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Local SEO Strategy Guide: How to Rank Where It Counts

My Post (13).pngLots of user traffic from every corner of the world!

Is it always as good as it sounds?

The answer is no.

This is the catch about traffic: if it doesn’t convert to customers and revenue, you are clearly doing something wrong. And this rule is especially true for websites run by local businesses.

For example, does a London cafe’s website need to rank high somewhere in Germany?

Of course not; how would such a site be of any use or relevance to German users?

It’s a waste of time and effort – both of which are worth real money themselves.

That’s why local businesses should optimize their sites to rank locally rather than globally, and why SEO has a specialty called local SEO.

Strap in, this is going to be a long ride.

Who exactly needs optimization for local search?

At first glance, it’s obviously those who want customers to walk through their doors physically.

But those, who conduct business without meeting people face to face, are still going to need local SEO as long as there’s a benefit and opportunity to attract customers from a specific area (whether it’s a single town or an entire country).

Many businesses fool themselves into thinking that, because their products or services are available to a worldwide market, there’s no benefit in specifically doing well in the region where they are located. This is often a mistake.

At its core, local SEO is about two things:

  • Placing your site in the most visible spots in local search.
  • Gaining your target audience’s trust.

And both are perfectly within your reach.

So, is your mind ready for some work? Have you armed yourself with high-quality SEO tools?

Let’s do it, then.

1. Use Local Keywords

Normal search can be described as “find me this thing”. Local search adds an extra component: location.

Users tell the search engines “find me this thing in this place”, and all other places are recognized as irrelevant and filtered from the results.

What remains?

Results that are relevant since they are about that thing in that place.

And because websites rely on keywords to be found via search queries, you can imagine that not just any keywords will do. They will need that extra component.

Examples of local search-friendly keywords:

  • Buy bicycle in London
  • Bicycle store near me
  • Bicycle store near The Ritz
  • Closest bicycle store

You can also try to include local jargon in your keywords. It’s a way to localize them without explicitly naming the place.

That’s how local keywords are different from normal keywords.

What else do you need?

A way to pick the best from the lot.

There are two major factors.

  • Search volume: The number of monthly searches by users. The higher this number, the more users you can potentially attract through search engines, so aim as high as you can.
  • Search intent: A good keyword clearly represents what the users are trying to find. Local keywords are already more specific about that thanks to including a location, but you can increase your chances to attract the users you need by doubling down on details. Compare these two keywords: “buy bicycle in London” and “buy mountain bike in London”. Adding an extra detail signals to potential customers that you have exactly what they want.

Now, with all of the above in mind, all that’s left to do is find the best local keywords for your site. There is a keyword finding tool that can do just that: Keyword Suggestions.

Local SEO Strategy Guide: How to Rank Where It Counts

Type your keyword ideas into the bar and press Search.

The tool will display information on the keyword you entered and suggest many other potential keywords you could use.

It will be up to you to decide which are the best for you.

2. Create Optimized, High-Quality Content

Search engines rank websites based on their overall authority – their reputation, if you will. It’s the sum of all factors that indicate a website’s value to users.

However, users rarely think about most of those factors and only focus on a site’s content. That’s what they see most of the time, after all.

So the question is: what kind of content is valuable and the most likely to make money?

  • Useful: It must offer users solutions to their problems.
  • Informative: It must provide as much information as users might need.
  • Convincing: It must be able to convince users to become your customers.
  • User-friendly: It must be simple to view and use.
  • SEO-friendly: It must be optimized to rank in search engines.
  • Unique: Every page on your site must be one of a kind and not copied from anywhere – not from another site, and not from your own.

You can find all these traits in content that ranks on Google’s first page. The closer it is to the coveted position #1, the more apparent these traits become.

There is no standard to create high-quality content – making a really successful piece often requires inspiration and ingenuity. But there are general tips for SEOing your content that everyone can use.

Help search engines and users understand what your content is about.

Put your keywords in these places on your site’s pages:

  • URLs. Make your URLs short and readable.
  • Page title. It must be unique for every page.
  • Meta description. It, too, must be unique for every page.
  • H1-H4 headings. Don’t just use a slogan without keywords as an H1 tag.
  • Image titles, captions, and ALT attributes.
  • Other text.

If there are poorly optimized pages on your site, find them with the On-Site Issues Overview tool. – Read more

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