Local SEO Hack To Improve Local Website Ranking on Google

SEO is the backbone of digital marketing and allows businesses to rank their websites on different keywords to reach the desired audience. With the collection of marketing strategies and elements, SEO can significantly increase a business’s revenue. The top three SERP results enjoy more than 50% of search traffic, so making our local SEO hacks an integral part of your marketing strategy might just be crucial to your success.

Local SEO allows you to rank your site in searches originating from a particular area or city, resulting in more exposure to potential customers and target audiences. It has significantly more conversion rates than standard SEO. This article will provide you with all the answers for how do I hack local SEO.

Let’s dive right in.

Choose The Right Keywords

Keywords are the pillar for both organic and paid marketing. Your efforts will only be fruitful when you have selected and induced the right keywords in your web content. Since most searches on search engines are queries, keyword research will equip you with phrases and words that people search for.

Find keywords and phrases with the local element for a local SEO hack. The first thing to do is to narrow down the geographic location. Most keyword tools will provide global results. You can reduce the search extent to country, state, city, and even area.

For example, a business offering dental care services in New York may use keywords like “Dental care New York” or “Best dental services in New York.” Similar to standard keyword research rules, you must use search terms and phrases with low competition but high traffic. Remember the following three simple rules for your local SEO search

1. Specify your location
2. Focus on industry-related keywords
3. Use keyword modifiers

Use Google My Business Hacks To Attract Local Audiences

Google My Business or “Google Business Profile” is a tool that you must use to improve your business sales and increase organic traffic. It creates a business listing in Google’s directory and is a one-stop solution for potential customers that may be looking for services and products similar to yours.

You have to create Google Business Account to create your Google My Business listing. It is part of the local SEO strategy, and when a person searches for your product or service in the local area, your business will show up in Google Maps in the local search result. Once Google verifies that you are an original business and there are duplicate listings with the same name, it will create your My Business account.

Optimize Your Google My Business Listing

Creating your Google My Business account is one part and optimizing it to the audience’s needs is another. You have to add many elements to make your listing complete and look well organized to show as it also represents professionalism. You can follow the below steps to optimize your Google My Business listing

1.      Submit Complete & Authentic Data

Your Google my business listing has various elements in it. It would be best to enter all the required data, including your business website URL, location, direction, reviews, and contact information like phone numbers.

All your efforts and investments are in vain if people reach inactive emails or phone numbers. So, try to input as much accurate data as you can. It also includes putting the correct address and updating the location with a new one if you have moved to a new location.

2.      Verify & Claim Your location on Google Map

In your business account creation, Google will ask you to enter your business’s location and send a postcard. The process typically takes a week, and after receiving, login to your My Business dashboard and enter the code from the postcard to verify your business. In some cases, companies can verify via phone call. You have to check the “Verify by Phone” option to see if you are eligible for this service.

3.      Keep Your Working Hours Accurate

My listing allows you to display the working hours of your business, making it easier for people to find out when you open up your office or store and are available to entertain people on calls and on-site.

This is an important aspect of enhancing your customer experience, ensuring they don’t waste time and energy visiting your premise when it’s closed, or there is no one to attend to them.

4.      Respond to Reviews within 24 hours

Studies show more than 99% of people read reviews before buying any product or service. They are a crucial part of your branding strategy and business reputation. Good reviews can boost a business’s sales, while negative reviews can lower them and benefit your competitor.

You cannot prevent negative reviews. However, you can counter them and prevent them from damaging your business reputation. The key to it is to respond within 24 hours. The quicker you respond, the more it portrays that you care about your customers. Always react nicely to constructive reviews, enhancing the engagement between you and your customer base.

5.      Add Posts Frequently

If your profile has a website link, update the web content and blogs frequently to stay updated with the latest keywords and show the visitors that your business is active. It also includes updating your business information when needed.

6.      Add Products to your Listing

Google My Business also allows retail merchants and brick-and-mortar store owners to add products to their listings. It clarifies customer queries and makes the purchase process more straightforward. Moreover, you can add products to catalogs and carousels to market them in a way that attracts and engages your target audience. Businesses selling online and on-site products can benefit from the product listing feature.

Create a Mobile Friendly Website

Statistics show that around 60% of website traffic comes from mobile, so businesses must optimize their website for mobile devices. If your website is not mobile-friendly, you are missing out on a significant chunk of revenue.

A mobile-friendly website means that a website’s elements should be displayed appropriately on every screen size, specifically for smartphones and tablets. A mobile-friendly site means optimizing the website in the following manner

1. Make the text large, so it becomes easier to read
2. Mobile friendly navigation
3. Page elements and buttons become touch screen friendly
4. Fast download speed

In addition, a mobile-friendly site has better SEO. Optimizing the website speed has better chances of ranking in higher positions and getting organic search traffic. Moreover, when you add relevant keywords, optimize your Google My Business listing, and add compelling CTA, your mobile SEO site optimization can yield high conversion rates.

Mobile-friendly websites are also crucial to improve the user experience. It directly affects your customer experience and conversion rates. When aiming to target the local market with a local SEO hack, you must ensure the best user experience, as people are already interested in that particular service or product.

Create Location-Based Pages On Your Website

A location-based page incorporates all your business key information like name, address, and phone number for customers for a particular area. Location pages enable people to find nearby store details through local SEO.

The number of your location page depends on the number of locations you have. A business that has multiple brick-and-mortar stores needs many location base pages. For example, a business with offices in New York, New Jersey, and Florida needs three location-based pages and their respective SEO strategies.

·         Organize & Participate In Local Events

Your local SEO hack can include organizing and participating in local events. It is a great way to increase your brand awareness locally and engage with new customers. You can write blogs and update web content that has local SEO and rank them in a particular region. It works for both organizing and participating in any event. You can also use local SEO to benefit from local geographical holidays and events.

·         Optimize Voice Search

Voice search is one of the latest SEO strategies. It allows business to rank their websites through Voice search applications like Siri and Google Assistant. Voice search is the future and how we search for products and services online. The technology is already in use, and its evolution is inevitable. So businesses must align their Google My Business hacks with voice search.

Local Ranking Signals

The above factors will enable you to create and implement your local SEO strategy. But, you need to set the KPIs for your strategy and measure its performance. Following are the factors you can monitor to measure your local SEO hack strategy

1.      Prominence

Prominence means your popularity in a particular area compared to your competitors. If your business is popular, then some work has already been done. However, if you are starting from scratch, you have to boost the prominence factor and put your business on notice. You can measure and improve the metrics like social media marketing, backlinks, and positive reviews.

2.      Relevance

The search results or your Google listing should be relevant to the keyword to key phrase people search. If your business is relevant to the search query, you will rank higher in the SERP. It would be best to keep the information simple so the Google algorithm can understand your business and its relevancy to the search term.

3.      Distance

Distance metrics mean your business’s closer to the person searching for it. The closer you are to the person, the higher the chances you will rank in the top spots of SERPs. It depends on the longitude and latitude of both parties.

Try Our Local SEO Hacks To Enhance Your Digital Presence

The above strategies will allow established and new start-ups to rank their websites locally and benefit from rich leads, high conversion rates, and increased revenue. However, if you want detailed insight into the latest SEO hacks, do visit Paul Browning to score your very own local SEO Guide.

Stay ahead of your competitors with local keywords, mobile optimization, and performance tracking. The learning begins here.