Here, we are going to discuss what is local SEO and how to do it as a beginner. Local SEO is generally for local businesses that need to show their business in local searches.
It might possible that you have not heard about local SEO as a beginner, don’t worry we will cover this topic here. So, without wasting further time let’s jump to what is local SEO.
What is Local SEO for beginners?
Local SEO is a part of SEO strategies that local business follows to show their business on in local search results. Any business that serves a geographic area and appears in google search results uses local SEO.
Local SEO is an essential marketing tool for local businesses to attract more customers.
For example, when you search in google for “shoe stores near you” or any keywords which include geo-targeting keywords, then in the results you get some local businesses located near to you according to your location. The search result includes a map with 3 listings appearing under it, this is known as mappack.
Types of business that needs local SEO
- Real Estate companies
- Medical stores or service providers
- Hair salons
- Stores
- Bars and Restaurants
- Coffee shops
- Non-Profit organisations
- Museums
- Colleges and universities
- Local Marketing agencies
- Government offices and agencies
- Local Contractors
- Or any other local business
These are the business types that generally need local SEO to show their listing in local search results.
Benefits of Local SEO
There are too many benefits of Local SEO, the first and the most important thing is increased traffic, also it will increase your sale or the service you provide. When you got more traffic, your business will grow faster.
Let’s discuss some of the key benefits of local SEO
- Increased traffic potential
- Chance of getting relevant traffic increased
- Website authority will increase
- Getting more customers review
- Your brand value will increase
How to do Local SEO as a beginner?
Some steps to be taken while you are doing local SEO either for your business or your client. Follow and complete the steps one by one.
GEO-specific Keywords Research
I hope you know how to do keyword research, but if you don’t know you can visit our blog post “What is Keywords Research and how to do it as a beginner”. The first step is to perform keywords research and collect all main Geo-targeting keywords for your business, don’t know about Geo-targeting keywords visit “different types of keywords” to get some info about this.
Conduct Competitor keyword research
When you are doing local SEO, your main goal is not only to rank in local search but also to outrank your competitor. For doing this you need to know which keywords they are targeting.
Make sure to target only those keywords which are relevant to your business. So, you will get relevant traffic for your site.
Optimize Google My Business Listing
After doing keyword research, you are all set to go to the next step. In this step, you have to optimize your GMB listing. A well-optimized will have the chance of getting ranked higher than compared to less optimized.
For optimizing your listing, make sure to fill about section, contact information, hours, and days of working if applied. Your listing should have some pictures of your business and some positive reviews.
Creating and implementing On-page SEO
Audit your website and check for all errors and solve them one by one, you can use any free or paid tool for doing this. Here are some of the on-page issues that sites generally have.
- Slow Speed
- Missing page title and meta description
- Broken Links
- Duplicate or Plagiarism content
- XML sitemap and Robots.txt
- SSL certificate
- Mobile Optimization
Now, let’s implement this on-page for your website so that your website will rank in google search.
- Keywords Mapping
- Title and Meta Description
- Content creation
- Internal Linking
- Image Optimization
- URL optimization
Create and Optimize Localized Landing Pages
Localized Landing Pages are the pages that are created to target a specific local area. For optimizing these pages, we use Geo-specific keywords and include informative content.
Submitting Business info to local directories
After creating and optimizing local landing pages we can submit our business to local online directories. There are too many online directories available online which allow you to submit your business information with them, you can use any of them.
If possible, try to find those directories which are most relevant to your business category and avoid spammy sites.
Link Building strategy
Link building is always an important aspect of SEO, but in local SEO our link-building approach is a little different. Here, we try to get links for other businesses in the local area or geographic area. When we create links, we have to determine the physical location of the site which we try to link with our site.
Some ways to earn links:
- Directory submission
- Guest Posting
- Outreach
Generating positive customer review
In GMB, the quantity of positive reviews matters a lot. It is a significant ranking factor in local SEO. For getting a higher rank our goal is to get as positive reviews from our customers as much as possible. You can ask your customers to review your service and also send emails asking them to review your listing.
Conclusion:
Here we have discussed what is local SEO, why local SEO is important for local businesses, and some other aspects of local SEO. I hope you all got an idea about Local SEO and how to do this.
Thanks for reading this and if you have any questions please let me know.