Advanced Local SEO Techniques You can Follow

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There are a lot of basic SEO strategies that you can apply to your local business website. But to get the best results, there are a few advanced techniques that you may not know about. These can be useful if you want to go beyond SEO basics. 

You can add more content to your site by using tools that can easily automate the process. Or some tools can automate your backlink audit periodically. You can also use Google's free online tools to see what people talk about your brand or competitors. 

This will give you a feel for what keywords you should be focusing on. Let's look at a few advanced methods to improve your rankings. 

11 Local SEO Fixes You Can Do to Boost Your Rankings

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1. Redoing Your Keyword Analysis

Keyword analysis is a huge part of the SEO process. It could have the most impact compared to most other parts of the funnel. The problem with keywords for SEO is that usage changes over time. It is something that you need to address to get better results. 

Reworking Your Keyword Profile

As the market evolves, searches change. This means that you need to look at your existing keyword research. The chances are that your research is from years ago or even outdated. 

Working on your keywords again allows you to refocus on your key objectives. It can help bring important factors back into play again. You get a much fresher keyword profile that is more aligned to the market. 

• Google Keyword Planner is the de facto standard for keyword analysis. It shows the latest and trending keywords for a particular location. 

• Majestic is another platform that works great for analyzing your keywords and making effective choices.
• You should also look at GTMetrix to get better keywords for your brand.

2. Use Schema Markup

Google is very good at determining which sites are the best fit to appear in their search results. If you want to boost your SEO, use schema markup. The more specific the information by utilizing schema markup, the more likely your site will be ranked high. 

Take a look at the below screenshot of how the schema markup helps a business appear on SERP.

How Schema Markup Helps Rankings

Schema markup makes the web a powerful platform in the world of search. It's adding additional information to a web page's HTML. The problem is that not all sites use schema markup. 

This is one important reason why Google can't always provide the rich search results we expect. But, if you want to give your site the best chance of being found by search engines, you'll need to add schema markup to your pages.

• It can be challenging to generate schemas. Tools like Merkle Schema Generator and Google's Structured Markup Helper can help.
• You can also use schema auditing tools and websites like Schema.org, which can help.
• Paid platforms like SEMrush and Ahrefs have schema generators and auditing built-in. 

Read: How to Use Schema Markup Values on Local SEO?

3. Include Rich Snippets

When Google rolled out the Rich Snippets project, the world of SEO went through a radical transformation. The Rich Snippets are tools that allow Google to understand better what your website is about. 

It gives users a better idea of what they are searching for without visiting a website. It reduces the time to get information by a lot. For example, when the users search for “chocolate muffins,” it shows quick results like muffins to buy or recipes to cook - called rich snippets.

Improving Your Business With Rich Snippets

Rich snippets can add additional information about your website to Google's search results and other search engines. In the simplest terms, these markup tags tell Google and the other search engines what a particular piece of content is. 

This could be anything from a blog post, article, or video and how it relates to the information being searched. Not including rich snippets in your HTML code can be a problem for ranking your website. 

• Users get a quick summary of search results with a glance. They don't need to visit a website.
• It is convenient and works well for mobile platforms. Considerably improves conversions if your website is featured. 
• You can use the Rich Results Snippets tool to test your rich snippets. 

4. Write For Your Audience

High-quality content is critical to your success when you want to rank higher. Depending on the niche you are in, tailor your content accordingly. For more complex niches, informative content draws traffic. Focus on keeping your content factual and interesting. 

Read: High-Quality Content Creation

The most powerful thing you can do for your blog is write for your audience. If you want to increase the ranking of your website on Google, make sure your content is highly relevant. As a general rule, the less specific your keywords are, the higher you'll rank. 

If you write about a topic people aren't searching for yet, Google can figure that out pretty quickly. The more specific the keywords, the lower you'll rank. And keep in mind that keyword stuffing will cause Google to penalize your site.

• Generating ideas for your content can be hard. Opting for Portent's Content Idea Generator can be useful. Enter a keyword, and it provides ideas, as in the screenshot. You can keep checking “See another title” for more topic ideas. 

• Review your content marketing strategy with Optimizely. It is AI-powered and helps personalize your approach. 
• When writing, grammatical errors can be bad for your content. Grammarly can help you audit your content better. 

5. Optimize Image And Video

In this age of image-based media, it's more important than ever to have an optimized website and content that works well with search engines. An optimized site also optimizes images and videos on your website to help them rank well with search engines. 

If your site is overloaded with text-heavy pages, consider adding some video content to your site. It can break up the monotony of text and keep people engaged. 

You can find detailed information like the number of images and videos, size of each file, loading speed, and many more that can be found using tools like Webspeedtest. 

Improved Image And Video Optimization

Images and videos can play a significant role in boosting your search engine optimization. They're crucial to attracting organic traffic and ranking your page higher in the search results. 

A large number of websites use image-heavy and video-heavy content. This means you'll have to think about leveraging these media to your advantage. Here are a few ways to optimize visual content for your brand. 

• Ensure you keep your audience's interest through the creation and execution of the content. 
• Use strong CTAs that encourage people to click on the video or image. 
• Add appropriate alt tags depending on the type of content video and the platform.
• Don't forget to add transcripts of your video for better reach and versatility. 

Read: Image Optimization Tips

6. Optimize Your GMB Profile

If you're a local business owner and want to attract more customers, optimize your Google My Business (GMB) profile. This is important since more than 85% of all local searches are conducted on Google and other search engines. 

