If you don’t want to read the whole article, you can go straight to the local SEO Checklist<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Local SEO is the process of optimizing your website so that it appears in the first positions of Google, Bing, and Yahoo for searches that are related to your area\/city\/country.<\/p>\n Let me give you a couple of examples to understand this better.<\/p>\n Example 1: “lawyers in Nevada”<\/strong><\/p>\n When a user types the location<\/em> in the search query, then the user-intent is clear and Google will try to satisfy the user by showing in the top results businesses (in this case law firms) that are registered to operate in the state of Nevada.<\/p>\n How does Google know where a company is operating? This is something we will see in a while\u2026<\/p>\n Example 2:\u00a0 “florists in London”<\/strong><\/p>\n When you search google.co.uk for the term florists in London<\/em> you will get a list of flower shops that have a physical business in the general area of London.<\/p>\n Example 3: “Italian restaurants in New York City”<\/strong><\/p>\n On your next trip to New York, open Google, and type Italian restaurants in New York City<\/em>.<\/p>\n I\u2019m sure that the returned results will help you choose a nice restaurant to enjoy a memorable pasta or pizza.<\/p>\n Why?<\/strong> Because as we will see below, businesses (in this case Italian restaurants), have to prove that they deserve one of the top positions in the search results.<\/p>\n Google is very careful as to which websites to showcase in the local search results box<\/em> since the local companies that get a top listing will receive higher CTRs (click-through rates) and traffic.<\/p>\n The list could go on and on but the general idea about local SEO is that:<\/p>\n The user wants to find a business (address or a telephone number), in the particular area defined by the query, so as to take a visit or call to satisfy a requirement.<\/em><\/p>\n Google, on the other hand, wants to keep users happy by giving them details for companies that satisfy the user-intent.<\/em><\/p>\n Someone may say that local SEO is similar to long tail SEO<\/strong><\/a> but with the location<\/em> added in the query string, and this is correct.<\/p>\n Actually, we can say that people looking for local businesses are the most targeted searches<\/strong><\/a> you can find online.<\/p>\n From the examples above, it is clear that every business that has an address and operates in a certain area needs local SEO.<\/p>\n Do you own a restaurant, a barbershop, a law firm? Are you a doctor, mechanic, or a retailer?<\/p>\n You need to have a website that is optimized for local SEO.<\/p>\n People use the Internet to search for a business before they actually visit and if they don\u2019t find yours, it\u2019s obvious that you are losing customers and opportunities and someone else will take advantage of them.<\/p>\n Increase your chances of appearing higher in the SERPS<\/strong> \u2013 As you can see from the examples above, businesses that are chosen to appear in Google local results (including Google Maps) are more likely to receive more visits than websites that don\u2019t appear in the recommendations.<\/p>\n More conversions<\/strong> \u2013 The conversion rate is higher since visitors coming to the website from local searches are highly targeted.<\/p>\n Brand visibility and awareness<\/strong> \u2013People searching for businesses in your area will know about your existence and this will make your brand more recognizable and also raise awareness\u2019s about your business.<\/p>\n Higher return on investment<\/strong> \u2013 An optimized website for local search can generate more value to a \u2018brick and mortar\u2019 business since all they want is to get customers searching the web for businesses in their area.<\/p>\n This generates a higher return on the investment made and potentially faster growth than companies who don\u2019t take advantage of this.<\/p>\n Local SEO optimization is for targeting searches in a specific geographic location while SEO general practices are applicable for global wide searches.<\/p>\n It should be noted though that all SEO advice about on-page<\/strong><\/a> or off-page SEO<\/strong><\/a> is also applicable for local SEO as well.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The big difference is that for local SEO optimization, you also need to provide location awareness <\/em>signals to Google.<\/p>\n Mobile searches are by \u2018default\u2019 local<\/strong><\/p>\n If you are searching from a mobile or if you have allowed Google to track your location when searching from Desktop, you don\u2019t have to type a location in your search query because Google already knows your location.<\/p>\n In other words, if you are physically located in San Francisco and type in Indian restaurants<\/em> on Google search from your mobile, Google will return the same results as if you typed Indian restaurants in San Francisco.