As important as your local SEO strategy is, optimizing your website should be considered a continuous process. To ensure that your website is listed among the top search results, search engine optimization (SEO) needs to be a part of your digital marketing strategy. Businesses that are not widespread and are focused on a single geographical area need SEO strategies that focus on local keywords. These local keywords will help drive the search rankings up and draw the target audience to your website. In order to supersede your local competitors, it is important to optimize your website with a modern local SEO strategy for 2021.

What Is Local SEO? What Is the Difference Between SEO and Local SEO?

Local SEO assists in promoting a business to local customers in a geographical area. Search engines gather information for local SEO by looking for indicators like local content, local links, local records, and statistics for providing the most relevant local results to the viewer. Traditional SEO is focused on improving the website’s search engine ranking on a national or global scale. It helps in improving the visibility of the business on a global level. Both SEO and local SEO follow some of the common strategies for improving the website ranking and its visibility.

Why Is Local SEO Important?

Listed below are a few fascinating statistics that will show why is local SEO so important for local businesses:

• Almost 50% of all Google searches involve a local search.
• Searches with “near me” in keywords have increased 150% faster than the regular searches.
• Around 75% people searching for something local end up visiting the related store on that day itself.

The above statistics show that local searches comprise most of the SEO world. Therefore, if you work on the local SEO strategy for your business, you will increase your visibility and you will be able to see a significant increase in foot traffic at your commercial building.

Optimize for Google My Business

An essential local SEO strategy for 2020 involves optimizing your website for Google My Business. Google My Business can be called the bible for local SEO. We all know that Google is the most popular search engine used by most people around the world. Google prefers to share and rank the content and websites that the search engine can verify. Google My Business is a tool from Google that helps the business meet Google’s search engine ranking requirements. If Google is able to verify your business as authentic, your website can be rewarded with the popular sidebar space in Google local search. You need to create and verify a Google My Business page and encourage your customers to write positive reviews. Additionally, you should respond to these reviews by thanking them and specifying the location.

Optimize Your Website Content for Local Keywords

Using local keywords in your website content boosts visibility and search engine rankings. However, just adding local keywords isn’t sufficient by itself; you must also consider the quality of the content. Google prefers high-quality, useful content on websites. Websites with good quality content are ranked higher. Add important local keywords to your web content, which customers use when searching for your business. For example, if you are a lawyer in California, you can use local keywords like:

• California lawyer
• Family lawyer in California
• Top California attorney

Optimize the URL Title Tags and Meta Description

We have already seen how important it is to optimize the content of the website. When we talk about content, every new web page or blog post are like an indexed page of the website. Each page has the opportunity to be found on search engine results pages (SERPs). Each time a new web page is written for the website, you need to also optimize the URL, title tag, and meta description with local keywords.

Inbound and External Links

The local SEO strategy for 2020 has increased its focus on inbound or external links to your website. These inbound links can create a number of opportunities to boost your local SEO. Each inbound link proves to Google or any other search engine that you are a genuine company. Some of the best ways to get inbound links are through guest blog posting and sponsorships or partnerships.

Internal Linking

External links routing to your website are very useful for SEO. At the same time, working on the internal linking structure will help boost your search rankings. Internal linking means having links on your web pages, which when clicked will take the viewer to another page on your website. Internal linking is useful for easy website navigation. It helps viewers find related content and web pages.

Add Location Pages and Maps

If your business or store is located at more than one area, you should create location pages. The readers can find your business name, address, phone number, email address, working hours, and testimonials from happy customers on each location page. Adding a Google map for the location can boost your SEO rankings. You need to ensure that there is no duplication of content across the different location pages. For businesses having a single location, try to create a locally descriptive About Us page covering the required local information.

Build a Responsive, Mobile-Friendly Website

Local SEO search and mobile search work closely together. Statistics show that 90% of the local searches are conducted by users on their smartphones. Users use their smartphones to search for reviews, directions to the business, and contact details. If your website is mobile-friendly, prospects and customers will find it easy to search for needed information.

Be Active on Social Media

Today, social media has become the best medium to reach out to your target audience. Shared content on social media is also considered important by Google to determine the search rankings. Once you have your own Google My Business page, you can share the page on various social media accounts, which can further support local SEO.

What Are local SEO Services?

We have seen above how important a local SEO strategy is for the growth of your business. However, managing local SEO is not a simple task. You need the help of a professional local SEO company that can provide you the best local SEO services depending on your budget and requirements. Local SEO strategies help your business grow; they help increase your online visibility. They also help increase the web traffic, leads, and sales from local visitors. It helps you stand out from competition and get noticed by the viewers.

Local SEO Company to Help Optimize Your Website

GSM Marketing Agency is the best local SEO company based in Tucson. We provide website SEO services and premium SEO services to businesses of all types, big and small. Our team can increase your business’ online visibility, and improve your web traffic and leads. We will help optimize your online presence to take you to the top of the search results when customers are searching for services related to your business.