As businesses grow, they often find themselves at a crossroads. Should they expand their physical location (and spend more money) or optimize for local SEO? If you’re wondering what that means, this post has the answer. We’ll cover why it’s important to do your research before making any decisions and how you can make sure your website is optimized for local search. Consider local SEO packages to help your business rank on Google!
What Is Local SEO?
We mentioned “local SEO” briefly above, but what does that mean? It’s optimizing your website for local search. In general, it means using the correct keywords and phrases in your website’s metadata, content, and links.
Why is this so important?
Because of how people search online, people don’t search using long-tail queries like they used to; instead, most use shorter ones. This means you need to be more precise with your keywords or risk not showing up in results. Google has also made it a point to help searchers find the one result they’re looking for; with only three results per page (and often less), you want yours to stand out. With the right local SEO packages, you can rank your website in Google, Yelp, Bing, and more.
Why Optimizing Your Website for Local SEO Matters
If you’re wondering why it matters to have your website optimized for local search, there are two main reasons. First, people use their mobile devices more and more every day to search the web. Second, Google uses a specific algorithm called “Pigeon” (which is an update of their original algorithm) to rank websites in each specific area/region they cover. Lastly, depending on what industry your company is in, certain local factors may impact how well you rank locally—again, all depending on the area/region you are targeting.
10 Ways to Optimize Your Website for Local SEO
Optimizing your website isn’t complicated; there’s just a lot of information you need to know before getting started. If you’re wondering what that information is, check the list below:
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Choose the Right Keywords
When you’re optimizing your website for local SEO, it’s important to choose relevant keywords or keyword phrases that describe what you do or what service(s) you offer. For example, if your company is called “Susan Smith” and it provides dentistry services in Boston, you want to use words like “dentist,” “Boston dentist,” and any other words that describe dentistry and Boston.
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Choose the Right Location
If you’re a brick-and-mortar company, choosing the location(s) you serve when optimizing your website for local SEO is important. For example, if your business is located in Boston, don’t try to target the entire United States (or even just New England); instead, focus on ranking for Boston-specific keywords and phrases. If you live in Saskatoon but provide services for all of Canada, optimize your website for local SEO in Saskatoon rather than Canada as a whole.
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Add Your Address to Your Website
Adding your address (including city/state and zip code) to your website is an important part of local SEO. When someone searches for a specific in , Google will return the results for that area first, and you need to make sure your website shows up near the top.
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Improve Your Website’s Design
Many people claim that a great design doesn’t matter as long as you have good content. That’s not true; studies show that the design does matter when it comes to local search. This means having key information prominently displayed on every page of your website (like your address). It also means having great images and illustrations (especially if you’re targeting a region/city with visual appeal).
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Optimize Your Titles & Meta Descriptions
In order to rank well for certain keywords (like and ), you need to make sure your website has the correct titles and meta descriptions. When it comes to local SEO, having a title with the city’s name is more powerful than using a general keyword like “dentist.” Similarly, if someone in Boston searches for listings of dentists within 5 miles of their location, using the words “Boston” or “Dentist” in your meta description will help you rank higher.
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Optimize Your URL Structure
The way you structure your URL is very important when it comes to local SEO. For instance, many companies have lengthy URLs that look like this: www..com/location/industry-type/service-description/. This is not a good URL structure. Think about it: when someone searches for listings of dentists in Boston, do you think they will click on the first result that has “Boston” at the beginning? Of course not! They’ll look for the one with “Boston, MA” (or perhaps even just “Boston”) somewhere in the URL.
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Optimize Your Images
One great way to improve your website’s design and overall SEO is by optimizing your images. You can add titles & captions to describe each image and alt text that describes what exactly is visible in each picture. If you have video thumbnails on your homepage or blog page, you can add alt text to those as well.
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Improve the Quality of Your Posts & Pages
Google doesn’t just use keywords and meta descriptions to determine which websites should rank at the top of its search results; it also uses something called “PageRank,” which determines how relevant a website is based on the quality of its posts/pages. For this reason, your content should be helpful, entertaining, and filled with great keywords that explain what your business does or offers in detail.
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Link Out to Relevant Websites
Adding links within your content will not only help improve its SEO benefits; it will also help people who are reading your blog posts or articles find more information about related subjects they might be interested in. Don’t just link out to your website; add links to other websites that are relevant to what you’re talking about, as well as sites that offer great advice related to your industry (e.g., “click here for more information about dental implants”).
Steps to Link out to Relevant Websites:
- Find a Webpage You Want to Link Out To
When you find a webpage that has relevant information related to your topic, take note of the URL.
- Add the Link to Your Content
Next, add the link in your article/blog post somewhere near where you’re talking about that subject matter (e.g., within the text, in a caption for an image you’re using, or within the author bio).
- Use Your Keyword If Possible
If possible, make sure to include your main keyword (e.g., “Boston Dentist,” “Dental Implants Boston”) somewhere in the link where it makes sense. For example: Discover More about .
- Optimize Your Anchor Text
Anchor text is the “text” you see in a hyperlink (e.g., “click here”). Whenever you link out to another website, your anchor text should include your main keyword and be relevant to what you’re talking about.
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Link Your Website from Other Social Media Profiles
Another important part of local SEO is linking back from social media profiles such as Facebook and Twitter. When you mention a specific location within a post on these sites, encourage readers to visit your website by adding a link to it after the location name or phrase (e.g., “Come check out our new office in Boston!”). It’s also helpful to share some of your website’s content on these platforms because this drives more traffic from social media back to your website.
Steps to Link Your Website from Other Social Media Profiles:
- Go to your social media site and click on your organisation’s profile icon or name.
- Click to edit what is visible on your page.
- Fill in the blanks with your website address (i.e., http://www..com) and a description of it (i.e., website for ). Make sure to add the link.
- Click on the “Update Profile” button, and you’re done!
Wrap up:
With the growing popularity of local SEO, following these tips is important because they can help you increase your web presence. By optimizing a website with specific keywords and giving readers more information about what your business does or offers (and adding links), you have a better chance of ranking higher in search engine results pages.