Local Optimization: 10 Key Things You Need to Do

In today’s world, marketing campaigns must be launched on a number of platforms. While physical, in-person marketing is still vital and influential, digital marketing is just as important.

One of the key components when it comes to digital marketing is SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

If you’re a business that works solely on a local level, you must make use of local SEO. Doing so will help your business to rank high on search engines such as Google when people type in phrases relevant to your business and its location.

But how do you succeed when it comes to local optimization?

These are 10 key things you need to do.

1. Utilize Local Keywords

Perhaps the most important thing you need to do for local optimization is to use local keywords. The only way Google and other search engines will know where your business is located is if you use your location in your keywords.

For instance, if you run a dry cleaning business in Sacramento, you need to make sure that you drop the word “Sacramento” into your content often. In this case, a good keyword phrase for your business would be “dry cleaner in Sacramento.”

This phrase lets search engines know that you’re a dry cleaner in the city of Sacramento.

2. Use Consistent NAP

NAP stands for “Name, Address, Phone,” and it’s absolutely vital for local optimization. What it essentially means is that you use the same name, address, and phone number everywhere that your business is listed on the internet.

If the name of your company is “Johnny’s Steak Shack,” make sure you list it as “Johnny’s Steak Shack” every time it’s posted. Don’t add additional keywords so that it says “Johnny’s Steak Shack and Bar.”

Use an identical name, address, and phone number every time your business listing is posted so that search engines will understand that each listing is the same business.

3. Acquire Positive Online Reviews

Many business owners underestimate just how important online reviews can be to the success of their company.

But the truth of the matter is that the more positive online reviews your business receives, the higher your business will rank on search engines.

There are a number of things you can do to get more online business reviews, but the key is to make it as easy as possible for your customers to review your business.

4. Prioritize Your Landing Pages

When a search engine is crawling the pages of your website, it takes the site’s primary pages most seriously. These are the pages of the website which identify what the website is all about.

For this reason, it’s vital that your landing pages are as informative as possible. If your website is for your car dealership in Austin, make sure that you use a keyword phrase like “Austin car dealership” often on all of your landing pages.

This includes everything from the Home page, to the About page, to the Contact page, and otherwise.

5. Build Links to Local Businesses

Whereas global optimization requires links to and from global authority sites, local optimization requires links to and from websites in your area.

While it’s easy to link out to local sites, it’s fairly difficult to get these sites to link out to you. However, there are several tactics you can use to make it a reality.

Ideally, your business will become such a stalwart in the community that other local organizations will link out to you without even thinking about it.

6. Use Google My Business

Google My Business is a Google platform which allows you to manage the online presence of your business on Google’s search engine.

Signing up for Google My Business allows you to do a number of different things, from giving feedback to online reviewers, to validating your company’s contact information, and more.

Companies that use Google My Business adequately almost always rank higher on Google.

7. Label Images with Suitable Alt Attributes

When you place an image on your website without any alt attributes attached, all that it appears to search engines as is an image. The search engines know nothing about what type of image it actually is.

For local optimization purposes, it’s important to label images with locality-appropriate alt attributes.

So, if your website is for a law firm in Minneapolis, and you’re placing an image on the home page of your website, you’d want to place a keyword phrase like “Minneapolis Law Firm” in the alt attributes section of the image.

The public can’t see this label, but search engines certainly can.

8. Create Quality Content

It doesn’t matter whether you’re striving for global optimization or local optimization; if your website doesn’t contain useful and intriguing content, it won’t rank well.

It’s wise to create a blog in which you discuss subjects that are related to your company. At the same time, you must make use of local keywords.

If you’re a solar power distributor in Denver, you could make blog posts with title like “5 Ways that Denver Businesses are Using Solar Power.”

9. Use Social Media

At this point in time, if your business is not on multiple social media platforms, it’s not doing things right. This is so for a number of reasons.

For one, social media business pages on sites such as Facebook are capable of ranking very high on search engines.

For two, by sharing your blog posts and other information on your Twitter or Facebook, you are gaining more relevance for your website. The search engines see your website as being an authority on a given topic.

10. Optimize for Mobile Use

Smartphones are the way that most people access the internet these days. For this reason, mobile optimization is vital.

Test your website to ensure that it runs smoothly on both mobile and immobile devices. Nothing will turn a potential visitor off faster than a website that won’t load.

A good web designer will know exactly what to do so that your website runs capably on mobile devices.

Use Local Optimization Services from a Professional

If you’re looking to optimize your company’s website so that you can bring in as much local traffic as possible, you might very well be interested in hiring a professional to handle the heavy work for you.

Here at TextLinks.com, we provide textlink strategies to help you strengthen your local SEO.