50+ business-building local SEO tactics for small and medium-sized businesses

Are you running a local small to medium sized business (SMB)?

If so, you know how difficult it is to be found and to stand out in increasingly competitive search results.

Local SEO strategies need to adapt to new features and algorithm updates by top search engines that influence local search results.

Most of the local SEO tactics fall into the following three categories.

In this column, you’ll find over 50 specific things you can now do to improve your visibility in local search results, broken down into the categories above.

Optimizing Local Listings & Citations

Let’s start with the NAP data (name, address and phone number).

To be listed and ranked on Google Maps, you must be a legal company, and in some areas you need a business license (depending on the type of business you run).

This NAP has to be consistent and the same everywhere, otherwise you will have problems later.

Before you start using local lists and citations, you will also need:

The main strategy for local lists and local citations is to get as many numbers as possible in the right category, with consistent information such as NAP data.

Author’s screenshot, March 2022

Local citations are mentions of a local business that include NAP data. Local citations may or may not link to your site. Basically, there are two strategies for getting local citations:

Taking the time to get local citations yourself can be a really big project, especially if you are active in a competitive industry in your area.

Competitors can have up to hundreds of thousands of local citations, which is almost impossible to do by hand.

If you’re running a local business (SMB) in a fairly uncompetitive market, getting a few local citations manually is a good strategy. In that case, a non-competitive local SEO strategy for local citations is to get these posts:

The last two on the list are industry specific, and you’ll want to search specific directories that are specific to your local business’s industry.

Usually they are easy to find – they rank in the top ten search results (on the first page).

BrightLocal has a list of the best local US citations that it maintains.

Cataloging (and listing) will allow your local business to take advantage of what is often referred to as “Mustache SEO.”

Your business will be placed on pages on other sites that rank well for the specific keyword you’re targeting.

So, for [Dallas carpenters], Google lists sites like Yelp.com, homeadvisor.com, thumbtack.com, houzz.com, and angi.com.

Placing yourself on these sites will attract potential customers as they rank well on Google.

After these local listings have been secured (and verified), your next local SEO strategy is to include major data aggregators on the list. There are three:

Data aggregators will retrieve information about a local business and aggregate it (share it with literally thousands of websites).

Make sure you are using the correct NAP data and website URLs as once data aggregators have captured your data it is difficult to correct and update which may take some time.

Using A Third Party For Local Citations & Listings

Another local SEO strategy is to outsource local citations and listings.

Several third-party companies allow them to be sent local business information (NAP data, short and long descriptions, URLs, etc.) and then use their connections to get that data on other websites.

Many of them have contracts with certain data providers and can successfully obtain hundreds, thousands, even hundreds of thousands of local citations.

These third party services include:

Some of these services are better than others, mainly because of the contracts they have with other websites and their technology.

Some only report to 30 sites, and others, such as Advice Local, will get their local business thousands of local citations, many of which link to the site.

Be wary of third-party websites that create local business cards on behalf of a local business, but do not provide the local business with a login and password for those business cards.

Reviews Are Key

Getting feedback on your local business, especially on Google, will help your rankings and encourage others to visit your business.

People read online reviews, especially for service companies (hotels, resorts, carpet cleaners, home inspectors, carpenters and even car dealerships).

So if your local business is a service or other business where feedback is important, developing a good feedback strategy is crucial.

Local businesses need to ask their customers for feedback and encourage them to do so.

There are many ways to encourage customers to leave a review.

Some companies put a board in their company asking for reviews. Other small and midsize businesses encourage reviews by offering a monthly “reward” to a random reviewer (one local company that I meet with often gives an Apple iPad to a random reviewer once a month).

A local business should respond to reviews as soon as they leave, whether it’s positive or negative.

If it’s a positive review or comment, thank the customer for leaving a review.

If it’s negative, deal with it quickly and suggest taking the issue offline to minimize any future issues and a negative review that gets out of hand.

Even if you miss a review reply, you can reply to reviews left a few months ago.

If a review pops up and you can easily see it, I recommend responding to the review.

Too many local businesses will take the time to review their local business cards, but will not handle the reviews properly and respond in a timely manner.

Local businesses should take the time to develop a review drive strategy, inform employees of the strategy, and designate one or two people to respond to reviews.

Here are some other ways to manage feedback:

Reviews sent directly to the company may be posted on the company’s website (with the consent of the client). Reviews left on a third party website (e.g. Google, Yelp, etc.) cannot be copied and published on the company’s website.

