Local SEO, if done right, can attract a huge amount of fresh leads and traffic through searches. How many times have you typed phrases like "near me" or "in [your city name]" into your search engine? Most probably the pages which popped up were optimized for local SEO and here to win your business over. Know more....
This next critical step in revealing your business to your target market, if you so happen to sell products and services to your city, will be to optimize your website for local search engine optimization.
Do you want some help with your local SEO to rank higher than your closest competitors? Learn what local SEO is, and how you can build a winning local SEO strategy in just a few steps, with our new local SEO guide.

What Is Local SEO?
Local SEO, when done correctly, will bring so many new leads and traffic just from existing. Think of all the times you have typed in a query phrase to include "near me" or "in [your city name]". More than likely, the pages that came up were local SEO-optimized and were simply waiting out there to catch your eye and business.
Optimize your website for local SEO for that mileage boost in your business, especially if you happen to sell something and services in a city.
Do you need help in local SEO that puts you ahead of your closest competition? Find out what local SEO is and how to set up a winning local SEO strategy by reading our local SEO guide.
How Does Local SEO Work?
At a very high level, local SEO works much like "regular" Google search.
Google scans its index in response to a search and returns the best possible matches for that user's query.
What is different with local SEO, however is that Google uses a totally different set of ranking factors to rank the local search results.
In fact, Local SEO has its very own unique set of ranking signals.
• Location of individual searching from
• NAP citations
• Listing exists in Google Business Profile
• Keywords in Google Business Profile profile
• Online reviews sentiment
• Keywords used in online reviews
• "check-ins" at that location
• Social media shares
• Google Maps star rating for that business
Why does a business care about local SEO?
A local SEO strategy helps companies considerably, especially when its customers belong to a specific geographic region. Here's why, in three steps:
Customer habits
You'd crack open the Yellow Pages if you were looking for a locally owned business decades ago. Do not you recall those? Today, 86 percent rely on the Web to lead them to local businesses, and you will only find a Yellow Pages directory in a classic film shot during the 80's or 90's.
In other words, customer behavior is changing. In order to fix that leaky faucet, we must call in that plumber to come and repair it. Using Google, we are hoping to find a pretty good professional. If our kids need new soccer cleats, we call Bing for the nearest sporting goods store.
The thing is that your business will pop up only in search engine results and attract new clients if you have a good local SEO strategy in place. Otherwise, the competitors will come first, and take your business. That being said, you have to develop a more localized SEO approach to reach those local searchers.
Quality traffic
Website traffic, in and of itself, doesn't make money. Quality website traffic is what you want-meaning visitors who are really interested in the products and/or services you sell and might be interested in purchasing from you now or at some future date.
Because your business would then be seen and noticed by your target prospects who are already online searching for the things you offer, a local SEO strategy will then be able to push this kind of traffic.
Think about it: If someone puts "best CPA in Sacramento," he is searching for a professional accountant in Sacramento who can do his taxes or counsel him on other financial issues. In that regard, a CPA can get good clients willing to invest in his services to appear on the search engine results for this query and gets it free from local SEO.
Less competition
Finally, you will find it much more straightforward to rank in local searches than in global ones, which will give your local business a chance to compete with the mega-brands and win. It doesn't matter whether there is a Walmart or Best Buy in your town-you can still compete against those outlets.
Crazy, right? Only 56% of local businesses have registered for their Google Business Profile listing-one of the key components of local SEO that we'll talk about later in further detail. In this context, a local SEO strategy will also position you ahead of other small and medium-sized businesses at your location targeting exactly the same kind of audience.
How to optimize for local SEO
Local SEO sounds pretty wild and mysterious-it can be tamed or is the great Google beast too insurmountable? The word tame is a strong one in this context, yet there are indeed proven means of keeping the almighty search engine behaving the way you want it to, out-ranking your competitors. Here is a quick guide on local SEO, which we shall go through below. Let's just take these steps and push our chances for ranking higher in local search to attract those good local customers.
1. Create your Google Business Profile page Google is the largest and most important search engine in the world—and it's not even close. (Sorry Bing!) 92.41% of the search engine segment is controlled by Google. For this reason, we highly encourage using ALL of the tools at your disposal to ensure your company appears in Google search results.
Google Business Profile is a free application of business listing. Google said to add a local business into Google Maps, it will display photos of storefronts and products-easily connects them with a broad band of potential buyers in a given geographic location.
Just follow the directions that Google gives you to create your Google Business Profile profile-that should get you pretty far. Just keep in mind these tips, too:

