The Complete Guide to Local SEO for Beginners

When implemented correctly, local SEO can generate droves of new leads and search-driven traffic simply by existing. Think about how many times you’ve searched for products and services “near me” or “in [your city name].” The results you got were most likely pages that were optimized for local SEO, ready to grab your attention and business. 

If your company provides products and services within your city, optimizing for local SEO can give your business a tremendous boost in visibility to your target market.

Need some local SEO help to outrank your closest competitors? Keep reading our local SEO guide to learn what local SEO is and how to develop a successful local SEO strategy in a few easy steps.

Table of Contents

• What is local SEO?
• Why is local SEO important?
• How to optimize for local SEO
  • Set up your Google Business Profile page
  • Choose your keywords
  • Secure citations and links
  • Create great local content
  • Encourage customer reviews
  • Use local SEO tools for reporting
  • Optimize your approach
  • Checklist: On-page optimization for local SEO
  • Checklist: Off-page optimization for local SEO

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What is local SEO?

Local SEO is the process of optimizing your website, web content, and third-party listings so that your company ranks well in local search engine results. For example, a chiropractor located in Nashville, TN can use a local SEO strategy to appear in search engine results relating to phrases like “best chiropractor in Nashville” or “best chiropractor in my area.”

And it works, too. Since local SEO searches typically have high purchase intent, roughly 80% of local searches on mobile devices lead to a conversion, according to WebFX. Furthermore, an estimated 50% of users visit a store within a day of conducting a local search.

Why is local SEO important?

A local SEO strategy can be incredibly beneficial to companies that serve a specific geographic region. Here are three reasons why:

Customer habits

In decades past, people found local businesses via the Yellow Pages. Remember those? These days, 86% of people rely on the internet to help them find local businesses and the only time you’ll see a Yellow Pages directory is in a classic ’80s or ’90s film.

In other words, customer habits have changed. When we need a plumber to fix our leaky faucets, we scour Google for the professional with the highest reviews. When our kids need new soccer cleats, we ask Bing for the nearest sports equipment store.

But here’s the thing, your business will only appear in search engine results and earn new customers if you have a solid local SEO strategy in place. Otherwise, your competitors will show up first and take your business. That being said, you have to develop a more localized SEO approach to target those local searchers.

Quality traffic

Website traffic, in and of itself, doesn’t create revenue. What you want is quality website traffic, i.e. traffic from visitors who actually care about the products and/or services you sell and will consider buying them from you now or in the future.

A local SEO strategy can help you drive this kind of traffic by making your business visible to potential customers who are already searching online for the things you offer.

Think about it: If a user searches for “best CPA in Sacramento,” they’re probably looking for a qualified accountant in the Sacramento area who can do their taxes or advise them on other financial matters. By appearing in search engine results for this query, a CPA can easily connect with potential clients who are ready to invest in their services—and local SEO drives this kind of quality traffic for free.

Less competition

Finally, it’s much easier to rank in local searches than global ones, which means your local business has the chance to compete with mega-brands and win. Just because there’s a Walmart or Best Buy in your town doesn’t mean you can’t compete with them.

Believe it or not, only 56% of local businesses have claimed their Google Business Profile listing—a key aspect of local SEO that we’ll cover more in a moment. Because of this, a local SEO strategy will also give you a leg up on other SMBs in your area that cater to a similar audience.

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How to optimize for local SEO

Local SEO often seems wild and mysterious. Is it really possible to tame the great Google beast? Tame is a strong word (in this context), but there are definitely proven ways to bend the mighty search engine to your will and outrank your competitors. Here’s a quick local SEO guide which we’ll explore below. Follow these steps to increase your chances of ranking higher for local search and attracting customers in your area.

1. Set up your Google Business Profile page

Google is the largest and most important search engine in the world—and it’s not even close. (Sorry Bing!) 92.41% of the search engine segment is controlled by Google. Because of this, we recommend using ALL the tools at your disposal to make sure your company appears in Google search results.

Google Business Profile is a free tool that allows local businesses to be included in Google Maps, display photos of their storefronts and products; and easily connect with a wide range of potential buyers within a specific geographical location.

To set up your Google Business Profile page, simply follow the directions Google provides, which will get you pretty far. But keep these tips in mind as well:

1. Make sure your name, address, and phone number (i.e., your “NAP”) are accurate and exactly the same across all of your online listings.
2. Choose three to five categories that focus on the services you provide rather than the results you help your customers achieve.
3. Keep your description between 100 and 200 words—long enough to share important company details, but short enough to cater to minuscule attention spans.