Recently, Google has given extra weight to reviews on third-party sites. So, sites like the one where customers can leave reviews and feedback can potentially help build local rankings on Google:

Another way to get more local reviews is to create a postcard or flyer to give out to your customers.

Tell them you want their opinions and use them to further improve your business.

They can review you on your site or on any of these third-party sites (list the sites you want them to review).

Optimizing Your Local Website’s Content

Without going into too much detail into local site optimization, there are a few local SEO strategies to consider:

Author’s screenshot, March 2022

Optimize For “Near Me” Search Queries

In the past, more people used the word “nearby” in query count, such as [restaurants near me] or [pharmacies near me].

These two search queries assume that the search engine knows where the search engine is located.

Although “close to me” is not necessarily as popular as it was five years ago, it is still used fairly often.

I recommend that you do your own keyword research, specifically to see if “near me” is used in search queries near you.

If there are a large number of searches, you can optimize one or more pages on your site for keywords related to “near me”.

Local Ranking Factors

Advice Local has published a list of local 2021 ranking factors worth reviewing.

In particular, they found that the local SEO experts who contributed to the list of ranking factors said they were important:

A properly optimized GBP offering is the most important “factor” in the ranking.

Therefore, it is important to optimize the listing in the Google company profile.

Reviews are important, as is responding to those reviews.

Then one of the “growing” important factors is the optimization of your website pages, or “On-Page”, mentioned above.

For example, make sure your site has the correct local schema markup and the NAP data exactly matches the information in GBP, especially the name.

Work on getting more backlinks to individual location pages that include “city name + keyword” in your link anchor text.

Be A Local Content Machine

One interesting tactic or “local SEO strategy” that I saw recently that works well is becoming a local content machine.

Basically, by adding a blog to your local business website and writing about local news and events, you are creating content that other city dwellers will want to read and share, especially on social networks.

While you don’t necessarily write about your local business, you brand it locally. When someone wants or needs the company’s services, they will think about your business first because they’ve seen it so often on the Internet.

A local auto accident and personal injury attorney hired a writer to write articles about accidents in their town daily.

While they didn’t target the actual victims they wrote about, social media campaigns skyrocketed and a lawyer revealed his name to people in the city.

These social media shares eventually created links to the page which in turn helped local rankings.

Buy A Local Website Or Blog

If you want to add a lot of content to your local business website fairly quickly, consider purchasing a local website that already has the content you want.

It could be a local hobby site with local news or articles, or it could be a local content blog.

Perhaps the owner doesn’t have the heart to keep up with the content as he used to, or he might just use the money.

Contact a local website or blog to purchase their site and enable and transfer its content to your local business site.

Setting up redirects from your old domain name to your local business site will help convey all rights and link history to your local business.

Optimizing And Working On Links

Links to your website have always been an important search engine ranking factor and will continue to be so in the future.

Google’s algorithm has always favored website links.

But in 2016, more emphasis was placed on links when Google released an update to its Google Possum algorithm.

Local links or links from other local businesses and organizations have been important for years and are still a very important part of your local SEO strategy.

Greg Gifford, SearchLab.com’s vice president of search, recommends that you “find easy linking opportunities by looking at relationships that already exist.”

Local sponsorship, local volunteering opportunities, and local offline groups can lead to local links.

Need more ideas for local links? Use Majestic.com to analyze similar business link profiles in another city.

Another local SEO strategy for local links is sourcing links from competitors.

Use a crawler like Screaming Frog SEO Spider to crawl your site and see all your competitors’ outbound links.

Then check to see if there are any links you can get from the websites your competitors link to.

Essentially, these competitors pass your link credit or PageRank credit to another site, which then passes it on to your site.

Additional Local SEO Tips

Here are some local SEO strategies to help with your local search engine optimization.

But if that wasn’t enough, here are some local SEO tips and tricks you may not have thought of yet.

Local Listings

Undoubtedly, the most important factor in local search ranking is “company proximity to the search point”.

How far is the business from the person who is doing the search?

For example, Google knows where the search engine is (especially if it’s using a mobile phone).

The closer your business is to your business, the more likely your business is to appear on Google Maps and Google Local Listings in search results.

Some companies are known to obtain a “virtual office” location (or multiple virtual office locations) for this very reason, especially if the customer never visits their location.

While this is a local SEO strategy I don’t endorse, it is a worthy of note local SEO strategy – as it can be done by the company’s competitors.

Update your local online listings.

If you know you have a NAP data update, please make sure it is updated online as soon as possible.

If you’re moving, start updating your local listings.

As soon as you know a new address, start updating your local online listings.

It can take months for websites to update your listing, so the sooner you start the better.