<\/em><\/p>\n The same is true if you search for Indian restaurants near me<\/em>.<\/p>\n No, and the reason is that if you try to target users in a particular area, it will be more difficult to rank for keywords that are related to a global search.<\/p>\n Take for example my business, reliablesoft.net.<\/p>\n We have clients from all over the World and since we want to rank for more general terms, we do not provide any local signals<\/em> to search engines, other than those we need to give to our users for business clarity and trust.<\/p>\n We have talked about the importance and benefits of local SEO to businesses but we have not yet come to the most important part of this post i.e. what you have to do in order to optimize your website for local search.<\/p>\n The local SEO checklist below has all the information you need to get started.<\/p>\n One of the first things that search engines encounter when crawling your website is the logo and this is a good place to start your local SEO optimization.<\/p>\n There is a detailed post about logo optimization<\/strong><\/a> by Chris Silver Smith <\/em>on searchengineland<\/em> but the most important points are outlined below:<\/p>\n Make sure that the image filename is descriptive.<\/strong> Instead of using logo.png better use a more meaningful filename like \u2018Mayers-dental-surgeons-logo.png\u2019<\/p>\n ALT text is important for all images but it\u2019s more important for the logo. <\/strong><\/p>\n You can use the ALT text to give more details about the image and in this case the location of your business.<\/p>\n For example, you can use \u2018Mayers Dental Surgeons, Florida\u2019 as the ALT text.<\/p>\n As already explained in my SEO Tips<\/strong><\/a> article, you can use keywords in the ALT text but don\u2019t overdo it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Add the location in the title tag of the link.<\/strong><\/p>\n For example:<\/p>\n Try to use the same logo across all channels<\/strong>.<\/p>\n In all places that your logo is shown i.e. website, FB, Google Business page, Twitter, etc, try to use the same logo and ALT text.<\/p>\n Titles and Descriptions are very important for local SEO.<\/p>\n As explained in my seo tutorial<\/strong><\/a>, the title should help both users and search engines understand as many things possible about the website before visiting.<\/p>\n An optimized SEO Friendly title<\/strong><\/a> should be between 50-60 characters and if you are targeting local customers then the location (and if possible your area phone) should be part of your title and description.<\/p>\n A couple of real examples from the web:<\/p>\n As far as the URLs are concerned, you need to make sure that you have an SEO friendly URL structure<\/a><\/strong> that includes an indication of the location (where applicable).<\/p>\n For example, if you have a business selling \u2018second hand cars in Wisconsin<\/em>\u2019 and you have a page for the \u2018Saloon\u2019 cars, then your local SEO optimized URL could be: https:\/\/www.example.com\/saloon-cars-wisconsin<\/em><\/p>\n On your home page, make sure that your full address details (street number, postcode, state, country, telephone number, fax number, email) are visible as text (not image) in a prominent position.<\/p>\n See below a few examples of good and bad NAP formats.<\/p>\n Source: moz<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Important:<\/strong> When displaying your phone number, make sure that you use your local number (which includes the area code) and not your toll-free number.<\/p>\n Any signals you can give to Google related to your locality<\/em> are useful for Local SEO.<\/p>\n For the rest of the pages, you can have the contact information in the footer.<\/p>\n I have separated the home page from the rest of the pages to stress the importance of the contact information to be visible on the homepage.<\/p>\n One of the biggest mistakes many people make, when it comes to Local SEO optimization, is the inconsistency of NAP information.<\/p>\n Source: Search Engine Land<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n It is vital that your contact information is consistent in all channels.<\/p>\n This means that the address and the telephone number you show on the website should be the same as the address you have on Facebook, Google My Business page, and any other places your company is listed.<\/p>\n It\u2019s very easy to add a Google map of your business in the contact us page<\/em> and this is another strong signal of your business location for search engines.<\/p>\n The best way to add a map is to go to Google Maps<\/a><\/strong>, type in your address, and then choose the \u201cShare or Embed Map\u201d from the top left menu.<\/p>\n On the popup window, click the Embed Map<\/em> tab and copy-paste the code to your WordPress website.<\/p>\n Having a Google My Business page is one of the most important SEO factors for Local SEO.<\/p>\n When you create an account with Google Business<\/strong><\/a>, Google will verify your address and ownership of the business.