1. You MUST use your full name, address, and phone number (i.e., your "NAP") consistently on all of your listings online.
2. You will choose three to five categories that focus on the services you offer rather than the outcome you help your customer achieve.
3. Your description will be between 100 and 200 words-description long enough to allow users to understand the basic company information but short enough to fit within minuscule attention spans. 2. Keywords Now, we are going to pick- and make use of! strategic keywords. A keyword is one specific word or phrase that an internet user will type into a search engine. For example, if somebody seeks ice cream shops near Boise, ID, he might simply search for "best ice cream in my town" using Google. Your task as a small business owner and/or operator is to find the keywords that your specific customers use, then to optimize for those. There are a number of approaches to finding relevant keywords. One is to brainstorm all of the words and phrases which your customers might use to describe your business. So, if you happen to be a pet supply merchant, the keywords might be "dog food," "pet store," and "Desert Iguana.". Once you have that enormous list of keywords, then it's time to bring out the big guns: keyword software. A free option is Google Keyword Planner. For something a little more powerful, check something like SEMrush. These solutions will reveal critical keywords you didn't consider, plus give you volume and competition data about your list of phrases. Now choose the actual keywords you are going to be optimizing for. We would suggest targeting some keywords that drive a decent number of searches (70+ a month) and are not overly competitive so it won't take a miracle for you to rank for them. 3. Get citations and links Okay, now that we have a keyword to work with, it's time to get some citations and links to your website. Just so we are on the same page. A citation is earned when your business' NAP information appears in an online directory. Great examples are Houzz, Yelp, and AngiesList, and even your local chamber of commerce. When you're accumulating citations be aware of the fact that your NAP is the same throughout each directory. Every time a web site links to another, a link is created. Links can come from any kind of online directory, blog posts, pages, and numerous other sources. Reach out to other businesses in your neighborhood, suppliers, and business partners, in a bid to establish organic link swaps. Then search for where your competitors are obtaining their links using Moz Link Explorer or Ahrefs. Finally, contact them with a reason compelling enough for them to link to your site as well- or instead. 4. Local Great Content Your local SEO strategy is cooking! Well, it is long overdue that you produce some quality content, which will support your appearance in the search results, drive visitors to your site, and transform passive browsers into paying customers who trust your brand. Easier said than done, but BUT we do have a few tips for you • From the Keywords: Let's not forget all the keywords you brainstormed in the first step. Not done with them yet! Think content-featuring blogs, YouTube videos, podcast episodes, and more-based on these topics and phrases. •Write for the human, not the robot: Keywords are important, but they are certainly not the end-all. Keyword stuffing will harm your local SEO strategy in fact. Develop content easy to consume and then sprinkle in keywords appropriate places. • Location-specific content: This is the best way to create long-tail keyword rankings. This does apply to making your content really relevant to the target customers and serve to fulfill their specific needs in your area. • Internal and External Links: The more you link to other relevant content on both other sites and your own, the more you're signaling to search engines that your site is trustworthy. Just be sure that your anchor text is relevant to what you're linking to. • Promote your content: Once you have created your blog, video, or podcast, you will want to share it with your email list, social media, or your mom… Get as much eyeball exposure on it as possible. This way, you can demonstrate to search engines that your material is not a bad guy. All the local SEO tricks in the world won't do you much good if your content sucks. Take the time to write great pieces, and you'll be rewarded by higher search engine rankings. 5. Encourage customer reviews Customer reviews are a big deal when it comes to your local SEO strategy for two reasons:
4. They demonstrate to search engines that your business actually exists.
5. They build trust in your company for potential customers to do business with. So, how do you get reviews? And how do you ensure those reviews are of a certain quality? And what platform should you even focus on trying to get reviews on? Oops, that was three questions… We're going to answer them each in the order they were asked: First of all, how do you obtain the review? Just ask, quite honestly, probably the easiest way. Then make it as easy as possible for them to follow through by sending a direct link to the platform that you'd like them to review your business on. Fear of bad reviews? Don't be-actually, you shouldn't be -if you treat your customers right and try to ensure you make an excellent experience for them. So do more than everyone else for your customer so that they can have nothing good but something terrific about you to say. Lastly, what review platform do you best? It depends on your goals, but if we had to choose, it'd be Google. Why? It is simple, Google is the largest search engine, by far, accounting for 86.86% of the global search market. 6. Use local SEO tools for reporting To really tap into all the value, you can get from your local SEO, you will need to monitor its performance and consequently analyse the results. Reporting and evaluation are also quite important aspects whenever you try to apply some marketing strategy of any type you may implement. Besides Google, there are a lot of other local SEO tools you can apply to bring your business to top ranks in the result stream your target audience is going to look at. And for free, you've got responsible Google Analytics and Google Search Console, which offer pretty informative information about online performances. More advanced and worthy tools, for a richer approach include premium options like Ahrefs and Semrush, including every cutting-edge feature and very detailed analytics. You can use these kinds of tools to keep tabs on your local SEO. You will know where your keywords rank within the top results, the amount of traffic you're getting, and the metrics that are most important to your business. 7. Optimize Your Approach Monitoring and analyzing your approach is the final piece to a successful strategy for local SEO. Are your efforts moving the needle? Not? If not, why? If you can see what doesn't work, then you can go out there and make some necessary adjustments. Conversedly, if you know what works, you're going to be replicating your winning strategies. The only way to learn what works and what doesn't is by digging into the data. We also advise you to continue monitoring your competition so you would be aware of how to learn from their mistakes and successes and how you can stand out positively as different. Reach your local audience An effective local SEO strategy will reach more customers in your locality with a relatively low cost of marketing. It's a win-win! But to gain from this boon, you'll need to follow the seven-step system we established in this article as below:
6. Google Business Profile page
7. Keywords
8. Citations and links
9. Good content
10. Customer reviews
11. Reporting with local SEO tools
12. Optimization of your strategy 97 percent of customers will check the web presence of a business before visiting them. Therefore, once you have put in place these local SEO tips, you are bound to increase the web profile of your business, reach more potential leads, and promote your business. Good luck!

"If you're not taking care of your local SEO, you're losing out on business."

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