phrases that are relevant and targeted towards your business. You can do this by using local keywords in the title of your page and vice versa when rewriting or updating existing content.

You should also include local search terms for products and services in website. Copy to contain more relevant information about what people are searching for. Adding images is another way to do this because Google favors websites with pictures over those without.

You can also incorporate local search terms and keywords into the URL. Google will notice when local searches are done on their site. Typically this is done by adding words like “city” or a state abbreviation to your website URLs if it doesn’t already contain them in some way.

It’s Time to Start Using Local SEO!

Now that you have a better understanding of local search engine optimization and how to use it, it’s time to employ it! Utilize local SEO techniques, including on-site optimization strategies, and apply them for ranking higher in local search results.

As a final note, if you’re interested in finding out more about local SEO and other types of SEO that can help your site’s ranking. Such as general or off-page optimizations, feel free to call us for an audit!