Top 10 Local SEO Tips – How to Rank in the Top 3 for Local Search Results

Want to rank your business and learn how to appear in local search results? Here are the top 10 local SEO tips that will get you into the top Google SERPs.

No matter what product or service you offer, if you want to attract local customers, you need to do local search engine optimization.

According to Moz, 90% of purchases are made in physical stores and 80% of disposable income in the US is spent within 20 miles of your home. So yes, optimizing your stores for local searches can take your business to the next level.

In this detailed guide, let’s talk about how to get more out of it. But first, let’s start with the basics.

What is Local Search Engine Optimization (Local SEO)?

Local SEO is optimizing your business for relevant local searches.

Simply put, local business SEO is the way that any business can improve its online presence, especially for the local target audience.

Search engine optimization that is done based on location data is called local SEO. Basically, local SEO enables search engine crawlers to deliver highly relevant results to users based on location data.

After all, what’s the use of finding a pizzeria in New York if you’re staying in Delhi?

The competition is comparatively less in local SEO since you only have to compete with fewer services, products, or other businesses. So if you have a better product, you can easily get more customers from search engines if your website is perfectly optimized for local SEO.

For example, “Best Decorators Delhi” can give you a lot of search visibility if your site is properly optimized with the relevant keywords that are focused on local SEO terms such as Delhi event management, Best Delhi decorators, events of decoration in Delhi, etc.

Why is local SEO important?

So why should you worry about local SEO optimization? If you are curious about the benefits of Local SEO for local businesses, here are some of them.

• Whether you know it or not, almost half of all Google searches are local queries. That means people are looking for products / services that are close to them. That’s why searches “near me” are growing rapidly.
• 50% of mobile device users conducting local searches visit the store in 1 day.
• Greater local visibility means more traffic to your stores, more customers, and ultimately more sales.
• Generate highly qualified visitors and your conversions will be much higher when you optimize for local searches.

Also, take a look at these interesting statistics on local SEO to know its importance.

According to Hubspot’s marketing statistics, 82% of smartphone buyers search for the words “near me.” 72% of consumers who conduct a local search visit a store within a 5-mile radius.

Enough talk! Let’s now take a look at some of the most useful lists of local SEO tips that you can use to get the best Google rankings for your businesses. Let’s get started.

Table of Contents

• Top 10 Local SEO Tips for 2021 to Rank in Google Local 3 Pack
  • 1. Make sure your site is mobile friendly
  • 2. Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP) is essential
  • 3. Create or Claim Your Google My Business Page
  • 4. Find better keywords to rank for
  • 5. Sign up for local review sites
  • 6. Keep an eye on your competitors
  • 7. Optimize your site design
  • 8. Create local content
  • 9. Acquire relevant backlinks
  • 10. Don’t forget on-page SEO
• Local Search Engine Optimization FAQs
  • Final Thoughts on the Best Local SEO Tips 2021

Google’s Top 10 Local SEO Tips for 2021

1. Make sure your site is mobile-friendly

First things first: mobile searches are growing rapidly.

Did you know that over 60% of mobile search engines are more likely to contact a local business if they have a mobile-friendly site? So if you want to optimize for local SEO, you need to make sure your site is mobile-friendly first.

If your site is not mobile-friendly, you are losing a lot of money at the table. So be sure to ask your designer to create a mobile-friendly layout for your site, or you can simply follow this guide to create a mobile-friendly layout.

There is a simple and free tool to find out if your site is mobile responsive or not.

You can use Google’s mobile testing tool to find out easily. Just enter your site URL, click Test URL, and you’re done.

This is how it looks;

As you can see above, if your site is mobile-friendly, you’re good to go. Otherwise, use a mobile-friendly layout (we recommend checking out the fancy themes) or just install a WordPress plugin like WP Touch.

2. Name, Address and Phone Number are essential

NAP stands for name, address, phone number.

NAP is extremely important to any business that is finding ways to rank well in local search results.

Here is an example of what NAP SEO looks like;

As you can see above, the NAP information appears in GMB (Google My Business).

Since Google takes NAP data into account to display relevant results for geo-targeted searches. So be sure to include your NAP information within your eCommerce stores, website, app, etc.

Make sure to keep your NAP information up to date and try to be consistent if you want to perform well in local organic search results.

Where to use the NAP information?

You should include NAP information on your website, social media profiles, local business listing pages, Google My Business, and where needed.

Also, be sure to create a business page. Once you have set up your website for local SEO, you must first create a business page for your website. Include all the information that describes your business.

The key tip here is to optimize your business page for search engines. Therefore, use a variety of keywords that define and attract your potential customers. That way, you are not only creating an easy-to-use business page that increases your brand awareness but also attracts organic visitors.

3. Create or Claim Your Google My Business Page

GMB (Google My Business) is probably the number one business profile listing site that helps you reach and engage with local customers on Google Search and Maps.

