Content Summary:
- The golden rule in local SEO is to make yourself easily discoverable and visible to these people.
- Using the GMB platform will improve SEO.
- Contact Information – Name, address, and phone numbers (NAP optimization) are crucial for local SEO.
- Local Content – Create local content.
- If you need help with local marketing or wish to speed up your results, call Valorous Circle.
What Is the Golden Rule of SEO?
When people are looking for businesses near them, in their city, or using the ‘near me’ service on search engines, they want solutions as close as possible. The golden rule in local SEO is to make yourself easily discoverable and visible to these people.
SEO has been and continues to be an effective strategy for smaller businesses to compete with larger companies in a local arena. If you are focusing on clients from your neighborhood or even your city, this is a powerful strategy that can easily put you far ahead of your competition. Here is what you need to know.
You want to make it easy for them to navigate their way to your base of operations. Here are a few important things you can do to improve overall local SEO and then a few more to really dial in local SEO efforts so you are doing everything you can to achieve the Golden Rule.
How Can You Improve Local SEO?
Local SEO relies on a few different things. Some are common to SEO in general, but some are unique to a local strategy.
Local Keywords
Short-tail keywords with a global audience will always be challenging to rank on. However, if you can focus on long-tail keywords that specifically target a certain area, you will have more luck. These are less competitive yet more relevant for your kind of business and SEO objectives.
Reviews
Reviews play a pivotal role in helping buyers decide whom they want to do business with. But they also play an important role in local SEO. Search engines prefer activity, and a business that is engaging in reviews is more likely to earn the top spot on the search results page rather than one that does nothing with reviews. Interact with reviews often.
On-Page
On-page optimization involves tweaking the features of individual pages on your website to make them easier for search engines to understand. Adjusting things like the meta description, image alt text, heading structure, and schema will help you rank better.
Google My Business Listing
Using the GMB platform will improve SEO. If you haven’t already set this up, you can claim it if Google has automatically made one for your business, or you can develop it from scratch. Ensure you are providing all the necessary information along with plenty of pictures and additional information, so search engines and users get the most information about your business.
How to Improve the Golden Rule
To improve your business’s findability, here is what you should focus on.
Contact Information – Name, address, and phone numbers (NAP optimization) are crucial for local SEO. Make sure the NAP information is consistent across your GMB, website, social media presence, and all other platforms.
Mobile Optimization – The bulk of your traffic will be coming from mobile devices. If you aren’t optimized for mobile, your rankings will suffer on search engine results for queries from mobile devices.
Local Links – Backlinks always help, but for local SEO, you are specifically looking for local backlinks. Backlinks from businesses, even competitors, that are within the same physical area as your business.
Local Content – Create local content. You need to show search engines and your users that you aren’t just any expert; you are a local expert.
With these things taken care of, you can easily dominate local SEO. However, creating content just once doesn’t solve the problem. SEO is an ongoing process, and you need to keep at it to stay in the number 1 spot. If you need help with local marketing or wish to speed up your results, call Valorous Circle. We have proven methods based on years of experience that will help your business rake in leads.