The more visible your listing is, the more likely someone will find you. It also helps that a GMB profile can help your customers understand your business better. 

Using GMB To Improve Rankings

GMB profiles give consumers more information about the business or service and make it easier to connect with you. 

When a user performs a local search on Google, the first thing that shows up is probably your GMB profile. It’s typically shown as a local 3-pack on SERP, as in the below screenshot. 

Your GMB is where they can learn more about you and read reviews from your customers. Learn how to optimize your GMB profile for better rankings and more traffic.

• Reviews, ratings, and even photos are critical to the success of a GMB profile.
• Ensure you always verify your NAP data.
• Before setting up your profile, look through Google's Guidelines for GMB.
• Auditing your GMB profile has become easy with GMB Crush. 

7. Improve Your On-Page Content

On-page content is critical for businesses to rank well on searches. While we dealt with content in general earlier, this is completely different from that. Webpage copy should attract people through its personality and brevity. 

Read: Improving On-Page Content Quality

As a business owner, you should always strive to improve your on-page content. Google is constantly evolving its algorithms and making changes to improve user experience. One of the ways it does this is by improving rankings through better on-page content. 

In this situation, the on-page content needs to be more informative and have less "noise." If your content is relevant and interesting, people will be more likely to click through and visit your site and hopefully convert.

• On-page content needs to strike the right balance between keywords and creativity.
• Google Search Console can help you gain insights into your on-page content. The below screenshot shows an overview of on-page content performance. 

• Another tool that works well is the OnPage Champ.

8. Revamp Your Backlink Profile

Backlinks are one of the primary sources of authority for ranking. The better links you have from and to your website, the better are ranking possibilities. It's good to expand your backlink profile to include other bigger brands in your niche. 

For example, take a look at the screenshot below showing a site's backlink profile. It has many backlinks from quality sites and provides outbound links to quality sites. 

Getting Better Backlinks And Ranking

An excellent backlink profile will make a huge difference in the rankings of your website. The more backlinks you have, the more authority the search engines give your website. In other words, you should have several high-quality and well-referred backlinks. 

The most popular way to increase organic traffic to a site is through link building. This means getting links to your website from other, more trusted websites. High authority websites have a much easier time when it comes to ranking.

• Moz Pro is the preferred paid option for backlinks. They have a huge repository from which you can choose. 
• LinkMiner is another tool that can audit your backlink profile.
• Ahrefs features here as well because it has the biggest backlink index globally. 

9. Design For Mobile Devices

Something that has remained static for a long time has been website design. Most websites are designed with a computer screen in mind, but this has changed over the last few years. Mobile traffic has overtaken other sources and established itself at the top. 

This means that mobile-focused design language is the top priority for people and so for searches as well. 

Using Mobile-focused Design To Rank

Google favors mobile-friendly sites over desktop-optimized ones, and this is no secret. Studies show that mobile traffic accounts for more than half of all traffic coming to a site. With such big numbers, how we approach design is also changing. 

It only proves that mobiles are becoming more important than other sources. If you're ready to make your site more responsive, start by learning the basics of designing for mobile devices. 

Google offers a free Test My Site tool to check mobile friendliness and suggestions on how you can optimize for mobile devices if it’s not friendly. 

• Remember to incorporate dynamic design for your website. It can adapt to different screen sizes.
• You can build a mobile-oriented website from the ground up using tools like Bootstrap. 
• Testing responsive websites also can be done with tools - Responsinator is a good choice. 

10. Use Social Media Platforms

Social media has more than three billion people logged on it at any given time. This is a huge number of leads for businesses. And it's also one of the reasons why most businesses need to be on social media. 

The Importance Of Social Media Platforms

There are four popular social media platforms most businesses use. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. If you're not active on at least one of these platforms, you're leaving money on the table.

This is why most businesses have a dedicated team to maintain official social media profiles and post content at the right time to engage with their audience. 

All of them are free to use. But remember, if you want to take advantage of social media platforms, you have to have a social media presence. It's just a matter of finding the time to make it part of your routine. 

• HubSpot has great social listening tools which can help improve your social media campaigns.
• Buffer can help you schedule your social media posts to avoid missing anything.
• Ensure that you use images and videos for your social account, not just text.

11. Be Consistent With Posting

It is important to your campaign that you don't post just for its sake. Being consistent with your posting improves your chances of being ranked higher on searches. It doesn't matter for social media or your website; post periodically for the best results. 

Collate all your ideas into a work file and then use that as a platform to create content. 

Consistent Posting Gets You Better Ranks

To be successful on search engines, you need to be consistent. Google doesn't just rank blogs on how many posts you have. It also factors how many times a blog is updated or how frequently you share social media updates about your niche. 

The best thing you can do is keep posting good quality content - this should be the focus. Also, make sure you're posting as often as possible. The best thing to follow is to have a well-planned content calendar. If you don’t have one, you can use this template by Semrush. 

• Don't spam your website or newsfeed with posts that you've created. Opt for a specific time during the week. 
• Research to find out the best posting times for your niche. 
• Tools like ContentCal and Loomly can help you schedule your content better.

Read: Top Tools to Create Great Content for SEO

Key Takeaways

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• Refocusing on your keyword profile is a great idea for better rankings. 
• Ensure that you use social media as part of your marketing pipeline.
• Remember that the future is mobile, and ensure your website design is responsive.
• Work on your on-page content with newer keywords and data.
• Focus on optimizing your GMB profile. Request your customers to add reviews.
• Increase the number of visual elements for your website, like images and videos.