How to Improve Your Company’s Local Search Ranking: A Guide
It wasn’t always necessary to have a Google presence in the past if you were a local business. However, that’s no longer the case. Now that local search queries make up half of Google searches, you can’t afford to not be seen on Google.
However, improving your search ranking is easier said than done. Use the guide below to increase your local search ranking.
Table of Contents
Create a Google My Business Account
One of the most critical parts of local search is the map results on Google. Local searchers look online to find companies in their area to visit, and Google makes this easy by providing map results on the first page of the results.
The problem is that your business won’t automatically show up on those results. You’ll need to create a Google My Business account and verify with a PIN code to show up. Make sure you do this to not miss out on Google Maps traffic.
Create Internal Links
It’s hard for Google to understand what your website is about if you don’t tell it. You force search spiders to crawl every page on your site and create links themselves. You can make things easier for Google and searchers by making those links yourself.
Internal links let you create topic clusters on your website. By linking similar topics together, you build topical authority for your website. The more you can present yourself as an authority to Google, the better your chance of increasing your SEO rank.
Use Local Keywords
Global keywords are hard to rank. You’re competing with every website on the planet, so it’s hard for a small local business to compete. The same isn’t as true with local keywords.
Adding location modifiers to search results gives you more local results that don’t always have as much competition. Look for the local keywords available in your industry and optimize your website to target those keywords.
Get an SEO Audit
Even if you do a great job performing SEO optimization on your website, you may still miss a few things. When competition is so fierce for local results, you can’t afford for this to happen.
Luckily, many companies like Designmemarketing.com can help by auditing your website’s SEO. They’ll find any areas you miss and make recommendations for improving your site’s SEO. Every little thing counts, so the cost usually is worth it for local businesses.
Improve Page Performance
Since Google released the Core Web Vitals algorithm, site performance has been a ranking factor. Since Google wants visitors to have a great experience on every website, it can’t afford to rank sites that don’t provide that experience.
You’ll need to optimize everything from website speed to user experience to meet those metrics. When you do, it gives you an edge in the search results against websites that offer poor site experience.
Don’t Wait to Start Improving Your Local Search Ranking
You aren’t going to get SEO ranking results overnight, so you can’t afford to wait on getting started with SEO optimization. The above guide is a great way to improve your local search ranking. Start the process today to start seeing results sooner in the future.
Check out the blog if you want to learn more digital marketing tips that will drive traffic to your website.