Top 7 Local Business SEO Techniques in 2024
Local business SEO techniques become crucial for smaller businesses targeting a regional market instead of a national one. Unlike national SEO, which aims at broader search visibility, local SEO concentrates on securing a prominent spot on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) within a specific location. This approach involves promoting your brand, offerings, and services directly to local leads and customers.
Enhancing your local business SEO techniques translates to increased website traffic, leads, and conversions, as it caters directly to your local customer base. Consider this targeted approach as a means to compete more efficiently against larger national brands with substantial resources. By addressing specific local business SEO techniques, you level the playing field, countering the advantage of bigger brands that often optimize for broader keywords and depend on brand recognition rather than value propositions to attract traffic.
Also read: Top 5 enterprise SEO Challenges and solutions
Let’s learn the best 10 local business SEO techniques in 2024.
Best Local Business SEO Techniques
1. Create a Google Business Profile
The first local business SEO techniques is creating a Google business profile.
Boosting your Google listing or business profile proves highly efficient for achieving a higher rank on Google Maps and increasing visibility in local search results.
To optimize your business profile, you must have a Google My Business account linked to that profile. After supplying the necessary details in your Google Business account dashboard, this information integrates into your business profile, displaying on Google Search local results, the Google Search Knowledge Panel, and Google Maps.
2. Get Regular Reviews from Happy Customers
Encouraging your customers to leave positive reviews not only enhances your Google My Business presence but also inspires more local customers to choose your business.
According to research, 85 percent of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
Encourage customers to leave reviews by asking in person after a sale, sending a post-purchase email, or responding professionally to existing reviews. Screen customers with an internal survey before requesting reviews.
3. Optimize for Voice Search
As voice search continues to surge, local business SEO techniques must adapt to how people verbally pose questions. Optimize for spoken queries, considering how users articulate requests when using voice-activated devices, rather than traditional typed searches.
Customers tend to use longer and more conversational phrases in voice search SEO, favoring a natural tone. To adapt, adjust your content’s SEO to accommodate these spoken queries, incorporating question starters like who, what, when, where, why, and how. This ensures your content aligns with the way people naturally speak during voice searches.
4. Create Content related to Local News or Stories
Creating content that directly addresses local issues is an effective way to capture the attention of your local customers.
To enhance your local business SEO techniques, consider implementing the following strategies:
- Craft blog posts centered on local news, events, or activities.
- Develop videos showcasing your support for local charities or causes.
- Establish webpages dedicated to specific locations you serve, featuring high-quality local content.
For instance, if you run a local real estate business, you can create separate pages for each location. Populate these pages with hyperlocal content, such as updates on news events or shifts in the local real estate market. This approach not only provides valuable information but also improves your chances of ranking for each specific location in search results.
5. Concentrate on Local Keywords
Your chosen keywords should align with the needs and preferences of your local customers. To achieve this, Google’s Keyword Planner becomes a valuable tool, allowing you to refine keyword searches based on specific locations.
By understanding popular local search terms, you can compile a list of relevant keywords for targeting. These selected keywords should then be strategically integrated into your website’s meta content, copy, and URLs.
This tailored approach enhances your visibility in local searches, ensuring your business aligns closely with the interests of the local audience, ultimately driving more relevant traffic to your site.
Check out our SEO services for your businesses.
6. Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly
Optimize your website to be mobile-friendly. Many local searches occur on mobile devices, so having a mobile-responsive website is crucial for local SEO.
A responsive design ensures that your site displays well on various devices, such as smartphones and tablets. Google values mobile-friendly websites and may rank them higher in local search results, providing a better user experience for mobile users looking for local products or services.
Read more: 10 powerful tips to create an SEO-friendly website.
7. Create a Dedicated web page for Every Service or Product
Creating dedicated pages for each of your distinct products or services is a more effective approach than consolidating them into one large page. This strategy allows you to provide detailed information about each offering, optimize content for specific keywords, and enhance the overall relevance of your pages.
When users search for a particular product or service, having dedicated pages increases the likelihood of your site appearing in relevant searches. This focused and organized structure not only improves the user experience but also aids search engines in understanding and ranking your individual offerings accurately.
Conclusion
SEO evolves swiftly, and unexpected changes may arise in Google’s local search features. Staying abreast of local business SEO techniques is crucial.
Implementing these local business SEO techniques ensures your business not only capitalizes on current local search opportunities but also establishes a robust foundation to adapt to future SEO innovations.
Keep your approach flexible and responsive to algorithm updates, algorithm changes, and emerging trends to maintain a competitive edge in local search rankings.