Local SEO: the 10 most important things to know

The basics to know about local SEO

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While we've gone over the basics in the introduction to the text, we're going to give you a little more
information on the practices and benefits of local SEO. Essentially, this strategy helps businesses
promote their products and services to consumers at the precise moment they type their queries into
Google.

This system encompasses several sub-strategies, including getting your site to rank higher on Google, as
well as being able to gain a premium place in directories including Yelp, Superpages, and Foursquare,
and finally, put localized content on your site.

Localized search continues to gain popularity, with users constantly turning to the Internet to find the
best local products and services in their area. When you implement local SEO practices in your marketing
strategy, you dramatically increase your visibility with potential customers.

Local SEO is for those who are already interested in what you are offering, making reach and conversion
an organic process, as it appears to be for the customer. So what are the top local SEO SEO services? This
is what we will explore in the next paragraphs:

1- Website localization

This is one of the easiest local SEO methods, hence the title which is very clear. Locating a website is like
including information on your website that indicates the city, country, municipality or region where your
business resides and where you provide your services. Depending on the type of business you operate,
this could mean creating individual pages for each location, service center, or resource center.

Another way to get visibility in your area is to involve your business in events that take place there and
report them on your website and social media accounts. If these community building activities or events
relate directly to your business, it is a common practice to post information about them on your website.
This can be done in the form of articles or blog posts or simply by linking community projects and so on.

Do you have a local SEO project?

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2- Focus on consistency

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One of the most important aspects when it comes to listing your business in online directories is to
provide a constant flow of information through all of your communication channels. This means that all
of your online profiles should contain the exact same information. Specifically, all profiles should include
your name, address, and phone number so that interested customers and loyal customers can find you
easily.

While this seems like a fairly straightforward thing to consider, presenting inconsistent information is one
of the most common problems with local SEO. If your data is inconsistent, it could not only hurt your
rankings, but could also have a noticeable impact on your overall reach and sales.

Make sure to keep an eye on all channels and if your business changes location or phone number,
double-check all sites to make sure the information is accurate and up to date.

3- Use shema tags

For those still unfamiliar with shema tags, let's start by defining them. These tags are actually pieces of
code that can be added to the website so that the information that appears when your website link
appears in search results is more complete.

Providing more information in this way greatly increases the number of clicks made on links, hence the
positive influence of this practice on local SEO.

4- Create and claim your Google My Business

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Google being the most used search engine, it is important to claim your page Google My Businessso your
business information appears on widely used Google services. This includes local search, Google+ as well
as the Maps app. When you claim your GMB page, it also works for Microsoft's equivalent, Bing Places.
Being part of this online directory is essential for your SEO, as it will generate traffic both to your website
as well as to your physical location (if there is one).

5- Optimize your Google My Business page

Following the point previously made, let's underline the importance of optimizing your Google My
Business page to get the maximum benefit from it. To do this, be sure to update your information and
provide accurate information regarding the services / products you offer. Do not forget to update the
data concerning the hours of operation and the location of your business.

Note that the integration of visuals also contributes to the optimization of your page. More specifically, it
is strongly recommended to include on your Google My Business page your company logo (on your
profile), a cover photo and one or more photos evocative of the services or products you are promoting.

6- Reviews and ratings

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Reviews and ratings of your business matter a lot, and there are a number of reasons for this. First of all,
it's the best way to find out what customers are thinking about your services. In addition, these reviews
count towards your local search rankings. Your search engine ranking score is based on many factors, but
customer reviews make up just over 10% of it.
Specifically, Google looks at the average number between your rating and the total number of reviews.
Additionally, the majority of consumers base their purchasing decisions on online reviews, and in turn,
those reviews send signals to search engines to make sure you are offering a site and service that is good
and worthy. of confidence.

7- Constantly add new content

As with the majority of SEO practices, the fact of create contentengaging, interesting and up-to-date is a
key element that has a big impact on your rankings as well as the way you find customers.

Google is constantly on the lookout for new content to crawl, and therefore, if you update frequently, it
will help you attract new audiences while dramatically improving search rankings in local areas. This
applies to all of your news channels including social media as well as your GMB page.

There are tons of businesses out there, and probably a lot that you compete directly with. All of these
tips and tricks affect your local SEO, so stay tuned to make sure your website appears first and performs
well.

Interested in learning more about SEO? Listen to a podcast! To guide you to some great podcasts that
talk about the news in this area, we've created a list:10 SEO and web marketing podcasts to put on your
playlist.

8- Give clear indications that the company is local

To improve your local SEO, be sure to make it obvious that your business is indeed local. To do this, some
very useful tips can be used:

Give your keywords a local touch if you want to serve a particular region by mentioning that same region
near your main keywords;

When naming your images, include the name of your region in their titles;

When choosing your URL address, include the name of your region in it;

Use the process mentioned in the first point for your META tags;

Indicate all of your contact information (name, phone number and address) at the bottom of the page as
well as your opening hours.

9- Adapt your site to mobile devices

If offering a website adapted to mobile devices is definitely a factor positively influencing SEO in general,
the same goes for local SEO. Thus, if your site is displayed correctly and quickly on a small screen, you
will undoubtedly reap the benefits.

10- Optimize your content

We already know well the importance of inbound links for the optimization of a site and for obtaining a
good positioning in the search results. For those who want to improve their local SEO, inbound links are
also an aspect that should not be overlooked. Note, however, that these must have been obtained
through a netlinking strategy targeting business sites, associations or local information.

The more the links obtained will come from sites whose notoriety is established, the more they will have
a positive influence on the local referencing of the site. Once again, we must focus on quality more than
quantity.