How To Boost Local SEO – The Beginner’s Guide

If you are wondering how to boost your local SEO then you have come to the right place. Here we will cover the most important factors that will determine your local search engine rankings. Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO) isn’t all about keywords. Furthermore, Local SEO is not only about long-tail keywords in your headers and meta-tags. In fact, all major search engine spiders do not depend only on meta-data.

As search engine algorithms continue to evolve, they give far more weight to things such as; content quality, value to the reader, site authority, page speed, format, and layout. These are important factors considered and proven ways how to boost your Local SEO. Here we will discuss things that you need to be aware of to effectively rank for local SEO.

After reading this information, be sure to go over your website to confirm that you aren’t overdoing or underdoing any of these steps. By following the suggestions below,  your local search engine ranking should increase.

While the information we provide is thorough there are other advanced techniques you can use to boost your local rankings even higher.

Because SEO is always changing, it’s important to remember that advertising and local search engine optimization complement one another. Using both simultaneously will be the most effective strategy to grow your local online presence and increase the visibility of your brand.

The following is a baseline that will help you brief yourself and get fully up-to-date on the latest and most effective local SEO strategies.

How To Boost Local SEO – Content Readability

Read over your page. Now go find a 10-year-old and have them take a look. When you log into your website, you might already know where everything is, but if you have left it in the hands of your IT guy, that might work to your advantage in this case.

• Is your website easy to navigate?
• Is it visually appealing without appearing cheap or overly gimmicky?

Believe it or not, web crawlers are starting to look at page layout and ease of navigation among other things. They will see if your internal links are easy to read, and they will compare the information from following those links to make certain that accuracy and consistency are maintained. Keeping the information in sync across all areas is a surefire way when learning how to boost your local SEO.

Search engines care about the user experience, after all, and they want to get their regular customers to the right information quickly.

The Days of Java Buttons and Cute Pictures are Gone.

If you have buttons that appear on the site like images, make sure that they are tagged in the HTML with exactly what is written on the button. You may have noticed this on other sites. You mouse over a button that says, “Home,” and a caption near your pointer reads “Home.”

Web spiders aren’t looking at your page visually, they are analyzing it through code, so if a button isn’t tagged, they never load the picture to decode the information presented. They simply see it as an image and a link. That’s bad.

Generally speaking, the text is best. With CSS and font embedding available, there is rarely a need for an image link (and if you have one, then it needs a caption encoded with it).

How To Boost Local SEO – Make Navigation Easy for Your Visitors

The next thing you want to look at is easy navigation. Look again at your landing page. Pretend that you are your average customer.

Why did you come to this site?

If you run a flower shop, it’s most likely your customer showed up to buy flowers.  They are unlikely on your page to read about the history of how your business was handed down from your grandma. If your order form or catalog isn’t the very first thing your customer sees, then make sure you link to it and it is one of the first things visible to customers when they come to your website.

Everything else needs to be in the website’s header menus or sidebar.  Also, you could include additional information in your footer. The top of your web page is prime real estate. You, visitors, are usually there for one thing.  Make sure what they are there for is smack dab in front of them.

How To Boost Local SEO with Accurate and Consistent NAP Across Listings and Citations

Your NAP information (Name, Address, and Phone number) should be readily available as well.

Typically, this information is usually in the footer of a site. This allows you to display the information on every page. The user doesn’t have to go spend very much effort trying to navigate your site to find your contact information. If they do, then they will just leave and go elsewhere.

It should be on every, single, page; and it should appear identically.

You want to make sure this information is consistent and easy to read. Do No fancy fonts.  Also, make sure it is large enough to see.

It is extremely important that NAP information appears the same, in all listings. Check every local listing to confirm they all match, and you are more likely to improve your local search engine rankings.

For example, if you have accidentally transposed a number in your address or different formatting for your telephone number, it could have a negative impact on your local rankings. Keep in mind, spiders aren’t people, they’re programs, and they are attempting to emulate a user experience. They aren’t actually loading content or viewing the page as your human customers do.

How To Boost Local SEO by Ensuring All Text On You Website is Easily Readable

In planning for the future, all text on your site should be easily readable.

The sound and feel of every little statement should sound as you would if you were actually speaking directly to your customers.

The overuse of keywords is very obvious and it typically hurts the quality of your content, not to mention your local rankings. Instead, focus on a natural language approach.  This will also work to help you rank in voice searches or map direction searches. These types of searches are becoming exponentially more popular all the time.

Use a NAP Widget For Piece of Mind

The simplest way to have your NAP information in sync is to use a NAP widget. This will give you peace of mind that the NAP information is always accurate and consistent across your entire website.

And even though it is not technically a part of a local SEO strategy, you will want to check any advertising to make sure NAP information is consistent there as well. Consistency is important.

Another advantage of a NAP widget is that you can use your logo, to assist with brand visibility. Just be sure that the text information is the actual text and not an image or some other format. Don’t forget to hyperlink your email address to make it easy for the spiders to find everything.

Don’t Abuse or “Stuff” Keywords

Search engines can easily detect keyword spamming. A more effective approach is to create content that relates and is relevant to your keywords.