<\/p>\n This will be done by either sending you a mail with a code or through the phone (depending on your country).<\/p>\n Once your address is verified, your business will show on the map and also will be a candidate to show in the local results box<\/em> in the SERPS.<\/p>\n To improve your local ranking on Google, you need to make sure that:<\/p>\n Yahoo has a service for local listings<\/strong><\/a> and while it is not free, the subscription fee (between $10 – $30 per month), is not a big amount to hold you back.<\/p>\n Once you do it, make sure that you link to your Yahoo profile from your Google My Business page.<\/p>\n In fact, make the Google My Business page the hub to link to all your other local profiles.<\/p>\n Schemas or structured data markup is a way to \u2018describe\u2019 your data so that search engine crawlers can understand the context<\/em> better.<\/p>\n Schemas are very important for Local SEO and this is something you definitely need to implement if you want to improve your local rankings.<\/p>\n Depending on the type of local business, you should use the appropriate schema.<\/p>\n You can read more information about local business schemas from Google<\/a><\/strong> and also from schema.org<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Here is an example of how the schema looks for a local restaurant. This piece of JSON-LD code should be added to the homepage.<\/p>\n There are various ways to create the mark-up code for your business, you can make use of a plugin<\/a><\/strong> or use the Data Highlighter <\/em>function of Google Search Console.<\/p>\n Login to your Google Search Console and click Data Highlighter<\/em> which is located under \u2018Search Appearance\u2019. This is an option of the Old Google Search Console, if you can’t find this option, click “Go to the Old Version” from the left menu.<\/p>\n Click the Start Highlighting<\/em> button, enter your website\u2019s URL, and select LOCAL BUSINESS from the drop-down menu.<\/p>\n Once you are done tagging, the result is a file that matches the requirements definition of localbusiness at schema.org.<\/p>\n You can then download the file, validate it using the Google Structured Data Testing Tool<\/a><\/strong>, and add it to your website.<\/p>\n Bing Places for Business<\/strong><\/a> is free, easy to complete, and another way to verify your business information online.<\/p>\n Do not forget to link to your Bing profile from your Google My Business page (and vice versa).<\/p>\n Register your local businesses with any trusted local directories and remember to be consistent in the address details you are using.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t have to overdo it but only submit your businesses in quality local directories with value.<\/p>\n Facebook has a special type of category for local businesses.<\/p>\n When you create a Facebook Business Page and choose the category \u2018local business\u2019, Facebook will verify your address and business details.<\/p>\n When this is done successfully, they will add a grey checkmark next to your logo, indicating that your contact details are verified.<\/p>\n You can then add your business hours, map, and other information about your business.<\/p>\n It\u2019s free, easy to setup up, and trusted by Google.<\/p>\n All you have to do is go to yelp for business<\/a><\/strong> and claim your listing.<\/p>\n Foursquare for business<\/strong><\/a> is another directory to use to enforce your local SEO efforts.<\/p>\n With more than 60 million registered users and the growing use of mobile, it is worth taking the time and effort to maintain your business listing with them.<\/p>\n Besides registering on the above platforms, it is important to encourage users to review your business and it is equally important to reply to all reviews (either good or bad) on ALL platforms.<\/p>\n You can ask your customers to leave a review on their favorite platform either by giving them incentives i.e. 5% on their next purchase or by sending them reminders by email<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Any mentions (backlinks<\/strong><\/a>) you can get from trusted websites in the same city as your business, is a strong signal for your Local SEO.<\/p>\n For example, you can get a link from a local (online) newspaper or a magazine related to your niche.<\/p>\n Local SEO is a subset of \u2018normal SEO\u2019 and this means that to get better rankings for local, you need to follow good SEO practices in general.<\/p>\n Link building is a tactic that can have a huge impact on your SEO efforts and you should not forget that when optimizing for local search.<\/p>\n Proving content that is link-worthy, pursuing natural links<\/a><\/strong>, promoting your website to get the attention of others, and optimizing your content for the Google featured snippet<\/a><\/strong>, are practices that will positively affect your local rankings.