This is what the Google My Business listing looks like;

As you can see above, you can get a GMB listing for both desktop users and mobile users, which can greatly help you get more customers if you are listed on Google My Business.

To get started with your list, you need to log in to Google My Business (by logging into your Google account or creating one). Then click Next.

Now, you can simply register with your company email domain and enter your company name.

You may also be asked to place a marker at the location of your business branch on a map. Finally, be sure to verify your account (read more details from here). Once verified, you can edit your business information, respond to reviews, and add photos.

4. Find better keywords to rank

You need to do keyword research to find less competitive but highly profitable keyword phrases to rank for.

You need to create a list of your target keywords. Keyword research is a no-brainer. Before dominating local search results, you must first define your target audience. Make sure to come up with really potential keyword ideas for your businesses to rank higher in search results.

Using local keywords is the KEY to start mastering your local results and being found by your local customers.

Ask yourself these questions before doing keyword research.

• What keywords are your target customers searching for?
• Are you ready to buy if you have enough solutions?
• Or are they just researching your keywords?
• Is your target audience willing to pay a large amount?
• What keywords do my competitors rank for?

When it comes to keyword research, there is ONLY one SEO tool that really comes in handy and the tool is SEMrush (read our in-depth SEMrush review).

SEMrush is the same tool that we have been using for years and we are very satisfied with its results.

You can find a lot of profitable but uncompetitive long-tail keywords easily with SEMrush. This is how it looks;

As you can see above, you can find keywords along with other keyword metrics such as search volume, trending, keyword difficulty, competition, and more.

5. Sign up for local review sites

In addition to being listed on GMB, you also need to get your business listed on other local review sites if you want more visibility for your local businesses.

It will also help you with user reviews, as reviews will not only help you increase awareness of the services or products you offer but will also give you more local visibility, which will help you gain more trust from users.

Here are some of the top local review sites to try:

• Yelp
• Google Places
• Judy’s Book
• Angie’s List
• Yahoo! local
• Bing
• MerchantCircle
• Citysearch
• Firm

Make sure to encourage your store visitors and users to leave positive 5-star reviews for your services and products on these review sites.

Encourage your existing subscribers and readers to leave positive reviews on your products. This definitely helps local SEO results get more visibility. Plus, it acts as social proof that brings you even more clients.

6. Keep an eye on your competitors

No matter what niche you are in, if you want to take your local SEO strategy to the next level, you need to spy on your competitor’s strategies.

Why? There are so many benefits of competitive research that include;

• Gives you tons of profitable ideas on topics to write about
• Help you identify the products and services that work well in your niche.
• You can find a ton of other monetization strategies that you never thought of

Enough talk! How can you spy on your competitors then?

Use competitor research tools like SEMrush.

Once you have access to SEMrush, focus on finding the following things;

• Do some deep organic research to help you find the best performing pages of your competitors (including revenue-generating pages)
• Analyze your competitor’s traffic stats (find out if your competitors are getting search, social, referral, or paid traffic so you can think about using those traffic sources too)
• Find your organic search positions (SEMrush helps you with that!)
• Keep an eye on the strength of your SERP competition (to see which keywords are improving or dropping your rankings)

Finally, be sure to do some PLA (Product Listing Ads) research using SEMrush as it reveals the information from your competitor’s ads, including all the keywords, titles, CPC, cost, and paid traffic they are using to generate. more sales on their sites.

7. Optimize your site design

Your website is definitely the center of your online marketing success. Your website should be easily accessible to both search engine crawlers and your website users.

One of the key SEO strategies for local businesses is creating a web-friendly layout. Here are some quick tips to help you optimize your site successfully in 2021.

• Use a responsive theme that’s faster
• Switch to a better web host (as your site speed is mostly dependent on your hosting and we recommend you give WPX Hosting a try)
• Improve your page load times (install a caching plugin, use a CDN, optimize images, optimize your site’s CSS, HTML and JavaScript code)
• Enable AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) to provide better performance for mobile users
• Create a mobile app (in case you want to take your online business to the next level)

These are some of the basic but important questions to consider in order to optimize your site design well.

Is your site easy to use? 

Your readers should be able to easily navigate your company pages, contact pages, product pages, etc. Be sure to use social media sites to find it easily, and use the search box to explore its categories and products.

Is your site search engine friendly? 

If your site is not optimized for search engines, it is almost impossible for you to rank higher for your product keywords.

Therefore, it is important to ensure that your homepage and internal pages are correctly optimized for the relevant keywords. Also, focus on optimizing your site load time for better local SEO results.

Is your site mobile-friendly? 

More and more users are using tablets, smartphones, etc. to browse and buy things online. So optimizing your site for mobile devices (as we discussed above) is a no-brainer.

8. Create local content

You need to cater to your audience with local content in order to rank # 1 on Google for local rankings. There are several types of local content that you can create, which are explained below.

