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When it comes to competing with big brands for broad search terms, small and medium-sized businesses often find themselves at a disadvantage. Fortunately, that’s not the case for local SEO, where the power of listing management services, website optimization and review monitoring can transform search visibility. By focusing on local search strategies, businesses can target customers within their geographic area and gain a competitive edge. But what are the best local SEO techniques for boosting local search placements?
How Can Businesses Increase Visibility With Local SEO?
At Advice Local, we create local SEO tools that help agencies improve their clients’ search visibility. This process involves identifying the actions that deliver results for local businesses and streamlining their workflow.
Our Approach to Listing Management
The old approach to listing management involved casting a wide net and getting businesses listed on many directories, often prioritizing quantity over quality. Today, you get the best results from being strategic and selective.
Business data should be distributed to a curated list of reputable directories – local and industry-relevant where possible. Data must be accurate, and duplicate listings should be quickly identified and eliminated. This consistency builds trust with consumers and search engines.
Taking Google Business Profile Management to the Next Level
Google Business Profile (GBP) occupies a unique space between a traditional business directory and a modern social media platform. While its primary function is to provide business data like contact details, opening hours and services, GBP also encourages interaction and engagement.
Features like creating posts, responding to customers, integrating social media feeds and adding Q&As all boost search visibility. To see some of these features, look at how online marketing helps businesses.
Using Data-Driven Website Optimization
A comprehensive website audit will almost certainly identify opportunities for on-page optimization. For agencies, the gaps in a website’s structure and content offer easy potential for local search wins.
Along with the necessary changes to title tags, descriptions, URLs and internal linking, you can go beyond by integrating local business schema markup, optimizing for featured snippets, creating dedicated location pages and organizing the website into topically-relevant silos. It’s also worthwhile to look for opportunities to develop locally-focused content.
Optimize for Mobile and Voice Search
A significant portion of local SEO traffic now originates from mobile and voice searches, as consumers rely on their smartphones and virtual assistants to find nearby products, services and businesses while on the go. In fact, Statista suggests that the mobile share of organic search engine visits in the U.S. reached 63% in recent years.
Optimizing for mobile requires a responsive design and fast loading times. To appear for voice search queries, focus on natural language and answer FAQ questions within content.
A Proactive Approach to Reviews
As a strategy for boosting local search presence, reviews often go unappreciated. The first part of the process involves making it as easy as possible for customers to leave reviews on GBP, Yelp and other platforms.
But reviews shouldn’t just sit there – your business clients must also respond to reviews. A fast response is good customer service, and it also provides opportunities for natural keyword integration to improve local SEO results. As you help your customers stay on top of new reviews that are received, a quality review monitoring tool can be a great help – and by the way, we include one for businesses at no additional charge.
Try the Leading Local Search Management Suite Today
Advice Local develops world-class local search management tools for agencies and marketers. Access our listing management, review monitoring and GBP tools and experience local search technology at its finest. Call (214) 310-1356 or request a demo now.