Another way how to boost local SEO is to make sure to use long-tail keywords in all page titles. This is important because it not only is the first thing your customer sees but how search engine spiders determine how to evaluate the rest of the content of that page.

Use keywords that relate specifically to your product or service.  Also, make sure that they reflect what is in the title of the post.

Don’t just shoot for the most keywords that provide the most impressions. You want to target keywords that help make you stand out from your competition.

In the above flower business example, take notice of niche opportunities. Let’s say prom is coming up and you know customers will be searching for flowers for the prom, then you can use specific flowers or arrangements that they would typically be searching for the occasion. Focus on keywords like “Corsages” or “Boutonnieres” versus “flowers for prom”. 

• Which one do you think receives more searches and impressions on Google?
• Is the keywords your focusing letting your customer know that you carry the specific arrangement they are looking for?

The title also makes it simple to build content that speaks specifically to the arrangements. This will give you the ability to use the natural language approaches and use your target keywords multiple times without appearing like you’re trying to stuff or spam the keywords.

Your customers and search engine rankings will reward you for your efforts.

When it comes to local search engine optimization, it should also come as no surprise that being current with trends, news, events, and methods is absolutely essential to ensuring longevity in rankings.

In this section, we will be briefly detailing some of the best ways to place emphasis on always being current.

Use Google AdWords

Think about it, if your target is to get your page ranking higher on a search engine, why not make the search engine people happy by enlisting in their own marketing program.

Google also offers advice to page managers in order to boost their overall results. Give them what they want. Each click from AdWords is another redirect to your site, it’s another backlink, and it’s being offered from the company that most people go to when they are looking for something.

Keep Your Content Dynamic, and Fresh

If you are having trouble finding things to blog about, why not use your blog as a way of keeping your visitors informed about your industry or even the entire sector?

Stay on top of breaking news, offer helpful tips that add value for your customers, put out newsletters and press releases about how your business is keeping up with the latest trends. Foster interaction, and be willing to address specific issues raised by your customers. These are sound practices in any content marketing strategy.

I like the “Here’s the short answer, but you can find out more on this blog post: LINK” approach.

This boosts traffic, delivers a quick and decisive answer to their question, and gives them a page on your site to look at if they want to carry the research deeper in that event.

It’s not unlike grade school, if one student asks, that means half the class is wondering about the same question, and simply afraid to raise their hand.

Having a website is no longer just an informational headpiece, it is the hub of your entire online marketing campaign.

Social accounts provide outside links from your website so that customers can find you on other dashboards. Advertisements or engagements in your social communities provide backlinks.

Having all of our online accounts in harmony with one another makes it easier for anyone to find you, spread the word, and convert to regular customers, and it can also boost your search engine rankings.

Try keeping all of your accounts uniform.

Leverage Your Social Media Connections.

Instead of randomly sending out alerts and emails, engage your audiences in the discussion. Find out what they would like to see from your company.

• Solve their problems with your products.
• Develop apps.
• Form Facebook groups, or even your own forums.

Don’t just engage in the community, be the community.

Doing so will ensure that all offline activities link back to your site, drive traffic, and create a fan base.

As a general rule, these sites should encourage social activity among your fans, and not be just another banner for advertising.

Even if you are focused on local SEO, the media can play a vital role in that development also. If your press release or hosted blog posts are getting attention, you can provide your own blog article on-site that links back to the content.

Two-way traffic is something that search spiders crave. It increases both your ranking and your ability to drive an audience, creating a feedback loop rather than a one-way portal. In the end, you won’t reach, and you can boost it while increasing your search ranking.

The next time you do a guest blog or get a news story published about your site, be sure to link to it from your own site blog, and write a brief article about its contents, or expand on the article’s content with more information that couldn’t be squeezed into the blog article.

Leave a comment on the media source, linking back to your own page with something like, “Find out more, here.”

Review the comment sections of articles

Reviewing the comment sections in articles about your company to give you more insight and ideas for new blog content.

Blog about the question, then go back to the comments and drop a link.

Show your customers that you want to be engaged, and send those little spiders back and forth to your page as much as possible. You might also be able to use your business card widget off-site.

How To Boost Local SEO Rankings Starting On Your Website

The best way to boost your search engine rankings starts on your website. But instead of simply focusing on keywords, you can boost your local SEO by engaging on other sites and linking to the content.

Make header titles that matter, engage your audience, and keep everything consistent and natural. Don’t stuff the web page content with keywords or intentionally write as if you’re talking to some sort of robotic mechanism?

Above all, make it a point to constantly be evolving and staying in the know when it comes to current and arising SEO trends.

In truth, there’s not a lot to learn if you’re always following the rules and not trying to game the system. However, it’s important to still make note of algorithm updates that engines such as Google roll out.

If you focus on writing natural content and trying to help the reader with their questions or the reason that they’re even on the page, you will find that the results are much more worthwhile.

In turn, without a doubt, you will see your search engine ranks climb, and the traffic will keep flowing.

Continue Learning About How to Boost Local SEO

In closing, I would like to take a moment to thank you for investing some time into this course. I hope you’ve learned a few things, and I wish you all the best of luck with your future marketing efforts.