How a Local SEO Strategy Can Improve Your Rankings

If you run a location-based business, a local SEO strategy could help you improve your website’s ranking in the search engines and bring more relevant traffic to your site. By working with an inbound marketing agency that specializes in local SEO, you can ensure that your business gets attention online, which can translate into increased footfall in the real world.

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO simply means optimizing your website so that it appears near the top of the search engine results pages for searches in your local area. SEO stands for search engine optimization and can refer to a range of techniques for making your site more visible in search engines, ranging from filling your website with interesting content to making your business appear more authentic and trustworthy.

Download The SEO Solution: A Complete SEO Checklist for Beginners

How Can Local SEO Help Your Business?

Local SEO can help your business by increasing the number of visitors that come to your site each day. By focusing on local search results, rather than more general ones, you are more likely to attract the attention of consumers in your local area, i.e. the people most likely to visit your business in the real world.

SEO Tactics That Work

Digital marketing agencies use a range of tactics to boost the visibility of local businesses online. One highly effective strategy is content marketing, which involves publishing interesting articles, blog posts, videos, and other engaging content on your website. Search engines recognize that this content is useful for people looking for businesses like yours, and reward you for publishing it by moving your site higher in the search engine results pages. You can work with a content marketing agency to develop content that will generate good results for your site.

SEO Tactics to Avoid

Some shady web development firms may claim they can improve your ranking through dubious SEO tactics, such as link exchange programs. If you’ve received spammy advertising from this kind of website design agency, it’s best to walk away. Search engines look out for businesses that try to manipulate their algorithms and penalize them with low rankings. A more sustainable approach to SEO is to focus on consistently publishing high-quality content that offers real value to your website's visitors.

How to Track Your SEO Tactics

Once you've used local SEO services to optimize your site, you will want to know what effect your efforts have had. Measuring how your SEO tactics affect the number of people coming to your site each month can let you know whether they are working. This information helps you to plan future SEO campaigns.

There are many tools you can use to track the effects of your SEO tactics. The best known and perhaps most easy to use is Google Analytics, which lets you track how many people find your website through search engines. Alternatives include SEO Moz and HubSpot, which are professional tracking tools that provide a huge wealth of information.

How to Get Started With Local SEO

If you want to reap the benefits of local SEO but don’t know where to start, a good first step is to get in touch with a digital marketing agency that specializes in local SEO services. This kind of agency can assess your current website, let you know what mistakes you are making, and help you develop a strategy to sustainably boost your site’s rankings in local search.

For a complete beginners guide to SEO strategy and implementation, download the Complete SEO for Beginners Checklist and ensure your SEO strategy is on the right track.