Local SEO Techniques For Businesses in 2024

Local SEO is important for small businesses. If your business isn’t optimized for local search, you could miss out on potential customers who search the internet with local terms to determine which products and services to buy.

In short, if you want your business to stay relevant, you need local SEO.

If you own a local online business or your physical business has an online marketing strategy and you want to know how to optimize it for local SEO, there’s no need to worry.

This post covers everything you need to know about Local Search Engine Optimization.

We also shared the 9 best local SEO techniques for businesses.

What Is Local SEO?

Local SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of making local businesses, especially those with brick-and-mortar locations, more visible in search engines.

Google and other search engines figure out what to show users based on where they are (current location) and what they search for.

By following the best techniques for local SEO, businesses can get more organic traffic from searches done by local customers.

With local SEO, small and medium scale businesses can effectively position their products and services to be easily located by local customers and prospects who are searching for them.

Local SEO Tips For Businesses

Here are the top 9 ways you can use to make your local SEO technique successful and enhance your local search rankings:

Create and optimize a Business profile on Google

Google Business profile optimization is one of the best ways to rank higher in Google local search results and on Google Maps.

Once you set up your Google Business profile and you connect it to your business name and location, your business will automatically appear on Google maps and Google’s search local results.

To optimize your Google Business listing, make sure you:

• Set up a Google Business profile;
• Provide accurate information;
• Include your logo, the products or services you sell, mode of payment, business opening hours, and lots of pictures;
• Ask your customers to write online reviews of your business;
• Respond promptly and sincerely to all customer reviews;
• Use the Google Business dashboard to post about products, events, and special offers on your Business profile.

Ensure your business name, address, email, and phone number are the same across all channels

Ensure you make it easy for search engines and prospective customers to find you online by using a consistent business name, address, and phone number across all online channels.

To successfully achieve this, you need to set up your NAP (Name, Address, and Phone number with area code) using HTML text on your website.

Don’t make the common mistake of only putting the NAP in an image.

Search engines can’t crawl images like they can HTML text. The NAP is usually put in the header or footer of the site.

Get relevant and authoritative inbound links

Inbound links are a great way to improve your local SEO.

Each one tells Google that you’re a legitimate business, and they can also raise your domain authority.

Here are some ways to get links to your site:

• Partnerships or Sponsorships;
• Guest Blog Posting;
• Scholarships.

Ensure your website works well on mobile devices

Both mobile search and local search optimization attract excellent results to your business.

For instance, 61 percent of all Google searches are performed on mobile.

Therefore, you must make it easy for potential customers and clients to use your site by making it mobile-friendly.

Use location-specific “About Us” page

If your business has more than one location in a particular area, then you must use location-specific “About Us” Pages or location pages. These pages need to capture one or all of the following:

• Business name, phone number, and address;
• Business operation hours;
• business or service description;
• Promotions;
• Testimonials;
• Google map attached to each location.

You can read how to write location pages for your business here.

Leverage online business directories and local directories

Online directories are especially great for you if you also have a brick-and-mortar store.

Putting your business’s name, address, and phone number in these directories will not only make your business more visible but will also help your local SEO.

Ensure you describe your business accurately and follow the same tips we gave you for Google Business.

Get high-quality backlinks and link signals

To improve your local SEO, you need to do local link building, but the quality of those links is important.

Therefore, here are some ideas on how to get good backlinks:

• Make sure your site has good content that people will want to link to;
• Guest blog on sites with high domain authority and a good reputation;
• Engage with local influencers on social media or via email to get them to link back to you.

Create a separate web page for each product or service you sell

Although it might be tempting to put all of your products and services on one big page, don’t.

Instead, give each unique product or service you offer its own page.

If you put everything on one page, your local SEO will be poor because you will be forced to limit the text for each product/service on the page, which will reduce the page’s authority. This hurts your chances of ranking well for any of the products.

If you’re a business with multiple locations but the same products or services, just change the copy on each page to reflect all the locations. This will also enhance your results for local searches.

Do local keyword research to improve your local SEO

Most of the time, a shortlist of keywords that people use to find your local business is all you need to get started for local Search Engine Optimization. Local keywords research will let you know the terms people in your location are using to search for your business, product, or service. When you are aware of local keywords, it can also encourage you to create local content that will improve local SEO and bring you more local customers.

Conclusion

Local search engine optimization is an important SEO technique for local businesses. It will help prospective customers locate you easily when they search for your products and services online, especially if you have a service area or store. We hope the information we provided in this article gives you a better understanding of how to optimize your business website to reach prospective customers who search online before making any buying decision.