Effective Local SEO Strategies for SMBs You Need to Know

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Local SEO Strategies For SMBs

Local SEO is an essential component of search engine optimization which helps to enhance visibility in local search results and have a robust online presence that brings potential customers. 

Here is an interesting fact: 72% of consumers who did a local search visited a store and made a purchasing decision. 

Local SEO strategies improve the chances of your business appearing in local search results for various geographical searches. Local SEO can be effective if you do it correctly, as it has salient strategies that help your business appear in search results. 

11 Effective Local SEO Strategies for SMBs You Need to Know

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1. Claim All Business Directories

Google My Business optimization is the foundation of an effective local SEO strategy. It is imperative as the local map puts the search query which will rank your business listings, and other factors also come into play to determine your rankings. 

Look at the screenshot below-showing results on the map, which also feature in the local 3-pack. 

Rely on GMB optimization, which will signal search engines that you have reliable and good display offerings. 

The business description, business profile, and business hours can impact your SEO efforts, including appropriate call-to-action and asking interested customers to check out the links to the business website. 

An optimized GMB profile lets customers check your offerings by considering your profile more relevant. 

Use high-quality images of your business to make your business stand out from others. Yelp is a great option to convert visitors to customers and enhance local SEO efforts. 

Look at how Google recommends the most updated Google My Business listings at the top for the local search query “plumbers in fort worth.”

Read: Step-by-step Setup Guide for Google My Business Set up

2. Identify Local Keywords

Thriving in the local SEO world requires effective local SEO keyword research. It improves the chances of appearing and ranking in the local pack. It includes several strategies like local link building and adding local schema markups to your website. 

Start having a healthy mix of broad and long-tail keywords. You can achieve better results in your digital campaigns by incorporating a local keyword research approach. Begin by adding local keywords that appear in “Related Searches,” as shown below. 

Aim to rank for local keywords as it improves the chances of attracting customers ready to convert as full-time prospects. 

It is essential to brainstorm the competitor's keywords is essential to determine the rankings accordingly. The local SEO keyword research will help you offer many leads, optimized traffic with low bounce rates, improved brand or reputation, and Google maps visibility. 

You can use tools like Google keyword planner and Moz keyword explorer for effective local keyword research. 

TIPS: 

• Work on your local citations
• Use your local keyword research on your website
• Create locally themed blog content

You can also use Ahrefs’ free keyword generator tool to discover local keywords relevant to your business.

3. Go Mobile With Mobile Marketing 

Research states that 82% of mobile searches are local. Mobile accessibility plays a crucial role in the local SEO games. Statistics reveal that 50% of mobile searches have local intent, and mobile search volume can surpass desktop search volume anytime. 

Also, Google confirmed that sites with mobile versions are prioritized to rank for mobile searches. 

Mobile marketing is the easiest way to reach out to customers. Aim to have a mobile-friendly online presence to enhance your rankings. Having a fast-loading and responsive website is vital, and it is crucial in boosting your rankings. 

Choose a responsive and effective WordPress theme that ensures readability on mobile screens. Opt for a third-party plugin to have an optimized mobile website for users. 

Ensure to offer a delightful user experience to your users. It should provide a practical navigation experience and boost rankings. 

54% of users leave the unresponsive website if it doesn't load within 3 seconds. Loading speed plays a significant role in promoting your business to expand reach. Page speed has become another crucial factor in ranking purposes. 

TIPS: 

• Upgrade the mobile performance of your website through an appropriate website hosting plan. 
• Work with experts who can help you build a mobile responsive website. 
• Work on mobile optimization improvements to rank better. 

You can check your website’s mobile friendliness using Google’s mobile friendliness test, as shown below. 

Read: Tips to Increase Page Loading Speed

4. Optimize Webpage SEO 

Website optimization is one of the crucial local SEO strategies to promote your small business enterprise. Create a page for particular products, services, or locations. It will help to boost your local SEO efforts. 

You should best use local business or structured data markup to optimize your site for local SEO. Local schema is a code that helps add pages to the website and helps search engines decipher the actual content on your website. 

You can use Google's Structured Data testing tool to test the effectiveness of your schema added to your website. You can update the NAP citations on your website to boost the local searches for your website. 

Take a look at the below screenshot showing an example of a local business using schema to update NAP details. 

Have separate landing pages for the targeted region in the local area. Adopt high-quality SEO practices of keyword-optimized title tags, meta descriptions, and intelligent linking structures.

Look at these screenshots of an SEO audit for a San Antonio-based tattoo artist’s website done using SEOptimizer. You can perform a similar audit to improve your website's SEO

5. Create Selective Content

As we focus on local SEO, you should create content that resonates with your region or audience. It is essential to create personalized local content. 

Create specific landing pages or blogs to rank higher in the local SERPs, as shown in the below example. 

Exercise thoughtfulness, and generate content to incorporate your local keywords listed and brainstormed in the above-listed points. 

You can create FAQ pages that are a one-stop shop for your local SEO content. The content should focus on how to solve the problems that your audience's problems and help them with your offerings. 

