Is your website optimized for local search engine traffic?It needs to be if you want to reach more local customers through search engine results pages on Google and other browsers. By following a simple local SEO checklist, you can make your website shine like a beacon for web users searching for local businesses.
Develop a Strategy for your local SEO checklist
Yes, it is a simple local SEO checklist, but all digital marketing needs a strategy. This step makes it easier to check your actions and re-evaluate when traffic doesn’t increase or suddenly drop off. Your SEO techniques must be mobile-friendly first. Over the past few years,mobile and then voice search have taken over importance for web searches.
Technology has come a long way over the last decade. When a user enters their search parameters, nearly 50% are using local expressions. Standard terms often include “near me.” For example, someone looking for pizza delivery will enter, “pizza delivery near me.” The GPS-based apps on their smartphone automatically find the closest services locally.
Develop a strategy that begins with mobile-friendly, local-driven results using keywords and Google Maps. When you work with a digital marketing company, they can help build your local SEO checklist and get you an excellent return on your investment.
Build Specific Pages to Drive Local Traffic
As mentioned, you want to target local users. An excellent way to do that is with targeted local pages. Your contact page should have the business location, name, exact address, and phone number. If you have multiple stores, it might be beneficial to have landing pages for each place. However, businesses can list the websites’ addresses to drive more local traffic for less than ten sites.
Make Sure Your Contact Info is Highly Visible
There are two reasons for this suggestion. One, the keyword-specific terms will drive visitors naturally.Second, users don’t want to search all over for contact information. People are finicky, if they can’t find what they want quickly, they’ll leave, and you’ll see your website’s bounce rate increase. A skilled web designer can ensure your business’s contact information is highly visible while still looking great and not overdone.
Create Local Content
Develop blogs and landing pages geared for local users. By simply using keywords related to your city and business, you can rank higher in local searches. If you provide services that depend on location, content should reflect it. Consumers are already localizing their searches.
For example, if you search for plumbers, you’ll get tons of results, but they might not be local. By changing the term to “Albany plumbers,” you may get a few results because several cities have that name. Local search terms need to be specific. Create content that meets that need for consumers. Use keywords like plumbers in Albany, NY.
However, don’t switch it up some. Include terms like “residential plumbers in Albany, NY” or “licensed plumbers in Albany, NY.” Also, consider using “near” along with “in” if it’s a smaller region. Google doesn’t like to see the exact terms repeated over and over. Make sure to use unique phrases and include nearby cities to increase regional traffic.
Optimize Metadata
SEO has grown over the past two decades. It’s more than great content with specific words. You need to optimize everything from your landing, product, and contact pages to the metadata and coding. An SEO company can draw users to your site and keep them there to lower your bounce rate. Meta title tags and descriptions are part of Google’s core algorithm and shouldn’t be left out of the local SEO checklist.
Encourage On- and Off-Site Reviews
Positive reviews that are authentic and focus on your service or products are ideal for boosting local search results. Always encourage customers to leave reviews. To increase the number of ways to get reviews, take advantage of local websites that feature user-generated testimonials. List your company on sites like,
- Zagat
- Bing Places
- Yelp
- Google My Business
If you don’t have the time or experience to build and update these profiles, a digital advertising firm can add this as part of a total SEO package.
Provide Excellent In-Store Service
A marketing agency can’t assist with the little things you do for your customers’ in-store experience that boosts online traffic. Stress to employees the importance of customer service and going the extra mile to make every customer happy. These consumers provide repeat business, excellent word-of-mouth references. They often leave bang-up customer reviews on your page and your social media profiles.
Your local SEO checklist is essential to boosting organic traffic to your website. Digital flow to your social media pages and webpages can increase foot traffic to brick-and-mortar locations. To attract in-store customers, dazzle them with your web skills. For helpachieving outstanding results, contact Atalos Web.