<\/p>\n As already mentioned above, traditional SEO still matters so it is best to perform an SEO Audit<\/strong><\/a> of your website for compliance with best standards and practices.<\/p>\n You can review my SEO Audit Checklist<\/strong><\/a> to get an idea of what are the most important SEO factors to focus on.<\/p>\n Do not forget about mobile, especially when it comes to finding customers locally.<\/p>\n Many people use their mobile while on the go and having a non-mobile-friendly website will keep them away.<\/p>\n How can a blog help local SEO?<\/strong><\/p>\n You can post high-quality content on a regular basis and do location-aware<\/em> internal linking<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n For example, from a blog post, you can link to your services pages using the anchor \u2018financial services in Texas<\/em>\u2019.<\/p>\n This alone will not do much but it is another small step in your overall optimization process.<\/p>\n Also, you can use the blog to target \u2018local keywords\u2019 in the title and content of the blog posts<\/p>\n I haven\u2019t mentioned twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, or any other social networks separately, but for best results, you also need to maintain an accurate profile on those as well.<\/p>\n These networks are great to get some people in your area to follow you since all social channels have the facility to suggest followers based on the location\/address information of your business.<\/p>\n Resources to Learn More about Local SEO<\/span><\/p>\n One of the most popular questions I get when discussing with customers about their local SEO strategy is whether you can use targeted PPC campaigns and get those local customers, instead of trying to get them organically by going through the local optimization process.<\/p>\n The answer is simple and straightforward, yes you can use PPC to get local customers but PPC does not make SEO obsolete or vice versa.<\/p>\nWhat is Local SEO?<\/h2>\n
![\"Local](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/local-seo-examples.jpg\")
Who needs local SEO?<\/h3>\n
What are the benefits of local SEO for small business?<\/h3>\n
How is local SEO different than general SEO?<\/h3>\n
Should all businesses practice Local SEO?<\/h3>\n
Local SEO Checklist<\/h2>\n
\n
1. Optimize your logo for Local SEO<\/h3>\n
<img src=\u201dhttp:\/\/example.com\/images\/mayers-dental-surgeons-logo.png\u201d alt=\"Mayers Dental Surgeons, Tampa, FL\"><\/code><\/p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/example.com\/\" title=\" Mayers Dental Surgeons, Florida\"><\/code><\/p>\n<img src=\" http:\/\/example.com\/images\/mayers-dental-surgeons-logo.png\" alt=\"Mayers Dental Surgeons, Tampa, FL\"><\/a><\/code><\/p>\n2. Make your titles, descriptions and URLs Local SEO Friendly<\/h3>\n
![\"Titles](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/titles-and-descriptions-for-loca-seo-1024x649.png\")
3. Add NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) on the home page using the proper format<\/h3>\n
![\"NAP](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/nap-format-for-local-seo.png\")
4. Add NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) on the rest of the pages (in the footer)<\/h3>\n
5. Make sure that NAP information is consistent across all channels<\/h3>\n
![\"Local](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/local-seo-mistakes.png\")
6. Add a Google map in the contact information page<\/h3>\n
![\"Google](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/google-maps-for-local-seo-1024x983.jpg\")
7. Register your company with Google My Business<\/h3>\n
\n
8. Register with Yahoo Small Business<\/h3>\n
9. Use Schema\u00a0(structured data markup) to give more information about your local business to Google<\/h3>\n
![\"Structured](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/structured-data-markup-example-899x1024.png\")
![\"Structured](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/structured-data-tool-for-local-seo-1024x664.jpg\")
10. Register your website with Bing Places for Business<\/h3>\n
11. Register Your Business With Local directories<\/h3>\n
12. Create a Local business page on Facebook<\/h3>\n
![\"Facebook](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/facebook-local-business-pages-1024x656.png\")
13. Register your business with Yelp for Business Owners<\/h3>\n
14. Register with Foursquare for Business<\/h3>\n
15. Encourage and reply to every single review on every platform<\/h3>\n
16. Pursue brand mentions and links from the local press<\/h3>\n
17. Run a link building campaign to get more links<\/h3>\n
18. Review the SEO Audit checklist<\/h3>\n
19. Optimize your website for mobile<\/h3>\n
20.\u00a0Start a blog and use internal linking with Local SEO friendly anchor text<\/h3>\n
21. Create Business pages on Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and other social networks<\/h3>\n
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Can you target Local SEO with PPC?<\/h2>\n