3. Local SEO Keywords
Local keyword research is one of the most important elements of every local SEO strategy.
As you can probably guess, in the case of local keywords, you should always remember your business location. This might be either a city (Kraków, New York, Berlin), your region (Tuscany, Bavaria), or even a country (USA, Italy, Germany).
Selecting the right local keywords is crucial to ranking high in the search results and reaching potential customers who are interested in your offer.
For keyword research, you can use available tools such as SEMrush, Ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner, and Google Trends. If you don’t want to invest in paid solutions, it’s definitely worth going through your competitors’ websites and checking related searches or suggestions displayed on Google.
Local keywords should combine 3 elements:
- modifier – a phrase that makes the keyword more specific and adds an additional value to it
- core term – the most important part of a local keyword describing your business profile
- location of your business
Therefore, the examples would include “cheap hairdresser New York”, “luxury restaurant Toronto”, or “professional web development agency UK”.
When choosing keywords for your local SEO process, you should remember about the search intent. In a nutshell, it’s what a user wants to get by typing in a given query into Google. There are 4 main types of search intent:
- informational – users want to learn about a specific topic and understand it better,
- navigational – users look for a specific brand or website,
- transactional – users want to buy something or use a service,
- commercial – users already know what they want to buy, but are looking for reviews or opinions to make a final decision.
To check the search intent of a specific query you can either type it into Google and analyze the top search results, or use special tools like SEMrush.
If you want to learn more about determining the search intent, check out our article on search intent SEO.
4. NAPs Citations
NAPs are a very powerful Google ranking factor that can take your local SEO to the next level.
The acronym stands for Name, Address, and Phone number, which are the basic contact details that allow local customers to get in touch with your business.
NAPs inform Google that your business actually exists, and helps both users and search engine robots to verify your trustworthiness. Moreover, if potential customers can’t find important information about your restaurant, hotel, or store right away, they’ll probably choose your market rivals who will give them everything on a silver platter.
If you want your NAPs to support your local SEO, you should remember to:
- complete all key information about your business: name, address, and phone number are obligatory in every NAP, however, if you have such a possibility, enter your homepage URL, email, description, logo, or images as well,
- make your NAPs consistent and reliable – always provide real data, and make sure that information in different NAPs isn’t contradictory,
- keep your NAPs updated – if you change address or phone number, update NAPs as soon as possible. Leaving your data outdated means lost traffic and revenues.
5. Schema LocalBusiness
Schema (also known as structured data) is a great solution that helps Google crawlers understand your website and provide users with necessary information. Thanks to it, users searching for specific products or services can see your prices, photos, or geolocation already in the search results. This can give you a competitive edge over your market rivals and attract more visitors to your page.
When talking about local SEO, you should definitely implement LocalBusiness schema, as it can bring tangible benefits to your company.
LocalBusiness schema should include the following elements:
- company name,
- address,
- description,
- opening hours,
- price range,
- geolocation,
- homepage URL,
- phone number,
Find out more about Schema and how to implement it!
6. Local Content
Content is an important ranking factor that supports both traditional SEO and local SEO.
56% of customers state that they search a company’s website to find accurate information about its offer. Therefore, it’s worth making sure that your page is filled with quality, diversified texts that bring value to the users. If you want to rank for local keywords, you should optimize your website for relevant phrases.
What should you do if you run a multi-location business and operate in several cities?
Consider preparing individual location-specific landing pages for each location. For example, if you want to get local visitors from New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, then you should create separate landing pages with unique content for each of these cities.
A company blog is another source of quality local content. With its help, you can generate more traffic and support your local SEO.
Planning your content calendar will help you reach potential customers at all stages of the sales funnel. If you want to increase your visibility in the local search results and be displayed for more keywords, create entries related to:
- product/service announcements,
- testimonials,
- interviews,
- industry news,
- important events in the area.
If you think that the blog era is over, definitely check out our article: /company-blogs-in-2020/
7. On-Page Optimization
On-page optimization is the next step to success. When doing local SEO, you should consider certain tasks as a priority. It’s particularly important to:
- include a keyword in the H1 heading,
- add at least several H2 headings to divide and organize your content,
- make URLs short, user-friendly, and include keywords in them,
- create alt text for all your images,
- use HTML emphasis tags (<strong>, <em>) to mark keywords.
- create title tags that are between 50 and 60 characters long, are unique, describe your business profile, include your location and start with the most important keyword,
- write catchy meta descriptions that are between 140 and 160 characters, encourage users to visit your website, briefly summarize your offer, and include long tail, location-specific keywords. They can boost your CTR by 8%, the game is worth the candle!
To learn more about on-page optimization, check out our fresh 2022 On-page SEO checklist that will help you make Google love your website.