Just as you update your US Postal Service snail mail after you move to a new location, you’ll want to make sure your local lists are updated as well.

As mentioned earlier, the address in USPS should be exactly the same address used in local directories.

Search engines most likely have access to USPS data, and inconsistencies can lead to local ranking issues.

Consistency is key when it comes to NAP data and your company’s ability to position well locally.

Make sure your local entries are consistent and the same as on your site.

Inconsistent NAP data across multiple websites is one of the many problems I see.

Auditing local citations to make sure NAP is consistent everywhere can really help local SEO.

You can have multiple phone numbers, different versions of an address, and even a different address on some websites that list your NAP details.

Removing duplicate entries and updating inconsistencies can make a huge difference.

Regularly add updated photos to local profiles.

Join a regular schedule of taking new photos of your location and business. Add new photos to your Google business profile, your Facebook page, and other sites that accept photos, such as Yelp.

Use Google AdWords to target specific locations and potential customers in your area. Google now offers listing ads on Google Maps, so putting aside a budget for these ads will pay off.

It’s always a constant struggle to get more online reviews than the competition – but it’s worth it in the long run.

Ask customers for reviews – in-store, in your location, and even by email if you have customer email addresses.

Ask for a review on Google, Yelp, and TripAdvisor if you’re running a hotel or resort.

Always respond in a timely manner to any feedback you leave, whether it’s positive or negative.

On-Site Local SEO

Add schema.org tagged code to the NAP on your site.

Your name, address, and telephone number on your website should be marked with the appropriate code.

It won’t affect how it appears on your site, but the schema.org code will tell search engines just that – it’s your name, address, and phone number.

You can also add a tag in JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data) code, which can help Google find out about your NAP.

Add the appropriate link to your phone number.

Adding a “tel: //” link to a phone number where it is listed on the site will allow mobile phone visitors to click on the link and call you.

This can also help search engines to display your phone number in the phone call extension area in mobile search results.

Speed ​​up your website loading time.

Optimizing your website for mobile devices can seriously (and quickly) improve your rankings.

I’ve seen Google send more traffic to your site just because your site loads faster than before. This could mean moving your web hosts, redesigning your website, or using a CDN.

All photos of your business should be tagged with relevant location information and keywords.

Use the EXIF ​​editor to add location information, keywords and descriptions for each photo. Each image file can be updated with this information, which may include geotagged location information.

Multiple Locations? Create a section on your site for each location.

Don’t just create one page for each location, add additional content if possible.

Each location will have its own unique personality with the location and staff. Why not consistently add content relevant to each location? Add a blog and add photos to make it relevant.

Use the correct syntax and keywords in your urls.

Use a format such as www.domain.com/lokalizacja/ for each location. Link to each location in your site’s main navigation, but not to subpages of each location.

Consolidate separate websites for each location into one main website.

If you have a separate domain name and site for each location, move those sites to your home site.

Redirect domain names using 301 redirects and move content to a subsection on your main website.

Each location will draw on the authority of the main site to become more powerful. Don’t forget to update the local listings of your location so that they also point to the new url on the main website.

Some local search queries may trigger featured snippets.

Depending on your topic, you can increase the traffic and visibility of your site by showing yourself in the “zero position” for certain search queries.

The zero position is the “featured snippet” that Google shows above all other search engine listings.

Use SEMrush.com to analyze the keywords that you are currently ranking for and see if any of them contain a featured snippet.

Optimize your content to show in your featured snippet. Other search queries can also trigger a knowledge graph, an immediate response, a carousel of local packages, or images that can be optimized.

While you may not be accepting credit cards or personal information on your website, moving your entire website to a secure SSL server will give you an advantage.

HTTPS is now a ranking factor in Google search engines, and many local businesses have yet to transition their sites to HTTPS.

Therefore, switching to HTTPS will keep you ahead of the competition. It’s important to make sure that links you’ve had for a while, such as local citations, point to the HTTPS version of your website.

Write regular blog posts about local news, local issues, and local events. Post them on social media and link them back to your blog post.

Photos are always liked by locals and are shared quite often.

Local SEO Audits

Perform an audit of your website.

There are several different types of audits available, including link audits, site audits, and local citation audits.

Local citation audits are good for identifying duplicate auctions and inconsistent NAP data.

Recently, I have seen a rash of negative SEOs on local listings, and some companies get listings built “for them” with bad data, courtesy of competitors.

A local citation audit can identify many of these issues so you can deal with them appropriately.

Link auditing is important because local map algorithms increasingly rely on link data.

Having low-quality and off-topic links pointing to your website can hurt your rankings.

