Local SEO | A Comprehensive Guide for Local Business Owners

Did you know, according to On The Map 97% of people search for local businesses or services online daily?

As a local business owner, do you want to miss the opportunity to appear when they search your niche?

Probably, not. But how can you make this work?

Local SEO is one of the best strategies to increase online visibility and get more customers. Moreover, It is cost-effective, too, in comparison to paid ads.

For your concern, this blog is a comprehensive local SEO guide to unlock and broaden your knowledge about completing local SEO for your business and its strategies.

Get ready to unlock the power of local SEO and take your local business to the next level!

What Is Local SEO?

Local SEO is a strategy that helps small businesses rank higher on the search engine for local queries of local consumers. In addition, this strategy primarily focuses on Google Map optimization.

Local SEO mainly optimizes for Google users; however, many local searches also occur on other search engines.

Local businesses should have done this to develop their online presence and welcome organic visitors who mostly become consumers.

Why does your Business Need Local SEO?

Every day Google receives more than 3.5 billion searches, among them 1.6 billion searches intent local inquiries.

To be a successful entrepreneur, if you do local SEO for your business, whether a brick-and-mortar business, you will receive many consumers from search engines. So, why would anyone leave money on the table?

Local SEO will improve your local website or business's local visibility, organic traffic, equal footing with your biggest competitors, and trust, where the whole process is cost-effective.

And you know? The most exciting thing is that you can even do local SEO of your personal Website to make your portfolio and service visible.

How to do Local SEO: Step-by-Step Guide and Strategy

Local SEO will help you rank on the map pack and the Blue link list. Ranking on both is beneficial for any business.

Here we have divided the local SEO process into 5 sections. Choose consistently and implement it in your business.

Here they are,

Deep dive into the details.

1. Set Your Google Business Profile

First thing first, let google know that your business does exist. Enlist your business in the Google business profile, and verify. Because only after the verification on Google, your customers can find you online.

It requires just a few steps and will enlist your business.

Here you are done setting up your google business profile.

2. Add Your Business to Other Directories

Even Google Business Profile is a directory. The way you enlisted your business into your Google business profile, there are more directories to enroll in. Enlisting your business in various directories will help your business to be found more easily.

But the question is, what are the other directories?

Here I am mentioning some of the popular. You can try them and enlist your business for better results. But, it is important to take note, you must find which directories have the most popular in your area.

Bing Places

You can add your business in Bing for free to rank on Bing search and Map. To enlist your business in Bing places,

Yelp

It is the most popular directory for local businesses. It has a lot of business databases for local searches. You can enlist your business here too. The process is,

LinkedIn Pages

You must be familiar enough with LinkedIn and already have an account. Creating a LinkedIn page about your business will enrich your business awareness.

FourSquare

It is a networking site that allows entrepreneurs to grow their small businesses to be enlisted on Map so that consumers can find them easily.

Yellow Pages

The Yellow Pages is one of the most organized and functional directories. Consumers can find specific businesses directly in the Yellow Pages.

3. Optimize Your Website for Local SEO

Local SEO will help you rank on the map pack and the Blue link list. Ranking on both is beneficial for any business.

You have set GMB and added to the directories for your Local SEO process so far. It is time to move more smartly. If your business has a website, you should optimize it for your local customers.

If you still need to get a website for your business, I recommend you build a user-friendly website with Dorik.

Why is Dorik among 50+ website builders?

Because, Dorik is an intuitive website builder designed to create a website easily, even for people with little to no coding experience.

So, after having a website, follow these local SEO guides and strategies to start local SEO for your business website,

On-page Optimization

On-page SEO is a broad process; however, for Local SEO, you will need very few fields to focus on. These are,

Local Keyword Research 

Local keyword research is a bit different from Global keyword research. If you own a clothing store in California, your local keyword would be Clothing Store in California or Clothing Store Near Me.

On the other hand, if you own a cleaning website in Oklahoma City, your global keyword would be,

But in local SEO, you will need to use them specifically for the city you are providing the services. Then the local keyword would be,

But before working on the keywords, check on google SERP for these keywords. Check which keywords hold the map pack and blue link list at the same time. Consider the keyword showing both.

NAP 

What is NAP in local SEO?

The Name, Address, and Phone Number are NAP.

First thing first, create a contact page and add your Company's Name, the Address of your brick-and-mortar business, and phone number.

This citation helps your consumers to reach you easily.

A bonus tip is: Make your phone number clickable for mobile devices as 60% of google searches are from mobile devices, and the maximum number of people searches for local queries. So, if you make your phone number, clickable consumers can call you right away when they find you out.

Add Google Map 

As you listed your business in GMB, you are already in Google maps. Now it is time to add your Google map location to your website. On your website, you can add your business location in the footer or contact page. For a better understanding, you can check website footer examples and contact us for web design ideas.

When you add your location to your website footer it will look like this.

Adding google Maps to your business website lets your consumers reach you easily. Moreover, it resembles your business validity and trust.

Add Reviews/Testimonials

88% of online visitors believed their buying decision depended on online reviews. So, Adding reviews or testimonials to your website will help you to increase your conversion rate.

Dorik has made this adding testimonial option more accessible than ever for all its users. You don't have to code or design for it. Dorik has pre-built UI blocks and elements on the testimonial.

It's pretty simple to add testimonials using Dorik, but getting people to give testimonials can be tricky. For this instance, you must learn how to ask for testimonials.