For a deeper dive into GMB, read Whitespark’s Super Fantastic Guide to Optimizing Google Business Profile

2. Choose your keywords

The next step is to choose (and use!) strategic keywords. A keyword is a specific word or phrase that an internet user will type into a search engine. For example, when looking for ice cream parlors in Boise, ID, someone might type “top ice cream shop in my city” into Google.

Your job as a local business owner and/or manager is to discover the keywords that your unique customers use, and then optimize for them.

There are plenty of ways to discover relevant keywords. First, brainstorm all the words and phrases your customers could use to describe your business. If you sell pet supplies, keywords like “dog food,” “pet store,” and “Desert Iguana” might apply.

After you’ve done a huge keyword brain dump, it’s time to bring in the big guns: keyword software. Google Keyword Planner is a free option to get you started. If you want a more powerful tool, try something like SEMrush.

These solutions will reveal important keywords you might not have thought about, as well as give you volume and competition data regarding your list of phrases.

The final piece of this step is to choose the actual keywords you’ll optimize for. We suggest choosing keywords that get a decent amount of traffic (70+ searches a month) but aren’t so competitive that it will take a miracle to rank for them.

3. Secure citations and links

Now that you have your keywords locked down, it’s time to secure citations and links back to your site.

So we’re on the same page, a citation is earned when your business’ NAP details are added to an online directory. Sites like Houzz, Yelp, and AngiesList, as well as your local chamber of commerce, are good examples of online directories.

When securing citations, make sure your NAP is identical across all directories.

A link is earned anytime an outside website links to yours. Links can be acquired via online directories, blog posts, web pages, etc.

When growing your site’s link profile, contact other companies in your area, your suppliers, and your business partners to try and create legitimate link swaps. Then use a tool like Moz Link Explorer or Ahrefs to discover where your competitors are earning links. Finally, contact these same websites with a compelling reason for them to link to your site as well (or instead).

4. Create great local content

Your local SEO strategy is really cooking! Now it’s time to create great content so that you can rank well in search engine results, drive traffic to your site, and turn casual visitors into paying customers who trust your brand. Easier said than done, BUT we do have a few tips for you:

• Create content targeting your keywords: Remember all those keywords you came up with in step one? You’re not done with them! Create content—blogs, YouTube videos, podcast episodes, etc.—using these topics and phrases.
• Create for humans, not robots: Keywords are important, but they’re not the end-all, be-all. In fact, keyword stuffing will actually hurt your local SEO strategy. Instead, create content that’s easy to consume, then sprinkle in keywords when appropriate.
• Create content that’s relevant to your local area: Location-specific content can be a great way to rank high for long-tail local keywords. Target your ideal customer with information that is relevant to their needs and location.
• Aim for internal and external links: By linking to relevant content on both other websites and your own, you’ll signal to search engines that your site can be trusted. Just make sure that your anchor text is relevant to whatever you’re linking to.
• Share your content: Once your blog, video, or podcast is created, share it with your email list, social media followers, your mom… Just get as many eyes on it as possible. That way you can prove to search engines that your stuff is legit.

All the local SEO tricks in the world won’t help you if your content sucks. Put in the time to create great pieces, and you’ll be rewarded with higher search engine rankings.

5. Encourage customer reviews

Customer reviews are a big deal when it comes to your local SEO strategy for two reasons:

1. They prove to search engines that your business actually exists.
2. They help potential customers trust your company enough to do business with it.

The question is, how do you actually get reviews? And how do you make sure those reviews are good? Oh, and what platform should you try to get reviews on? Sorry, that was three questions… We’ll tackle each of them in the order asked:

First, how do you get reviews? The easiest way is to simply ask your customers for them. Then make it as easy as possible for them to follow through by sending a direct link to the platform you’d like them to review your business on.

Scared of bad reviews? If you treat your customers right and strive to create amazing experiences for them, you shouldn’t be. To make sure your reviews are stellar, go above and beyond for your customers so that they have nothing but good things to say about you.

Lastly, what review platform is best? It really depends on your goals, but if we had to choose, it’d be Google. Why? It’s simple, Google is the largest search engine, by far, accounting for 86.86% of the global search market.