On-site audits are also important to identify areas for improvement on your site.

Fixing issues like formatting, metadata, header, and even page load speed can improve rankings.

Off-Site Local SEO

Get customer email addresses and use this data to direct them to Facebook or to your email newsletter.

You can send your customers’ email addresses and phone numbers to Facebook and target them with advertisements.

Then create a similar Facebook campaign to reach even more people with the same demographic as your current customers.

More people are using voice search to find local businesses. They use voice search to help them find a business near you.

For example, they may ask, “Where is the nearest Italian restaurant?” Check out the Local SEO Guide study on the local ‘nearby’ ranking factors I mentioned earlier. It is an interesting read.

For your main keywords (the ones you want to rank for), take a look at who is currently ranked – and it might not be your own site.

If you can optimize your listing or show well on another site that is currently ranked for your keyword, you’ll still see some traffic and make a profit.

If Yelp, Home Advisor, Pin, Angie’s List, or BBB is ranked, make sure your local business is listed on those pages.

Attend and sponsor local events, organizations and nonprofits.

They will increase your local visibility and quite often will link to your website which will ultimately help you rank in search engines.

Final Thoughts

Optimizing your site for search requires a holistic approach. The combination of on-site optimization and off-site listing and linking will help increase the visibility of your SMB in local search results.

Featured image: Olivier Le Moal / Shutterstock

Pourquoi utiliser Semrush ?

C’est un outil d’analyse de mots clés. Il permet de suivre vos position sur un mot clé et de faire des recherches multilingues. Grace à lui, vous pouvez obtenir des idees de mots clés sur lesquelles vous positionner. Semrush vous offre aussi la possibilité d’analyser la stratégie de vos concurrents.

Comment se servir de Semrush? Semrush commenting tool: Cliquez sur â € œprojetsâ € depuis le menu de gauche et choisissez l’URL de votre site web ouiciei de votre compétiteur. Semrush vous permet de choisir le pays de votre choix. Enfin, choisissez les pages de votre site à analyzer.

Pourquoi choisir Semrush ?

SEM Rush vous facilite la longue tâche de recherche de mot-clé lorsque vous réalisez une optimization de contenu pour le web. Pour ce faire, il met à disposition une interface ludique et interactive.

What is Semrush good for?

Semrush is a comprehensive toolkit to improve your online visibility and discover marketing insights. Our tools and reports are able to help marketers working in the following services: SEO, PPC, SMM, Keyword Research, Competitive Research, PR, Content Marketing, Marketing Insights, Campaign Management.

What is keyword gap in Semrush?

Keyword Gap allows you to compare keyword profiles of up to five competitors side by side. All you need to do is enter the domains and select the types of keyword rankings (free, paid or PLA) for analysis.

What is Semrush score?

The Semrush Authority Score is our composite metric used to measure overall domain or website quality and SEO performance. The score is based on a number of metrics (see below for more details) that represent credibility and authority.

What is Semrush tool?

About Semrush Semrush is an SEO tool that examines your keywords, tracks your competitors’ keyword strategy, performs an SEO audit of your blog, looks for backlink opportunities, and much more. Internet marketers around the world trust Semrush. It is also used by many companies, large and small.

Comment avoir Semrush gratuit ?

Comment from beneficier de l’essai gratuit de SEMrush? Vous devez vous rendre sur la page d’essai en cliquant sur le bouton present dans le post du blog et activer l’essai gratuit de 30 days.

How do I get the Google Keyword Planner? To open the Google Keyword Planner, click Tools and Settings in the upper right corner. And then from the drop-down menu, select Keyword Planner from the Scheduling list. You will then see two options: Discover New Keywords – This option gives you new keyword ideas that you can use to increase traffic to your site.

What is Google keyword planner and how is it used?

The Google Keyword Planner is designed to help you find keywords for use in your Search Network campaigns. This is a handy free tool that allows you to find keywords related to your business and see the estimated monthly searches they receive as well as the cost of targeting them.

Is Google keyword planner good for SEO?

Using the Google Keyword Planner for SEO. Even though this particular keyword tool is intended, at least for Google itself, as targeting Google Ads users first, it is a powerful SEO tool and a great resource for identifying keywords to follow. ranking for.

Is Google keyword planner good for SEO?

Using the Google Keyword Planner for SEO. Even though this particular keyword tool is intended, at least for Google itself, as targeting Google Ads users first, it is a powerful SEO tool and a great resource for identifying keywords to follow. ranking for.

How do I use Google keyword planner for SEO keyword research?