FAQ Pages – You can rank featured snippets (also known as zero position) if you are creating useful FAQ pages on your site. According to BrightLocal, 58% of customers have used voice search to find local business information in the past 12 months. FAQ pages help you easily rank for voice searches.

Create specific pages for cities: If you want to target your ads specifically to local towns in their region, be sure to create specific landing pages for cities. Offer exclusive discounts and offers on your products and services to attract more people to become your customers.

Cover local events – There may be events limited to your local region only that can be seasonal, regional, or promotional. By targeting those local events with the targeting of the right keyword phrases, you can attract highly targeted visitors from organic search results.

Create Videos Explaining Your Services – YouTube is the second largest search engine. If you create videos that explain the products and services you offer, you are likely to get rewarding search results for the various keywords you are targeting.

Just get a tripod and start recording your own videos and explaining about your business to improve your local SEO rankings. Make sure to use your top keywords in the video meta description, title, and tags to get better rankings for your keywords. Also start building links for your videos to get more visibility.

9. Acquire relevant backlinks

If you have an online store or website, link building is the key to getting more organic traffic. Search engines like Google place a lot of importance on backlinks.

One of the best local SEO tips that you can’t ignore is creating links for your business-oriented websites. Without inbound links, your website will not survive to get more organic traffic.

Make sure you get links from

• Your competitors (run a competitor analysis using tools like SEMrush to find your competitors’ backlink sources)
• Your local business groups
• Local business directories
• The websites of your local newspapers
• Your colleagues who have places
• Your partners, suppliers, etc.

When it comes to link building, we recommend that you try guest posting on relevant sites in your industry. As a guest, posting is the best way to build quality, highly relevant links no matter what niche you are in.

Also, use the comments from blogs, sites like Quora to answer questions related to your niche. Although they are nofollow links, they attract quality traffic and help you balance your backlink profile well.

Although link building takes time, it is worth your time and money. Make sure you also use press releases to build credibility in your business as it also helps you increase your brand awareness and overall local SEO strategy.

10. Don’t forget on-page SEO

On-page SEO is the process of optimizing your individual pages for specific keywords. Done right, on-page SEO can bring you a ton of search engine visitors. Just keep in mind that you have to use LSI keywords instead of keyword stuffing.

LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords are those keywords that are semantically related to your main keyword. For example, “Apple” is an LSI keyword for iPad, MacBook, iPhone, and so on.

With that said, here are some effective on-page SEO tips that are easier to implement to boost your local SEO.

• Use your main keyword, your H1 and title tags as these are extremely important elements when it comes to on-page optimization.
• Use short and properly optimized URLs
• Include images and use alt tags with your target keywords (be sure to optimize their sizes before loading for faster page load times)
• Always link to other relevant internal pages on your site as it helps with deep crawling and more links to other pages on your site.
• Use proper optimization plugins like Rank Math or WordPress SEO from Yoast as they help you quickly optimize your posts for your top keywords

Local Search Engine Optimization FAQs

These are some of the most important questions about local search engine optimization to get higher rankings in search results.

Why is local SEO important for your business’s local search results?

Yes, local SEO is absolutely important for SEO as there are a ton of benefits that include;

• Helps local business owners develop their strong online presence
• Helps attract more customers (from local searches)
• More conversions and sales

Above all, local SEO helps your business stand out in local searches, increase traffic, sales, conversions, etc. of your site in general.

What are the most important things to keep in mind when optimizing local searches?

These are the 3 most important factors that play a key role in attracting local customers to your business and stores.

1. Prominence (refers to how well known a company is, so the key here is to get as many positive 5-star reviews as possible)
2. Relevance (refers to the relevance of your business to the keywords people are searching for)
3. Distance (the closer your store is to the “searches near me”, the more qualified visitors you will get)

Is Link Building Needed For Local SEO?

Absolutely. According to the Moz survey, “link signals” are the most important ranking factor for local organic results.

Take a look at the survey results below.

As you can see above, linking signals like domain authority, domain quantity, incoming anchor text play a key role in improving your local organic ranking.

Are there tools for local SEO?

Yes, here is a list of some of the most useful SEO tools that can help you with local search optimization.

• SEMrush (useful for keyword research, backlink analysis, keyword research, site audits, etc.)
• Yoast WordPress SEO (useful for optimizing your blog posts)
• Google My Business (helps you get your business listed on Google)
• Check sites like Yelp (to get user reviews on your business)

Final Thoughts on the Best Local SEO Tips 2021

The ability to rank in local search results really depends on prominence, distance, relevance, link signals, etc. Always make sure to focus on getting positive reviews from your customers and properly optimize your website for local SEO for the best results.

If you really want to dominate local search results, focus on defining your key audience first. Then build brand awareness and start using potential keywords to dominate your local business search rankings. Although there are many local SEO strategies out there, you need to figure out which keywords give you the most weight and then start using them on your business websites.

Have more questions about local search engine optimization? Let us know in the comments.