How to Leverage Local SEO for Small Businesses

As a small business owner, your primary goal is to get more sales and revenue. You want your business to be found on the search engine results page, compete with your local and larger competitors, and build trust and credibility with potential customers. However, you probably need help figuring out where to start. That's where local SEO for small businesses comes in. 

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO is a step-by-step process of optimizing a website and its online presence to attract more local customers and increase visibility in local search results. It involves a set of techniques and strategies to improve a website's ranking in local search results, such as Google Maps, Google My Business, Yelp, Bing Places, and other local directories.

Local SEO for small businesses typically involves optimizing a website's content, meta tags, URLs, and backlinks with relevant local keywords and location-based information. It also involves managing and optimizing a business's online reputation, encouraging customer reviews, and ensuring consistent and accurate information across all online platforms.

Why is Local SEO Important?

According to a recent survey, 58% of users search for products online daily, and 89% hunt for one or more items weekly. Among them, 72% of the people choose a store within a periphery of five miles. In addition, a local SEO for small businesses incorporates a regional collaboration. People with the same interests participate, discuss, and mingle on your social media page, service page, blog page, or the forum page of your business.

According to BrightLocal's most recent local consumer survey, 76% of users read online reviews when browsing for local businesses. Local SEO is non-negotiable for small businesses because, in the long run, it helps attract more local customers who are likely to visit your physical location or purchase online.

Here is why local SEO is necessary for small businesses:

Increases visibility on SERPs: Local SEO for small businesses helps your business appear in local search results, which means more people will see your business online.

Build Trust and Boosts Credibility: When your business appears in local search results, it adds credibility, making people more likely to trust and engage with it.

Attracts more customers: Local SEO helps attract more local customers who are more likely to purchase your products or services.

Increases online and offline sales: Local SEO for small businesses helps drive more customers to your website and physical location, which can result in more sales.

Lowering marketing costs: Local SEO is more cost-effective than other forms of advertising, such as print or TV ads, and delivers better results.

Now that you understand why local SEO is essential for small businesses let's consider how to implement it.

How To Setup and Optimize Your Website with Better Local SEO?

Step 1: Claim and Optimize Your Business on Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile provides a free tool to create and manage your local business listing online. By claiming and optimizing your Google Business profile, you can help your business appear in local search results and Google Maps. Then, you turn people who find your business online into loyal customers.

To claim your Google Business Profile, follow these steps:

1. Go to Google Business Profile and sign in with your Google account.
2. Click "Get started" and enter your business name and address.
3. Choose the appropriate category for your business and add your phone number and website.
4. Verify your business by mail, phone, or email.

Once you've verified your business, you can add more information to your Google My Business listing, such as photos, hours of operation, booking URLs and reviews.

Optimizing your Google My Business listing will help your web pages rank higher in local search results, so be sure to provide as much information as possible and keep it up to date.

Step 2: Optimize Your Website for Local SEO

Your website is a crucial part of your local SEO strategy. Optimizing your web pages for local SEO can help your business appear on the search results page and attract more local customers.

Here is how you can optimize your  website for local SEO:

1. Include your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) on every page of your website.
2. Use local keywords in your website, such as city or neighborhood name.
3. Create location-specific pages on your website for each of your physical locations.
4. Include customer reviews and testimonials on your website, as they can help boost your credibility and attract more customers.
5. Ensure your website is mobile-friendly, as many people search for products and services on their smartphones.
6. Use proper structured data or schema markup to help search engines understand your website content and improve your visibility in search results.

Step 3: Build Local Citations and Backlinks

Local citations and backlinks are essential for local SEO. A citation is any mention of your business's name, address, and phone number on other websites, while a backlink is a link from another website to your website. Both can help improve your business's visibility in local search results.

To build local citations and backlinks, you can do the following:

1. Submit your business to online directories like Yelp, Yellow Pages, and Angie's List. Make sure your NAP is consistent across all directories.
2. Get listed in local business associations, chambers of commerce, and other local organizations.
3. Contact local bloggers and journalists and ask them to feature your business in their content.
4. Guest post on other local business websites and include a link back to your website.
5. Sponsor local events or charities and get listed on their websites.
6. Ask customers to leave reviews on Google My Business and other review sites.

Building local citations and backlinks takes time but can significantly improve your business's visibility in local search results. However, some time-saving platforms can help you submit your business thoughts to all the available business listing directories based on your product or service categories. You can edit your business information in one place and get consistent and correct business data in all directories simultaneously.

Here are our top 5 Essential Local SEO & Listing Management Platforms

1. Semrush Semrush provides full-featured Local SEO solutions. You can submit your business automatically to the most authoritative directories(70+ for the US, 40+ for other countries). The local listing starts from $20/month.
2. Yext Yext offers various local SEO solutions for your business by integrating with hundreds of local directories. You can manage your web page and customer review from a single dashboard. Pricing starts from $16/month.
3. BrightLocal BrightLocal is a comprehensive local listing and rank-tracking tool that allows you to check your local listing health and optimize for better ranking. For a single business, pricing starts from $29/month.
4. Moz Local Moz Local SEO tool is one of the most popular platforms that allow you to check missing listing opportunities and ensure your online listings are current and consistent. You can also monitor and manage reviews from a single dashboard. Moz Local Plans start from $14/month.
5. Whitspark Whitspark is another popular Local SEO tool well known for being local rank tracking and reputation builder. It offers three free searches/per day. Small business local citation plan starts from $33/month.

Step 4: Use Social Media for Local SEO

Social media can also help improve your business's local SEO. Creating and optimizing social media profiles for your business can attract more local customers and improve your online presence.

Here are some valuable tips for using social media for local SEO:

1. Create and optimize social media profiles for your business on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
2. Post regularly on social media and include local keywords in your posts.
3. Use local hashtags to make your posts more discoverable to local customers.
4. Interact with other local businesses and organizations on social media to increase your visibility.
5. Use social media to promote local events or promotions and attract more customers.

Social media can help your business reach a broader audience and attract more local customers, so make sure to include it in your local SEO strategy.

Step 5: Monitor and Analyze Your Local SEO Efforts

Finally, monitoring and analyzing your local SEO efforts is essential to see what's working and what's not. You can make informed decisions about your local SEO strategy by tracking your website traffic, search rankings, and online reviews.

Here are some tools and metrics to track your local SEO efforts:

Google Analytics: Track website traffic, user behavior, and conversions on your website.

Google Search Console: Monitor your website's search performance and identify issues that may be affecting your visibility in search results.

Google My Business Insights: Track how customers are finding and interacting with your Google My Business listing.

Online review sites: Monitor and respond to customer reviews on Google My Business, Yelp, and other review sites.

If you regularly monitor and analyze local SEO efforts, you can adjust and improve your strategy and continue attracting more local customers.

The last word on local SEO for small business

Local SEO is essential for small business success, particularly if you have a physical location. By claiming and optimizing your Google Business profile, optimizing your website for local SEO, building local citations and backlinks, using social media for local SEO, and monitoring and analyzing your efforts, you can attract more local customers and improve your online presence. It may take time and effort, but the benefits of local SEO are well worth it for small business owners. 

If you are overwhelmed in completing the process mentioned above, feel free to contact us today to get started with Local SEO for your business. Our SEO experts are here to help.