How to optimize your website for local searches

13 strategies to optimize the SEO of your local business website

If you have a storefront business or offer a service that is within a specific local geographic area, then you’ll want to focus your marketing efforts on getting in front of local traffic.

Since many marketing initiatives are more global in nature and do not help you at all, there are actually a few specific things you can do to ensure that you are visible in front of the local people you want to attract to your business.

In addition to using targeted Facebook and Google ads, local search optimization can help get your business found in searches when people search for a business like yours in your area.

So what can you do to make your website rank better for local search?

Here are 13 techniques to improve your ranking locally:

1. Make a list of the local regions you would like to rank for: This will include your city, your main metropolitan area, county, and province or state. Think of neighboring cities that your business may also serve, in addition to yours. Then create long-tail keyword phrases for each of these. For example, instead of optimizing for “Home Staging”, you can optimize for various sentences including: “Yourcityhere Home Staging” “Yourmetroregionhere Home Staging”, “YourCountyhere Home Staging”, “Yourregionhere home staging”, and so on.
2. Add your business address to the footer of your website in text: Not only does this act as a clue to Google that you are a local business, it also shows your website visitors that they are in the right place. Displaying your location and service areas on your website is vital for localized businesses. It’s also a good idea to embed a dynamic Google map to make it easier for customers to find your location to a good extent.
3. Add a link to your business on Google Maps: Check if your business appears on Google Maps, and if not, add a shipment to get it listed. Not only will this serve to help customers find directions to your place, but it is also another marker that tells Google where you are locally.
4. Write a web page or blog post dedicated to each local keyword phrase: Using keywords and geographic locations throughout your website is also important for search engines to keep you first in their search results. I’m not a huge fan of this technique as it can clutter up your website, but you can create a local web page based on keyword phrases or a blog post for every page, including every service you offer to give those a boost. classifications. Avoid adding these pages to the main navigation if possible; however, they still need to link to the home page of your website in order to be indexed.
5. Optimize each web page so that it ranks well for the keyword you are targeting: Put the keyword phrase in various places in the writing and coding of your website pages, including:
• Meta tags for keywords and descriptions
• File name or URL of the page. For example: best-home-staging-Abbotsford.HTML
• Page header within an H1 tag
• Page subheadings within H2 and H3 tags
• Graphics file names used on the page
• Hyperlinked text containing the keyword phrase, ideally located in the first and last paragraph of the page
• Header tag with the keyword phrase at the bottom of the page
6. Write and post new local content regularly: Adding new content to a website, especially as a blog post, is important for all websites. Making that new content location-based with your keywords makes it even more valuable. This could be a press release about the things you are doing in the community. You could do a review of a new local product or service. You can also create a recommended links page that shares information about other complementary local businesses.
7. Retrieve links on other local business sites: Ask other local businesses if you can exchange links. When they post a link or recommendation to your website, it improves the ranking of your own website.
8. Take and share local photos: Make sure to take pictures of your business doing things in local places. Name these images when you post them on your website or blog with filenames that include your local keyword phrases. When people go to Google Photo Search and search for “best home programmer in Abbotsford”, if you have a photo with that file name, your image will appear at the top.
9. Local landmarks of reference: If you are near the main landmarks, check them out on their website. For example, if someone is typing “bedroom lamp store near Grand Central Station”, if you have that reference on your website, you can find that phrase in Google searches.
10. Use Alt tags: Make sure all images used on your website have local keyword phrase file names and alt tags.
11. Create an XML map or sitemap: This makes it easier for Google to crawl all the pages on your website.
12. Manually submit your website to local and specialized directories: Using local directories and top directories with local listings is invaluable in finding your local business. Directories like Yelp, Foresquare. Moz, Instagram, and Houzz are great places to start. Create a complete profile and be sure to add a lot of images.
13. Use review sites: Harness the power of review sites. Create free business accounts with some of the big review sites like Yellow Pages, Insider Pages, Angie’s List, etc. and encourages repeat and satisfied customers to write reviews about your business. Good reviews can be of great help to your customers and the search engines.

Once you have optimized your website for local SEO, there are other external methods you can follow to improve your local search results. So take the time to review your website and add local keywords, links, content, and images and you’ll be on your way to getting more local customers.