A Complete Local SEO Checklist

complete local SEO complete local SEO
  • Local SEO: Optimizing Your Website

  • Define your location strategy. Multi-practitioner businesses (e.g., medical, legal) have different, more complicated strategies when compared to a single location, brick-and-mortar business or a home-based business.

  • Local SEO: Content

  • High-quality content attract links. So you need a local content strategy. Links and content are the two most important Google ranking factors. This is also true in local SEO. A Local SEO Guide study demonstrated that if the business website has a good ranking in organic search, it’s also more likely to do well on Google My Business.

  • Content for Multiple Businesses

  • Offer location-specific promotions to differentiate each location.

  • Host or sponsor events in different cities to have something to write about on your website.

  • Write a blog post on tips that apply to a certain demographic, season, or location.

  • Create a content calendar. This allows you to plan your content and comes in handy for staying on top of seasonal content ranking opportunities.

  • Use Google Trends to identify seasonal trends.

  • Ask users to submit user-generated content (e.g., reviews, testimonials).

  • Local SEO: Citations

  • Add manual or automatic citations. The advantage of manual citations is that you can control them, but managing them can get tedious if you decide to move or re-brand. Automatic citations, on the other hand, save you time and effort, but you ultimately have less control over your business listings.

  • Use a third party for local citations and listings. These third-party providers include BrightLocal, MozLocal, Whitespark, Advice Local, and Yext.

  • Use a third party for local citations and listings. These third-party providers include BrightLocal, MozLocal, Whitespark, Advice Local, and Yext.

  • Local SEO: Social Media & Customer Reviews

  • Take advantage of customer testimonials and reviews for your products and services. Post them on your website.

  • Local SEO: The Real World

  • List your business on Foursquare.

  • List your business on Zagat (if applicable).

  • List your business on Bing Places.

  • Local SEO: The Real World

  • Hire and train your employees well. This complete local SEO checklist is only truly useful if you consistently give your customers great service.

  • Be present. Know your staff, customers, as well as your products and services.

  • Anticipate problems before they arise. Whenever possible, have a backup plan in place.

  • Hold regular meetings to celebrate and replicate the good, and how to avoid and reduce the bad.

  • Know that the “local” in local SEO is not only confined to the internet. Maintain a mix of local advertising such as flyers, newspaper, radio, and TV advertising (depending on your budget and business).

  • Do everything to make your brand the best it could be and the first that comes to mind when people are looking for the product or service you’re offering. This is essentially what local SEO is about: being top of mind.

  • Final Thoughts

  • Local SEO involves many elements that are much different from general SEO best practices. Now that you have this local SEO checklist, you can effectively optimize your website, market your business, reach more local customers when they’re searching for what you offer, and start bringing in more revenue.

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