6. Use local SEO tools for reporting

To really get value from your local SEO efforts, you need to monitor the performance and analyze the results. This holds true for any marketing strategy you implement—reporting and evaluation are crucial to improving your efforts.

Various local SEO tools can help your business reach and stay on top of the results that your target audience can see. Among the free options are the reliable ones like Google Analytics and Google Search Console, which offer invaluable insights into your online performance. For a more comprehensive approach, consider investing in premium tools such as Ahrefs and SEMrush for their advanced features and detailed analytics capabilities.

Using these kinds of tools, you can monitor the status of your local SEO. You can see where your keywords rank among the top results, how much traffic you’re getting, and other metrics that matter most to your business.

7. Optimize your approach

The final step to an effective local SEO strategy is to monitor and analyze your approach. Are your efforts moving the needle? If not, why?

When you understand what’s not working, you can make the necessary adjustments. Conversely, when you know what is working, you can double down on winning tactics. The only way to discover what works and what doesn’t is to dig into the data.

We also suggest keeping an eye on your competitors so that you can learn from their mistakes and successes and how you can differentiate your brand in a positive way.

On-page optimization checklist for local SEO

By following the steps to optimize for local SEO, you should see much better results from potential leads in your area.

Use this handy checklist to troubleshoot and ensure you’ve done all possible steps to optimize your website for local SEO:

• Is your NAP (Name, Address, and Phone Number) consistent across all your online pages and profiles? If you’ve changed anything, make sure it’s reflected across your website.
• Have you displayed your NAP on every page on your website as possible? A good way to do this is to add your NAP to your website footer.
• Does your online content show local authority? In short, does it sound like you know the neighborhood? For example, on your service areas page, you can reference landmarks that are close by or use local slang if appropriate.
• Have you optimized your header tags to include crucial local keywords? Try to include your service/products + local area name.
• Are your title tags descriptive and keyword-rich to target your local audience?
• Have you included helpful and descriptive alt tags for your images?
• Do your pages include strategic internal links for location-based keywords? Mentions of cities or towns in your content can be linked to that area’s specific service page.
• Have you added local business schema to relevant pages? Does Google know what your business is about, where it’s located, and how to contact you?
• Is your website mobile-friendly and fast-loading? Many people will search for local services and products using their handheld devices, so make sure your website accommodates this.

Off-page optimization checklist for local SEO

As important as it is to make sure your website and pages are optimized for local SEO, you also need to make sure that your website is a trusted source – i.e. there are enough external sources that trust your business enough to link back to you or mention you in reviews and posts. 

Google values external opinions from high-authority sources to decide whether your business is legitimate or deserves a higher ranking for local search results. That’s where off-page SEO optimization comes in. 

Ask yourself these questions to make sure you’re doing enough outside of your website to optimize for local SEO:

• Have you added or applied to add your business to 3-5 trusted local business directories? Trusted online directories such as Yelp can help you get high-volume traffic from people in your service area.
• Do you have a regular routine of responding to online reviews and questions brought up about your business? Encouraging online reviews with quick responses can help build trust and engagement.
• Do you have a system in place for contacting customers to ask for reviews and testimonials? Often, even the most satisfied customers can forget to leave you a review.
• Have you reached out to local bloggers and influencers for high-quality backlink opportunities?
• Are you guest posting on high-authority local websites and blogs to reach a wider audience?
• Are you utilizing social media to engage with your audience to build brand recognition and trust? While an active social media profile alone won’t guarantee a higher ranking for your website, it can encourage your followers to engage with your brand and visit your website to find out more about your business.
• Are you engaging with local community events and gatherings? Sponsoring and participating in events and local causes is a good way to get your name out there as well as get backlinks and mentions from local news outlets and bloggers.

Reach your local audience

An optimized local SEO strategy will help you reach more customers in your area, while lowering your marketing costs. Win-win! But to realize the benefits of SEO, you have to follow the seven-step system we outlined in this article:

1. Set up your Google Business Profile page
2. Choose your keywords
3. Secure citations and links
4. Create great content
5. Encourage customer reviews
6. Use local SEO tools for reporting
7. Optimize your approach

97% of consumers investigate a company’s online presence before visiting them. If you follow these local SEO tips, you’ll be able to boost your company’s online profile, connect with more potential customers, and grow your business. Good luck!

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