In order to rank locally, businesses need to consider their website and how it functions within the search engine results pages (SERPs). While some of the ranking factors are out of your hands, such as the physical location of your business and Google My Business listing, there are many things you can do to improve your local SEO visibility. In this blog post, we will discuss some tips on how to rank your website for local business searches!
Types of SEO
First, we’ll have a quick rundown of the different types of SEO (search engine optimization) before we teach you how to rank your local SEO.
On-Page SEO
On-page SEO is the process of optimising your website’s content and structure to improve your visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs). This can be done by optimising your titles, descriptions, keywords, and images specifically for search engines.
Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO is the process of building links to your website from other websites. This helps improve your visibility in search engine results pages by making your site appear more relevant and authoritative. Off page SEO also includes content marketing, brand building, reviews, forums, and guest blogging.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is the process of optimising your website’s infrastructure to improve its visibility in search engine results pages. This can be done by improving your site speed, mobile responsiveness, and security.
Local SEO
Local SEO strategy is the process of optimising your website for local search ranking. To improve your local SEO efforts effectively as a local business owner, there are several methods you can use. If you want to learn how to soar in the local rankings and better meet the user intent of local searches in your area, follow our local SEO tools and tips below.
Four tips to help rank your local SEO:
Tip 1: Optimise your content for local keywords
One way to improve your local ranking is to optimise your content for local keywords. This means you include city and state names in titles and throughout the body of your content. You should also create separate pages with targeted content such as “best restaurants in [city]”.
Tip 2: Create local citations
Local citations are mentions of your business on other websites, such as local directories, review sites, and news outlets. These citations help improve your visibility in local search results and can also lead to increased traffic to your website.
Tip 3: Build backlinks from other local businesses
Backlinks are links from other websites that point back to your website. They are one of the most important ranking factors for SEO and can help improve your visibility in search results.
Tip 4: Make sure your NAP is consistent
Your NAP (name, address, phone number) should be consistent across all of your online listings. This helps Google verify your business listing and can improve your ranking in local search results.
A bit more explanation
How do I choose local keywords?
Local keywords are terms or phrases that include a location, such as a city, state, or region. For example, if you were optimising your content for local SEO in Brisbane, you might use the keyword phrase “best restaurants in Brisbane.” Including local keywords in your content helps Google understand where your business is located and makes it more likely to show up in search results for those terms. To choose the best local keywords, you need to understand what product or service you offer that people might be searching for and then add the local tag to the beginning or end of the phrase. Do you offer dentistry? Try “Dentistry Brisbane” keywords. Are you a commercial law firm? Try “Commercial lawyers Brisbane” keywords.
How do I create local citations?
A local citation is any mention of your business on another website. This could be a listing in an online directory, a review on a review site, or a mention in a news article. Creating citations can help improve your visibility in local search results and can also lead to increased traffic to your website. To get started with local citations, you can create listings on popular directories such as Yelp, Google My Business, and Facebook. You can also reach out to local media outlets and ask them to mention your business in their articles.
How do I get a backlink?
In order to build backlinks, you can reach out to other websites in your industry and ask them to link to your website. You can also submit your website to online directories and review sites. However, it’s important that you don’t have backlinks on just any old website. To make the most out of your backlinking, you need to ensure that you have high quality links on reputable sites that Google won’t penalise.
How do I ensure I have NAP consistency?
You can check your NAP by doing a search for your business name and looking at the listings that come up. If you see multiple listings with different information, you will need to update each one so that they are all the same.
By following these tips, you can improve your local SEO ranking and visibility, which will lead to more traffic and local customers for your business.
Good luck with your local SEO!