Complete Local SEO Checklist

There are many ways to optimize your local SEO, and every day people are searching for small to medium size businesses. You know how it goes right? You need to be found but are not ranking high enough in the search engines. Have you taken the right steps to make sure your website will be found in the SERPS for 2019?

 

1. Target keywords

People are searching for certain keywords and you’ll want them to appear at the top of the search results page for them. The websites at the top positions are the ones that earn the majority of clicks. There are people looking for what you have to offer everyday, so make sure you’re able to be found. One of the issues is that people search Google differently. How does your customer search for your product or service? If you don’t know, you can utilize a Chrome Extension called Keywords Everywhere.

 

2. Optimize For Target Keywords

Once you know the keywords you want to target, find which urls target each phrase or set of associated phrases, and start optimizing the pages on your site around them. Try to aim for 3 to 4 keywords per page. You can always rank for more but it’s best to start off with a few…you can always add more keywords later. Also, Google crawls and indexes the web via URL’s, so your site structure matters for SEO.

 

3. Reviews

Reviews matter so make sure you respond to them. Having great reviews helps even more. Google trusts what your customers have to say. And nowadays consumers trust online reviews as much as they do personal recommendations.  In fact 84% of people trust online reviews as much as friends.

 

 

4. Fast website – optimize for mobile

Local search and mobile are like two peas in a pod.  9/10 smartphone users conduct local searches on their devices. Some ways people will use your website in a mobile world is to look up reviews and find directions to your location, or search for contact information. If your website is mobile friendly than it should be easy for your customers to find you on mobile. To check if you’re optimized for mobile you can validate your site via page speed insights.

 

5. SSL

SSL stands for secure sockets layer. It’s the standard technology for keeping an internet connection secure and safeguarding any sensitive data that is being sent between two systems. It’s the difference between HTTP and HTTPS. 

 

6. Google My Business

Update your Google my business and ask for reviews. Add some high quality photos to your Google My Business page. Your business should have your accurate name, address, and phone number. 

The best way to ask for reviews is to just ask. But making the process easier helps. Use a tool like Google Review Generator. Simply enter the business you want to be reviewed and send a link over in a friendly email. For example:

“We appreciate the trust you place in us for your [your service] and we value you as a [customer/patient], so we want to know how your appointment went.”

A compliment we hold dearly is if you could provide a friendly review on our Google My Business page. Each review is both read and appreciated by our whole team. This short link [enter link] will take you to a review.

7. Citations

Citation is a way to show Google that your website is worth ranking on the first page of search results.

It’s not enough to just have a website with content; you need to tell Google about it. That’s where citations come in. They help Google find your website and place it where it belongs: at the top of the SERP

Citations are a type of link building, but they aren’t links. Instead, they tell Google where your website exists and where to find it with specific keywords.

There are many different types of citations, and each type has its own benefits. For example:

* Local citations can help boost local SEO efforts by telling Google that you are located in a certain city or state (e.g., “we’re located in Las Vegas”).

* Video game reviews can help increase ranking for video game-related searches (e.g., “best Xbox One games”).

* Blog posts can provide additional context around certain topics (e.g., “why we love our customers”).

 

Local SEO Ranking Factors

Moz performed a study and they showed the stats for local organic ranking factors and local pack finder ranking factors.

Below are the organic ranking factors:

1. Link Signals (Inbound anchor text, linking domain authority, linking domain quantity, etc.) 27.94%
2. On-Page Signals (Presence of NAP, keywords in titles, domain authority, etc.) 26.03%
3. Behavioral Signals (Click-through rate, mobile clicks to call, check-ins, etc.) 11.5%
4. Google My Business Signals (Proximity, categories, keyword in business title, etc.) 8.85%
5. Citation Signals (IYP/aggregator NAP consistency, citation volume, etc.) 8.41%
6. Personalization  7.32%
7. Review Signals (Review quantity, review velocity, review diversity, etc.) 6.47%
8. Social Signals (Google engagement, Facebook engagement, Twitter engagement, etc.) 3.47

Source: Moz

 

 

 

 

Local SEO with Multiple Locations

Your site structure should look like this:

 

Locations

– https://www.website.com/locations/first-location

– https://www.website.com/locations/second-location

– https://www.website.com/locations/third-location

 

Additionally, you can add geo-targeted content to show all the reviews and directions for each location.

 

For Example…

 

First Location

– https://www.website.com/locations/first-location/review

– https://www.website.com/locations/first-location/directions

 

Second Location

– https://www.website.com/locations/second-location/review

– https://www.website.com/locations/second-location/directions

 

It will also need to be optimized for local keyword phrases. Your title tag should include the local phrase in front and then some branding (perhaps the company name). Your meta description should also include the location’s target keyword phrase.

Additionaly, you should optimize your content, title tags, and more, with specific keywords.

 

Manage online reviews for each location

Show your customers that you appreciate them and respond kindly to the reviews on Google My Business.

Rank Higher in Local SEO with Brand Sentrik

SEO can be time consuming. With so much competition out there it’s best to stick to what you do best… running your business. Let the pros handle it? Give us a call.

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