Tips for local SEO

Local SEO primarily focuses on the local findability of websites and pages in search engines. Companies that are active in specific locations and/or defined regions can place local content pages on their websites. With a smartly calibrated local SEO strategy, these pages appear in the SERPs when Internet users perform a local search. This generates quality leads as well as more conversions. But what does an effective local SEO strategy look like exactly? And what do you need to look out for?

Whether you need to create one or multiple accounts, how to optimise the separate fields within each account for local SEO and more tips & tricks can be found in this article about optimising your Google Business Profile.

Creating a Business Profile is entirely in your hands. But there are some external factors that you can't control, and they impact the effectiveness of your local SEO strategy. These are mostly the opinions and value judgements about your business from people outside your organisation, which circulate online. This info falls within the E-A-T principle (expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness) that Google also places increasing importance on in terms of SEO.

Community management is not too dissimilar to social proofing. Indeed, it basically means keeping in touch with customers by responding to reviews (both the good and the bad) and always remaining friendly. The way you interact with customers online and offline affects your local SEO strategy in the same way social proofing does.

Link building involves collecting as many backlinks as possible. This is a form of social proofing, as each backlink is an endorsement of the quality, authority and trustworthiness of your page by other websites and companies. Link building is part of a local SEO strategy. You don't make links to general pages in this regard, but rather to local landing pages.

Investing in GBP, community management, and so on, makes little sense if the local landing pages on your website are not up to scratch. There are various elements within your own site that you can optimise in order to rank in Google for local searches:

• Keywords

Logically, local landing pages focus on local keywords (the combination of a product or service for which you want to be found, with a place name). An indication of the location definitely has to be there in order to rank high in search engines for local searches.

• Content

The content on each local landing page has to be unique. No copying and pasting, because Google penalises duplicate content. The content should ideally be location-specific. For example, write something about local news, events or happenings or incorporate typical features of the area. Just make sure the main focus remains on the keyword combination of product/service and location.

• Local pages

You compile unique content with local keywords on individual pages: local landing pages. Make sure all on-page SEO parameters are followed. For example, pay attention to the URL, page title, images and metadata. In addition, definitely indicate the NAP info and possibly link to local listing platforms.

• Technical SEO

Finally, don't overlook technical SEO. This also needs to be tip-top for local landing pages. Pay extra attention to loading speed, responsiveness and mobile-friendliness. You are likely using the same template for all local pages. Get the technical SEO right here in advance, so you avoid problems later.

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