Add Schema

Now the question that might come to your mind is,

What is Schema?

In a word, a schema is a structured data markup code. It describes a particular kind of structured data markup that aids search engines in comprehending the content of your website.

Add your Business Name, Phone Number, address, and your main product or service to the schema, or else you can add some FAQs also to let Google SERP shows your website first with the match searches.

First, structure your data markup code with a schema generator tool to add schema to your website. I use technical SEO.

So, Now- paste the schema you got from the schema generator to Add Schema box of your website page settings.

Add Engaging Contents

Contents are a significant part of SEO. Website contents are not only blogs. It can be your landing page copy. Even your landing page copy should be engaging and SEO-friendly to grab the attention of your consumers.

However, besides these, web content can be of 4 types. And you have to update all of them. let's explore them,

Blog

Write local Keyword focused content to be listed on the blue link list of Google SERPs. It can be your personal thoughts, experiences, or skill development writing. Make sure your blog is meaningful and SEO oriented.

Dorik allows its users to optimize their blog SEO from the dashboard.

Call-to-action

On your website, you must arrange various CTAs to drive your visitors to consumers. Use actionable content for CTA. Such as

Landing Page Content

To rank your local keywords on Google SERP, optimize your website landing page with targeted local keywords. Try adding local keywords in Title tags, meta titles, meta descriptions, URLs, and content for better use.

You can also design your landing page according to local intent. Moreover, optimizing links will also help your keywords to be rank fast, such as internal links, external links, inbound links, etc.

Dorik has a built-in SEO set-up that every Dorikers can do complete SEO, including the integral part— local SEO.

Multimedia Content 

Multimedia content on a website contains videos, images, audio, and animations. For a website, multimedia content is the second most powerful content. These contents engage most of the visitors and reduce the bounce rate of your website.

So, Update your multimedia content quality and gather them with full of reliable information.

"Integrating high-quality multimedia content can reduce website bounce rates by up to 40%, significantly enhancing visitor engagement and retention."

- UppercutSEO

4. Social media optimization for local SEO

More than 4.62 Billion people are using social media. Now Google considers social media content more than ever. Create your business profiles on social media and keep them updated. Post interactive content as social media posts reach the most.

Moreover, you can share your Google business profile and website content on social media to enrich more testimonials.

Here are some checklists for using social media for local SEO that you must follow:

5. YouTube SEO

YouTube has a total of 2.1 Billion active users per month. This resembles how large the platform it is mastering. In such a situation, getting into YouTube would be a clever step to increase your local business. Just getting into it won't work; you will need to optimize it very well so that it will work as a local SEO booster.

Maximizing the description box, enabling the tag function, embedding videos, and optimizing with NAP citation will work out successfully to grow your business locally.

Here are some checklists for using YouTube for local SEO that you must follow:

7 Most Used SEO Tools for Local SEO

Here I have listed the 7 most used SEO tools that work a hundred times faster than a manual process. Let's explore:

1. Google Analytics

Google Analytics will help you to track daily traffic and users. Moreover, it allows you to analyze how much of your traffic came from third-party referrals.

Core Features of Google Analytics: 

2. Google Search Console

Google search console will help your site to be google-friendly. And by the google search console, you can check your ranking on google for the keyword you work on. Moreover, you can check whether your pages are indexed or not.

Core Features of Search Console

3. Moz Local

Moz Local strengthens your website's visibility in Google SERPs by ensuring the correction and consistency of your business listing. The proper use of Moz will develop your website's local SEO strategy. It also asks for your accurate location for detailed research of your business.

Core Features of Moz Local 

4. SEMrush

Listing management of SEMrush is for local SEO. it is a tool that you should start working on right after listing your website on google. Cause it helps you track your business record. Moreover, it helps to analyze business ranks in your local city and monitor customer reviews and local search performance. SEMrush will mail you every update to keep you from visiting them repeatedly to check the performance.

Core Features of SEMrush (Listing Management) 

5. Ahrefs

Ahrefs mainly works for backlink checking of your website. It will help your website increase inbound links. Moreover, it allows you to analyze the best keywords, competitor analysis, and best use of anchor texts.

Core Features of Ahrefs 

6. Surfer Local

Surfer local is a feature of Surfer SEO. The most accessible feature of surfer local is that it is entirely free, and you do not need to enter your email. It helps your website's visibility on Google SERP and analyzes competitors ranking.

Core Features of Surfer Local 

7. SEOquake

SEOquake is an SEO tool, but it has a chrome extension. It is one of the most accessible interfaces from my aspects. However, it provides enough information about a website, website audit facilities, and domain comparison. These are not all; it will also advise you to improve your website whenever needed.

Core Features of SEOquake 

FAQs On Local SEO Guide, Answered

1. How long does local SEO take?

If you already have a listed business website and do local SEO, showing the local result will take as little as 1-2 months.

2. How much should I pay for local SEO?

According to Upwork, $300 - $2000 per month you should pay for local SEO project.

However, it depends on the business type and geographic location.

3. What is the best SEO score?

There is no particular score for SEO. However, many SEO AI tools suggest some according to their parameter. Such as, according to SEMrush, anything above 80 is the best SEO score.

For more queries about SEO, read: 60+ Top SEO Frequently Asked Questions and Answers You Should Know.

Get Your Local SEO Today!

I tried to draw a complete local SEO guide with strategies throughout this article. I hope you find it helpful and hit the mark. If so, do it today to develop your local business engagement.