SEO keeps evolving so you need to keep learning what works and what does not. Local SEO is rather new but it is now more important than ever. You absolutely have to optimize all your off-site and on-site SEO strategies since local competition becomes tougher to deal with.
Fortunately, having a really effective local SEO strategy is possible for absolutely all businesses that rely on local customers. The tips below are going to help you do exactly that.
Meta descriptions and title tags are important
These HTML elements help you to easily customize web page content. Description tags and title tags are shown in search engine results. They are practically a mini ad that has to be carefully crafted.
Remember that title tag length is up to 60 characters and description tags can go as high as 200, although 160 is the norm. You want to fully take advantage of this and double-check everything so you are 100% sure that these parts of the site reflect the local approach you have in your marketing campaign.
In SEO, descriptions and titles are vital. This is text that needs to be descriptive, compelling and unique. This is the only situation in which you can be sure that your click rate will be as high as it could be.
Look for proper citations
Statistics show that the vast majority of consumers now use search engines in order to conduct research and learn more information about what they want to buy. Even so, most small businesses did not claim their local business listings.
Now that Google confirms local search update and changes, you need to look for relevant online directories and get local citations to help you get suitable local backlinks. This includes the main directories like Merchant Circle, Yelp and Citysearch, among others.
When you look for these citations, make sure that you include NAP, which means business name, business address and phone number.
Don’t forget about online reviews
Finally, businesses realized how important online reviews are for customers. In fact, over 80% of people look and trust online reviews, just as much as personal recommendations. 70% of the customers even leave reviews when they are asked. Why not take advantage of this?
Online reviews are actually a very big part of reputation marketing and also local SEO. The links that you receive through these reviews are very useful. They show that your products and services are as you want them to be.
Final thoughts
To sum up, the three tips mentioned above are really important if you want to climb the local SEO ladder. Obviously, there are many others that can be mentioned but you want to start with them. Never underestimate the importance of claiming your business in Google My Business and try to get as many relevant local backlinks as possible. This shows validity and increases your local authority, which is exactly what you want at the end of the day. The more reviews, links and citations you get, the higher your business appears in local searches.
