If you want to dominate local search, then you can’t afford to miss this article. Click here to discover 7 local SEO tips you need to know in 2018.

Local Seo Tips

As of last year, over 70% of consumers visited a store within ten miles after performing a local search for products or services. Having a local optimization strategy in place increases the chance these consumers are coming to you.

This is especially true now that mobile devices have overtaken desktop as the prominent mode of online searching. People now have the ability to find local services in seconds, no matter where they are.

However, some businesses are still falling behind when it comes to local search rankings. This means they’re turning potential customers over to their competitors who’ve taken measures to boost their local visibility.

In 2018, instead of falling behind, it’s time to take steps to dominate local search results in your area.

To help you out, we’re covering eight local SEO tips that will help bring in more business.

1. Google My Business Listing

Claiming your Google My Business listing was important in 2017 and remains critical for your local exposure this year. If you don’t have one, this is the first thing you need to do.

This listing acts as your local identifier in Google. Through it, users will get access to your address, business hours, and phone number. It will also direct traffic to your website.

A Google My Business listing also allows you to utilize Google Maps, which is an important geo identifier for your company.

When creating your listing, make sure all your information is complete and accurate. Conflicting information could hurt your search results.

2. Take Advantage of Google Posts

One of the local SEO tips that’s gaining popularity is using Google Posts in conjunction with your Google My Business listing. This feature got introduced last year and is available with every listing.

The Google Posts feature allows you to broadcast additional content like upcoming sales and events to your business listing. What’s great about this new functionality is that your posts appear in search engine results pages.

This provides you with a more interactive tool for communicating with current and potential customers through your local listing. A great technique is to publish positive customer reviews as posts. It’s easy to use and very effective.

3. Local Content

Part of local optimization is establishing yourself as an authority in your community, within your given industry. A great way to do that is with locally-geared content.

Utilizing a blog on your website provides you with a great opportunity to publish relevant content related to your city. Through insightful articles, you can also establish yourself as a trusted and knowledgeable entity in your local business sector.

When considering content, think about what consumers in your area would find useful. Make your blog a resource hub for local events or provide consumers with business resources related to your industry.

4. Utilize Title and Meta Descriptions

This is one of the more technical local SEO tips discussed in this list. Title and meta tags are components of the coding on your website. They play an important role in how your site ranks.

Title and meta tags act as short previews or identifiers for each page on your site. They need to describe precisely what the content on the page covers.

However, they should also contain geographic information as well. This will help these pages rank not only for the product or service discussed on a page but for the city you do business in.

If you aren’t comfortable researching and adding this information yourself, work closely with an SEO professional to determine the best tags to include on your site.

5. Increase Exposure Through Online Directories

Aside from your Google My Business listing, you need to advertise in other directories in order to maximize your local exposure.

This includes directories like Yelp, Bing, and Angie’s List. It’s also important to scout for any local directories that serve your particular city.

When creating these listings, it’s extremely important that all information is consistent. Simple mistakes like misspellings or an incorrect phone number may create a huge mess in search results. Correcting this is a huge headache, so make sure your directory campaign is thought-out and calculated.

6. Customer Reviews

Online reviews of products and services are critical for every business today. In fact, 84% of users trust the reviews they read as much as hearing about a company from a friend.

Customer reviews are also very beneficial when trying to pull in more local business. People often go straight to reviews when searching for a restaurant or mechanic. If they don’t see a single review, they’re likely to move on to the next business.

This is where all those local directories come in handy. Customers can post reviews of their experience to sites like Yelp and Angie’s List. This is great material to add to your social media profiles and website.

Make sure that if you get a bad review (it happens), you respond to the review so that people can see you’re proactive and care about customer experience.

7. Add Schema Markup to Your Site

This is another of the technical local SEO tips that you need to employ. Schema markup is information you add to the code of your website. It helps provide search engines additional information about your business.

Adding this structured data to your site affects how search engines rank you. It allows Google to get a better idea what the content on your site is about when they crawl the internet.

This means that you’ll have a better chance of ranking higher than other local businesses that haven’t added this data to their site. Think of it as an extra edge to your organic search results.

Grow Your Business with These Local SEO Tips

Today, it’s dangerous to assume your local competition isn’t using the local SEO tips discussed above to increase their business outreach in your community. It’s essential that you take the time to practice local optimization so new clients don’t slip through your hands.

Spending a little money on a professional SEO strategy isn’t a bad idea. The long-term ROI is worth the initial expense.

If you’re ready to take your digital marketing strategy to the next level, contact us today.