Optimizing a website for local SEO practices will highlight that a website appears in the top rankings in local search results. If you want your business or brand to take the top positions in local SERPs, there are a few things you need to consider.
What does a local search look like? For example, if you’re looking for a specific service, you would enter:
- Dentists near me
- Cafes near me
- Pizza places in London
Perhaps you are now thinking why local SEO is so relevant to your business? We have therefore put together some findings here to make it easier for you to understand Why should you optimize for local searches?
Local searches are a key element of SEO in 2021
As mentioned earlier, local SEO is still a key strategy in the New Year. Here are some local search numbers to prove it:
- A huge 50% of people who did a local search on their cell phone visited a store the next day.
- Approximately 34% of users who performed this search on a computer or tablet also visited a physical store the following day.
- 50% of those searches on a phone are looking for a business address.
- Overall, every third search was carried out on a smartphone shortly before visiting the store.
Local keywords rank better in Google
Online customers can better search for business information or services in a specific area. Therefore, it is easier for your company to rank locally than nationally for your selected keywords. Redirecting your efforts towards local keywords will improve your SEO by reaching a specific geographic audience.
Local quotes will help you improve your company’s visibility and local rankings
Simply put – this will bring more traffic to your website. A great way to take advantage of your local visibility is to create local quotes. A local online quote consists of a mention of your company (your company name, full address, contact details, etc.) in a relevant online directory. These websites can be Foursquare or Yelp.
Local search engine optimization can convert online searches into more leads
As mentioned above, most of the time a prospect visits a physical store, they will do a local search on their phones. Hence, the largest percentage of this traffic is directed to the websites that are displayed above the SERPs. These are the local businesses that benefit from local searches. Making the most of local SEO practices can help you get the most out of your business and make it more attractive to online users looking for a product or service in your industry. This leads to more sales for your company.
On-site optimizations increase your traffic for relevant search queries
Optimizing your landings for local SEO brings huge benefits to your business. If you want to improve your rankings, you need to make sure that you are constantly implementing your website as needed.
Since mobile searches have proven to be the key to local searches, it is also mandatory to optimize your website for mobile use. Due to Google’s Mobile First Index update, both the desktop and mobile versions must have the same content.
All of this means that your site must meet a few requirements when optimizing for local search:
- Your website must have a bespoke, mobile-friendly design.
- Do regular keyword searches to make sure the content you offer is updated.
- Use the correct keywords for your content (H1, H2s, etc.).
- Monitor your local keywords to see if you need to make changes.
When you focus on local content, you stand out from the local competition
One of the things that will benefit you the most with local rankings is creating content that is specific to a particular geographic area. For example, creating different landing pages for specific districts or cities that contain relevant keywords will improve the position of your sites locally.
In summary, it is clear that creating a strong and solid SEO strategy is relevant to getting you in front of your customers. Don’t see local SEO as a small business issue only, as large companies can benefit from on-site optimization too.
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