How to use the Google Keyword Planner

• Step 1: Access the Google Keyword Planner.
• Step 2: Choose your tool.
• Step # 3: Filter and sort the results.
• Step 4: Study the Keyword Ideas section.
• Step 5: Choose a keyword.
• Additional Step # 1: Get accurate data on the number of keyword searches.
• Additional step # 2: Hack GKP.

Why should I use Google keyword planner?

The Google Ads Keyword Planner tool is a useful resource for building strong keyword lists and helping kickstart your PPC campaign. A free feature in Google Ads, its keyword generator and bid estimation tools can help you plan your marketing strategy.

Can I use Google keyword planner for SEO?

Google Keyword Planner is designed for advertisers but has great SEO value. For starters, it’s 100% FREE! It also provides a good starting point for finding keywords for your business. You can search for individual search terms or enter a website address to see keywords.

Is Google keyword Planner still free?

Google Keyword Planner is 100% free. You don’t need to spend a dime on AdWords ads to gain access. You only need a Google account.

Can I use Google keyword Planner for free?

Keyword Planner helps you find keywords in your Search Network campaigns. You can use this free tool to discover new keywords related to your business and see an estimate of the number of searches they are receiving and the cost of targeting them.

How do I use keyword planner without paying?

How To Access Google Keyword Planner For Free (Just 2 Steps)

• Step 1: Set up login to your Google Ads account. The Google Keyword Planner is one of the many tools that can be found on the Google advertising platform. …
• Step 2: Access the Google Keyword Planner. At this point, you already have access to the Google Ads dashboard.

Is Google keyword Planner still free?

Google Keyword Planner is 100% free. You don’t need to spend a dime on AdWords ads to gain access. You only need a Google account.

Does Google have a free keyword search tool?

Free version: Google Search Console is a free keyword research tool.

Comment utiliser Semrush gratuitement ?

Que pouvez-vous faire avec un compte Semrush gratuit?

• Lorsque vous vous inscrivez for premiere in Semrush, vous with the possibility to start working for free within 7 days with abonnement Pro or Guru.
• Vous en apprendrez plus sur les limites de chaque niveau de compte ici.

Comment se désabonner de Semrush? Pour cela, vous devez envoy of une requeste d’annulation to electronique mail@semrush.com à partir de l’addresse electronique utilisée pour s’inscrire sur Semrush.

Pourquoi choisir Semrush ?

SEM Rush vous facilite la longue tâche de recherche de mot-clé lorsque vous réalisez une optimization de contenu pour le web. Pour ce faire, il met à disposition une interface ludique et interactive.

What is Semrush? About Semrush Semrush is an SEO tool that examines your keywords, tracks your competitors’ keyword strategy, performs an SEO audit of your blog, looks for backlink opportunities, and much more. Internet marketers around the world trust Semrush. It is also used by many companies, large and small.

What is keyword gap in Semrush?

Keyword Gap allows you to compare keyword profiles of up to five competitors side by side. All you need to do is enter the domains and select the types of keyword rankings (free, paid or PLA) for analysis.

How do I use the Semrush keyword Gap tool?

What is Semrush score?

The Semrush Authority Score is our composite metric used to measure overall domain or website quality and SEO performance. The score is based on a number of metrics (see below for more details) that represent credibility and authority.

What does Semrush authority score mean?

Question. Backlink Analytics at Semrush uses the Authority Index to measure the impact of links on a website or domain. The Authority Score is our composite domain score that evaluates the overall quality of your website or website. The higher the score, the more weighting a domain or website’s backlinks can be assumed to be.

What is a good domain rating score?

Scores from 40 to 50 are considered average. Domain Authority 50 to 60 must be rated good. Scores over 60 rate the Domain Authority as excellent.

What is a good Semrush authority score?

If we filter by rating rather than authority, we’ll find the potential customers we rank best for getting results in the range of 40 to 80.

What is Semrush good for?

Semrush is a comprehensive toolkit to improve your online visibility and discover marketing insights. Our tools and reports are able to help marketers working in the following services: SEO, PPC, SMM, Keyword Research, Competitive Research, PR, Content Marketing, Marketing Insights, Campaign Management.

Is SEMrush a good tool?

But overall, Semrush is a very good solution as it gives you the key information you need to improve your search ranking. As with all the products we review, we recommend that you try this tool before purchasing – for a limited time, a free extended trial is available here.

Why SEMrush is the best SEO tool?

The Verdict: Semrush is a top-notch SEO tool, used and trusted by SEO gurus around the world. If this is your first time investing in SEO software then Semrush is the tool you should choose as it allows you to perform advanced SEO tasks with ease.