Educate the audience on your business offerings and establish a better rapport with them. It can help to increase engagement and expand your niche. 

Read: Types of Content That Help Local SEO

6. Encourage Customer Reviews

If you want to improve the local search ranking, gaining customer reviews or feedback can help to enhance the local SEO efforts. Reviews help to enhance customer trust and influence decision-making. 

A steady flow of positive customer reviews will be a ranking factor in search engine optimization. 

The secret to gaining reviews is to work on them effectively. It will help improve your local search rankings, positively represent your business when reaching potential customers, or enhance your reach. 

You can use platforms like Yelp and Facebook to garner more reviews and work accordingly. It’s because of the more the number of reviews, the better the click rate. 

Educate your users on how to leave a review to add an engaging call to action to make it more interesting to strike a conversation with customers. 

Here’s an example of a detailed and well-crafted review from Yelp for a pet grooming business in San Antonio

7. Gain Local Backlinks

Having backlinks from reputed sites helps to improve website authority and Google rankings. You can create local SEO landing pages. Aim to gain backlinks for your landing pages to have an effective link-building process. 

Use different citations and listings like Google My Business to gain excellent backlinks for your landing page. These citations give businesses a quality backlink to the site, as shown in the screenshot below. 

It is essential to optimize your listings to rank well in search engines. The more quality links you have for your website, the better.

It helps to enhance your website's authority, reliability, and trust among users. Once you've put the time and effort into gaining backlinks, tracking them is essential to improve the landing page's performance. 

You can use Ahrefs’ free backlink checker to monitor and track your backlinks and their SEO metrics, as shown below.

8. Optimize for Voice Search 

Voice search is an essential feature for increasing the search volume and rankings on search engines. 

It is essential to cater to the local search users with quality intent. 

It is crucial to enable voice search features in mobile devices to offer a better user experience and increase engagement. 

Use long-tail keywords in your content to attract users. Effective local SEO relies on understanding the user's search queries and delivering better content. Use the Answethepublic tool to see various voice searches users can make. 

Use images with text and infographics to increase the appeal of your website and keep users engaged on the website.

TIPS: 

• Focus on the optimized long tail and localized keywords for your voice search content
• Run queries for your website's main keywords related to your geographical searches to incorporate voice search content.
• Work towards building your local business citations and getting the appropriate content for your local business website. 

You can start answering queries under the “people also ask” section on your website to optimize your website for voice search. 

9. Make Use of Video Marketing

As a small business, you can explore the trend to increase local exposure through various platforms like Facebook, and You can create paid video ads through Facebook or Google ads. It helps to target your audience, determine the budget and achieve your goal of enhancing your reach. 

It is a popular SEO service that every agency must adopt to increase engagement and reach. The audio-visual part helps enhance the web content and reach the audience with good content. 

If you lack in-house experts, lack ideas, or are low on budget, then use free templates on Lumen5 available free. 

Check if the video marketing plans complement your search engine optimization strategies. Deliver insightful, relevant, and engaging content to educate your customers on your offerings. 

10. Keep URLs Simple

Search engines need to crawl your website and understand the user content. It is one of the factors to rank your website higher and stand out among others. Have short and disciple URLs for research engines to index and understand your content. 

Optimize the meta tags, descriptions, and heading tags as this helps the users and search engines determine the content appropriately. 

Search engines won't be excited to rank web pages with content and tags not optimized appropriately. It will increase the bounce rates and reach as well. 

TIPS: 

• Improve the user experience by using a logical URL structure
• Use SEO-friendly URLs that include optimized keywords that describe the page's content. Take a look at the below screenshot showing a couple of URLs. Which one offers more information to the users and search engines?

• URLs are a ranking factor for search engines. Optimize your URLs to make search engine bots crawl your website content easily. 
• Follow a good URL structure to build a responsive website. 

11. Don't Stuff Keywords

It is essential to perform profound keyword research and not keyword stuffing in your content. It is vital to use optimized keywords in page titles, descriptions, and meta tags to rank well in search engines. Ensure to use targeted keywords, but don't go over the top.

Create evergreen content and optimize them accordingly. You can enhance the website authority by optimizing the online presence and getting more potential visitors to your website. Now's the time to have a robust online presence for a better local search. 

Local search is essential for your business, and it is vital to follow the above-listed points for a better online presence. 

TIPS: 

• Ignore negative reviews and incorporate appropriate keywords. 
• Enhance the website with accurate, relevant content that drives quality traffic to your website. 
• Use different keyword tools like Google Keyword Planner and Suggestion keyword finder. 

Here’s a screenshot from the Suggestion keyword finder that you can use to find local keywords related to your business offerings, as shown below 

Key Takeaways

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• Properly manage your local citations for effective local SEO practices or efforts. 
• Optimize your profiles on online directories or business listings to increase the local search results of your business. 
• Attain more reviews for your website to achieve website authority and reliability from users. 
• Make your website local heaven by performing local link-building strategies. 
• Optimize your on-page SEO to rank effectively in search engines and use more internal links to offer a user-friendly experience.